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Fantasy Baseball Update: Minor League Players to Watch: A Fan’s Take

One of the fun things to find in fantasy baseball leagues are those minor league players that might get called up later in the season and become stars. What makes this fun is predicting them and grabbing them while they are still in the minors, if for no other reason than to brag when everyone else tries to jump on him too late.

Bryce Harper
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Here are five players to look at if you want to grab someone that should end up in the big leagues sooner rather than later.

Bryce Harper

Washington Nationals' prospect Bryce Harper is the biggest name in the minor leagues, a 19 year old slugger with a ton of confidence. He was sent to Triple A but will be back up soon and will be a power machine, capable of long balls and multiple base hits. The kid is going to be a huge star and he will be called up soon.

Trevor Bauer

Trevor Bauer is a 21-year old pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league system. He would have started the season if the Diamondbacks didn't have faith that Josh Collmenter could hold down the fifth starting spot heading out of spring. This gave them a chance to send Bauer down to get more seasoning but he will be called up to the majors this season. The kid is a strikeout pitcher and will be an ace in the majors if he plays up to his abilities.

Brad Peacock

The Oakland Athletics do not have a lot of talent on their team. Therefore, their prospects are more important than other team's similar prospects. Peacock throws a 94 mph fastball and a great curve with a nice strikeout rate in the minors of 8.3/9 innings. Peacock almost made the MLB roster at the fifth starter position but was sent back down. However, he is still on the 40-man roster and will be a call-up.

Ryan Lavarnway

The Boston Red Sox sent catcher Ryan Lavernway back to the minors to work on his fielding and catching duties but he will be an offensive juggernaut when he makes it back up. In 55 games in 2011, Lavarnway hit 14 homers and 38 RBIs with a .284 average. In spring training, he hit .429 with a .488 on-base-percentage and is ready to come up but the Red Sox already have two catchers on the roster.

Garrett Richards

Garrett Richards would be a starter on most MLB club's rotations but the Los Angeles Angels are pretty stacked at the position. Richards made five starts in spring and finished with a 3.54 ERA. He came up in 2011, pitched in three starts and finished 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA. His minor league ERA over four seasons is 3.12 and he almost won the fifth starters job out of spring this year. He will be back on the MLB squad this year, the question is when.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and has played fantasy baseball since 1996, where he ran a league in the days where he added up stats using a newspaper, a pad and a pencil. He now plays in numerous money leagues as well as others just for bragging rights.

Source: Yahoo! Fantasy Sports

Other fantasy baseball articles by Shawn S. Lealos:

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Updated Monday, Apr 9, 2012
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