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USATSI

We got another big prospect promotion Tuesday. Okay, not quite Roman Anthony-big – unless you're being literal. The Brewers are going to promote top pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski from Triple-A to start Thursday against the Cardinals, and I can't wait to watch the 6-foot-7 fireballer pitcher.

I wrote some extended thoughts on Misiorowski's impending promotion here, but here are the bullet points:

  • The stuff is ridiculous. He has hit 103 mph as a starting pitcher, and it's a dominant pitch thanks to his size and huge extension. 
  • The curveball, slider, and changeup all lag behind the fastball at present, but at best, all three could miss bats. 
  • The command is bad. His 12.3% walk rate this season at Triple-A would be the best of his career and would also be the second-highest in the majors. He's going to have to either improve on that or miss a Blake Snell/Dylan Cease-level of bats to make this all work.
  • He might miss a Blake Snell/Dylan Cease-level of bats, and this all might work. It's risky, but given the dearth of interesting options on the waiver wire at pitcher, I'm inclined to slap the "must-add" label on Misiorowski.
  • He might not stay in the rotation. The Brewers already have five starters in their rotation, and Logan Henderson has already been a victim of roster crunch despite looking excellent in his tastes of the majors to date. No reports that I've seen have confirmed that he's up for good.
  • I'm still inclined to slap the "must-add" label on Misiorowski until we know for sure he isn't sticking around.

For more in-depth thoughts on Misiorowski's promotion, head here. And here's what else you need to know about from Tuesday's action around MLB: 

Wednesday's top waiver-wire targets

Sandy Alcantara, SP, Marlins (73%) – It's just two starts against arguably the two worst lineups in baseball, but I'm at the point where I'll take any positive signs from Alcantara. And we've gotten them over the past two starts, as he has limited the Rockies and Pirates to just two runs on seven hits, with 10 strikeouts and most importantly, just two walks in 12 innings of work. Alcantara's stuff has mostly looked fine this season, but his command has been really poor in his comeback from Tommy John surgery. Tuesday he threw 61% of his pitches in the strike zone and still managed to generate just 83.5 mph average exit velocity on 15 balls in play. Sure, it's the Rockies and Pirates, but again, we'll take whatever positive signs we can get from a guy who wasn't just a must-roster pitcher but a must-start pitcher in the past. Let's hope this is the start of him getting back to that level. 

Evan Carter, OF, Rangers (32%) – All of a sudden, Carter's season-long OPS is up to .772. Now, the past two games are carrying a lot of weight there, as he has gone 6 for 9 with two of his three homers, five RBI, and five runs scored in that span. But, as with Alcantara, I'm looking for any signs of life I can find from Carter, who is still just 22 and was one of the most hyped prospects in baseball 15 months ago. We haven't had much reason to be excited about Carter in the past 15 months, so I'll take what I can get. I still believe there's a ton of upside here if he's healthy. 

Jose Soriano, SP, Angels (48%) – What's always been frustrating about Soriano is that he's always had the upside to be a strikeout pitcher. His knucklecurve has always been a good swing-and-miss pitch, and his splitter has seemingly taken a big step forward – and both pitches have been very good at limiting hard contact in addition to generating whiffs. But he entered Tuesday's start with just a 16% strikeout rate, and his 11.7% walk rate gave him the second-worst K-BB% rate in baseball. So we should probably approach Tuesday's 12-strikeout effort against the A's with a skeptical eye, especially since it came with a whopping 16 whiffs on his sinker. But the stuff has always been there, and Soriano has always generated plenty of weak contact, so if can build on this, there's clearly upside. It'll be tough to use Soriano in his next start against the Yankees, but he is a two-start pitcher, with a second outing against the Astros on the way, which should make him pretty useful if you want to beat the waiver wire. 

Shelby Miller, RP, Diamondbacks (30%) – Justin Martinez has been diagnosed with a sprained UCL, an injury that is probably going to keep him on the shelf for a while. A.J. Puk is on the IL for another three weeks with an elbow sprain of his own, so Miller looks like he's going to get at least that long as the Diamondbacks closer – and he has very much looked up to the task this season. Miller has six saves and a 1.69 ERA on the season, and while his underlying numbers don't quite back that up, his 3.77 xERA suggests he should at least be good enough to get the job done. Miller isn't a shutdown closer by any means, but on a competitive team, he should get plenty of save chances, and that's the most important thing. 

Calvin Faucher, RP, Marlins (11%) – I think Faucher is both a lesser pitcher than Miller and clearly on a worse team, so he's definitely a lower priority. But the Marlins are pretty clearly treating Faucher like the closer right now, and he has their last three saves. Those three saves have come over the course of about two weeks, so don't expect him to suddenly start racking them up. But if you really do need saves, he's got the chance to provide some. Just go make sure Miller isn't available in your league first. 

Sawyer Gipson-Long, SP, Tigers (23%) – I don't know when the Tigers are going to give Gipson-Long the leash he needs to really matter for Fantasy, as he was limited to just 51 pitches in a bulk relief role Tuesday against the Orioles. But he looked pretty good here, limiting them to just one run on three hits while striking out five in 4.2 innings of work. Gipson-Long generated nine swinging strikes on 51 pitches and has always had good swing-and-miss stuff, so it's been nice to see it still here after his Tommy John surgery. He's more of a stash candidate for deeper leagues.