The Fringe Five, in case you’re wondering and also don’t know, is a weekly exercise (introduced last Tuesday) wherein the author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and his own man-heart to identify and/or continue monitoring the most compelling fringe prospects in all of baseball.
“What precisely the hell do you mean by fringe?” a particularly combative reader might ask. To which query the author would reply: “Currently, a fringe prospect is one who was absent from all of three notable preseaon top-100 prospect lists.” And to which the author would continue responding as follows: “There is more discussion of the definition of fringe here.”
Being as this is merely the second installment of a column that is likely to run either (a) forever or (b) until the present author dies nobly in a Bloodsport-type combat situation, it’s fair to say that the criteria for inclusion among the Fringe Five is not entirely fixed at this point.
By way of illustration: four of the five players here are the same precise ones that appeared among the Fringe Five last week. That’s mostly because last year’s and this past winter’s performances are still very relevant. By way of even more illustration, the one player who’s departed from the Five (i.e. Joc Pederson) hasn’t been demoted for lack of performance, at all. In fact, Pederson has slashed something like .409/.500/.864 over the past week, with a 4:4 walk-to-strikeout ratio and two home runs.
Rather, the reason for Pederson’s exclusion has everything to do with how the author has parleyed with his True Self and found his True Self ultimately unmoved by Pederson. Does Joc Pederson have a future as a major leaguer? Almost certainly, yes, given his performance of late. Whatever he’s doing, however, is somehow not entirely consonant with the spirit of the Fringe Five.
Meanwhile, the player by whom Pederson has been replaced, Cardinals outfield half-prospect Mike O’Neill, is the sort whom we ought all to be celebrating constantly. One can read more about O’Neill below — and all the other members of this week’s Fringe Five.
Chase Anderson, RHP, Arizona (Profile)
After his considerable success in the Southern League last season — and also in the Arizona Fall League after that — right-hander Chase Anderson has done little to dispel the notion (if such a notion even exists) that he’s worthy of major-league baseball. Here’s his line from the past week, for example, in two Pacific Coast League starts: 10.0 IP, 12 K, 4 BB, 0 HR.
Also, here’s a changeup by Anderson to Trent Oeltjen from April 11th:
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