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Today I have 7 adds highlighted from a dynasty squad I just took over as well as a couple 0% rostered PLIVE+ movers at the end.

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Using PLIVE+ to Kickstart an Orphaned Squad

Brothers and sisters, I must confess that in a weak moment two days ago I picked up an orphaned dynasty squad.

What appealed the most was the league's unique structure. The league, which started this season, has 128 teams in it divided up by 8 conferences of 16 teams. There are 8 copies of the player pool, so while you can't roster the same player twice, multiple instances of the same player can end up in your conference.

It's called the Collegiate Baseball League, so it's got an NCAA theme and a National Champion is crowned at the end of the year via H2H points scoring. The mega-league was created and run by Ashley Finn of The Best Damn Sports Substack. Some of you reading may be in that league and if you are, shoot me an offer!

League Depth

To understand the depth, it's fairly traditional on the hitting side with 1 C, MI/CI, 4 OF and 3 UTL included. On the pitching side it utilizes 12 slots with 3 dedicated to RP. Where pitching is already of increased interest in a points league, the additional slots amplify it even more so. There are also 10 bench spots for a total MLB roster of 36 (also unlimited IL slots).

Then we have a minor league roster of 30 players, which gives a baseline depth of 480 prospects rostered, but the total is certainly higher with prospects stashed on MLB benches.

The Orphan Team

I took over the Memphis Tigers, an 0-20 squad with the least amount of points scored season-to-date. Yep, dead last, 128th out of 128. As you might expect, it was a tank job from the beginning. They went ALL IN and I mean ALL IN. Aside from some IL guys, the only non-prospect or recent prospect pieces on the roster were Shea Langeliers, MacKenzie Gore, Eury Perez, Brady Singer and Tyler Rogers.

Typically a tank-squad that's abandoned a few months into the inaugural season is going to look really bad. Surprisingly, the prospects rostered looked solid overall. While it doesn't have the out-of-the-box dynasty first rounder for a 16 team league, it has multiple prospects who could live up to that potential.

There are 5 hitters on the team who rank in the top 15 of our upcoming Fantasy Prospects release:
Roman Anthony, Sebastian Walcott, Konnor Griffin, Josue De Paula, and Luis Pena

7 more prospects who rank in the top 30:
Max Clark, Walker Jenkins, Jacob Misiorowski, Eduardo Quintero, Travis Sykora, and Bryce Rainer

And finally another 6 prospects within the top 50:
Braden Montgomery, Franklin Arias, Ryan Waldschmidt, Michael Arroyo, Aidan Miller, and Trey Yesavage

Another interesting twist to this league is a keeper system where you can hold Freshman for 4 years, Sophomore for 3, Junior for 2, and Senior for 1. Essentially my entire team is comprised of Freshman players and prospects who end the season on the prospect roster retain that eligibility instead of moving up. So there's definitely some prospects I'll need to move as it'd be a waste to have them lose a year of eligibility.

Here is the entire team (after pickups), highlighted by a quick and dirty ETA. I know it's going to be a fun ride to try and build this team into a contender for future seasons.

The First Day Moves

After getting a handle on the league settings, scoping out the roster, and moving a couple of players to the IL, I put in FAAB claims for 10 different players and won 8 of them unopposed. One of the 8 was filling a RP spot with Royals Steven Cruz, a 6'7" righty who has looked great over 24 appearances and I expect to get into late inning work eventually.

The other 7 players were all plucked from inputting my free agent pool into PLIVE+ and putting bids on the players who stood out the most. We've got some old favorites and a couple new faces on the pitching side:

RJ Schreck, OF TOR (Triple-A)

I've covered RJ Schreck a ton already so click the link to find past mentions of him. The last time I wrote on Schreck was a couple weeks ago when he was still in Double-A. Since moving to Triple-A he hasn't missed a beat hitting 2 HR in his first 6 games. PLIVE+ has him as the 129th ranked hitter. He's still just 5% rostered on Fantrax and has a decent change to debut later in the year.

Roc Riggio, 2B NYY (Double-A)

Roc Riggio is taking the minors by storm and dynasty managers don't seem to care as he's still just 3% rostered on Fantrax. Taylor highlighted Riggio two weeks ago while he was still in High-A and this was what he put in hiw "Why To Think Twice" section:

Despite his success, Riggio has seen a steep reduction in his pull rate at High-A, down to 28.2%. His zone contact and overall contact rates are more decent than great, at 79.3% and 73.3%, respectively. He's also too passive, swinging at 36.6% of pitches in the early going. Riggio is repeating High-A and needs a promotion to Double-A to be challenged.

As he usually is, Taylor was spot on. While I was writing up my "Old For Level" PLIVE+ article Riggio qualified under my parameters before getting promoted to Double-A in the middle of writing. Then, Riggio went on to hit 5 HR in his first 7 Double-A games, displaying some unseen swing aggression while keeping a consistent contact rate in the small sample. On the season Riggio is slashing .296/.415/.713 with a 15.4% BB and 23.8% K. I don't care that he's short, go pick him up, I'm glad I got to.

Trey Gibson, RHP BAL (Double-A)

Trey Gibson has improved his stock significantly over the past month, reaching double-digit Ks in 3 of his last 5 starts in High-A. He then stamped it with a 6 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K debut in Double-A. Rhys gave Gibson a mention in the Orioles Honorable Mentions pre-season:

... his sweeper immediately caught my attention. It's an absolute weapon, easily a plus to double-plus pitch. The reason he's not on the list, though, is because I don't see him sticking as a starter. Even in a down Orioles system, a pure relief prospect doesn't quite make the cut.

Gibson's fastball sits in the mid-90s, and when you combine that with his devastating slider, he's got the makings of a high-floor middle-relief arm. A move to the bullpen could unlock even more velocity, as he wouldn't need to conserve energy for multiple innings.

The big concern with Gibson is his command. He tends to run up pitch counts and loses the strike zone for stretches, making me think his future is in the 'pen.

So there's some reliever risk here, but I'm also kind of OK with it? The stuff is nasty and he could work up in the pen as Rhys mentioned. But on the flip side, Gibson has been otherworldly in his last 4 starts with a 50% K and 6.6% BB, finishing the 6 inning twice.

The best part? Just a 2% ownership on Fantrax. The time to buy is right now.

Daniel Eagen, RHP ARI (High-A)

Daniel Eagen is another player who has been covered in a PLIVE+ article this season moving up the ranks quickly when he registered back to back double digit strikeout games in April. Aside from a start in May where he walked 7 batters, his performance has continued to be solid and has worked through 6 IP in 3 out of the last 4 games. Aside from his first career start, he's struck out more batters than innings pitched in every single start. PLIVE- ranks him in the top 50 starters with the same rating as Trey Gibson above and another breakout candidate in Carlos Lagrange. At this point Eagen is due for a promotion and when that happens the 4% Fantrax ownership will shoot up.

Ryan Gallagher, RHP CHC (High-A)

I passed over a couple higher ranked pitchers by PLIVE- to grab Ryan Gallagher simply because he's improved his PLIVE- the most among starters in the last month. Taken in the 6th round of last year's draft out of UC Santa Barbara, Gallagher has made all 9 of his professional starts at High-A.

The first four starts were rough as he gave up 7 ER over 12.2 IP with 11 K and 5 BB. But the last 5 have been incredible with a 41.5% K, 6.6% BB and four of the starts finishing at least 6 IP. Gallagher sits low 90s but has already added a couple ticks of velocity this season and has a decent build to continue adding more. A couple more great starts and he could be up to Double-A quickly.

He definitely fits into more of a churn category on the roster and considered former PLIVE+ standout Cole Peschl as well. If you want to tail the pickup, he's 2% rostered on Fantrax.

Nate George, OF BAL (Single-A)

Nate George ranked 6th in my PLIVE+ article focusing on Complex League hitters a couple weeks ago. Since then George was called up to Single-A and now ranks as the 78th best hitter by PLIVE+. Rhys summarized him well on the latest daily sheet:

George has leveled up, but he is showing no signs of slowing down since his promotion from the Complex League to Single-A. He is such a good athlete that he can get by with just that, but his advanced feel for making contact has been a surprise. The dream here is that he can be a 20/20 threat.

Still just 4% rostered on Fantrax if the athlete-first prospect is your kind of target.

Devin Fitz-Gerald, SS TEX (Complex)

I was actually surprised to see Devin Fitz-Gerald was still available (granted it was the last of the 8 versions of him in this league) given that he's gotten some attention and Fangraphs just gave him a bunch of average or better tools. Right now he's doing everything you'd want to see on the Complex and has 6 HR, 3 SB with a 11% K, 13% BB and .302/.400/.552 slash over his first 28 games. I'm still surprised at the 5% Fantrax ownership.

A Couple PLIVE+ Movers

This was just going to be about the orphan team but I can't help myself, have to couple a couple more names from PLIVE+ leaderboards.

Carter Trice, 1B/CF CHC (High-A)

Carter Trice is the biggest PLIVE+ riser over the last week min 400 MiLB career PA. A 12th rounder out of NC State in 2023, he spent the majority of 2024 at Single-A with a 121 wRC+ but a glaring 33% K. This season he's been at High-A the entire year but missed a a few weeks of time in May. But over his 157 PA he's reduced the whiffs significantly and brought down the strikeouts down to a 21% K to pair with a 17.8% BB. Since returning from what I assume was an injury on May 28th, he's hit 5 HR in 11 G (granted one against a position player pitching) while also getting 10 SB. The video below shows some serious pull-side pop. I want to see him against high-minors pitching, but the contact improvement is encouraging. Trice is a deep league churn add right now and still 0% owned on Fantrax.

Jayden Dubanewicz, RHP MIL (Single-A)

Jayden Dubanewicz is popping on the weekly change column in PLIVE- mostly because he got promoted from the Complex to Single-A two days ago. I'm surprised we haven't covered him yet on the Daily Sheet given he had a few strong starts. A 16th rounder for Milwaukee out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Dubanewicz was a teammate of Devin Fitz-Gerald last season!

Dubanewicz was the Brewers Complex league pitcher of the Month for May and has already worked himself into a promotion in a system you have to pay attention to when it comes to pitching dev. Thanks to a complex league game with Statcast data, we have an avg sinker velo of 93 mph maxing out just below 95 from the 6'3" righty. He also has a curveball, slider and changeup and in this tracked start he got whiffs on all of them.

Even though he's just 19 years old he's already working through the 5th inning consistently. It's been a contact over strikeout profile likely due to the sinker and so far he's got just a 20.7% K and 7.4% BB. Dubanewicz is a watch list guy right now and virtually unowned, but that could change quickly if he starts to generate more strikeouts.