The Fringe Five: Baseball’s Most Compelling Fringe Prospects

The Fringe Five is a weekly exercise (introduced in April) wherein the author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and also his own heart to identify and/or continue monitoring the most compelling fringe prospects in all of baseball.

Central to this exercise, of course, is a definition of the word fringe. The author recognizes that the word has different connotations for different sorts of readers. For the purposes of this column, however — and for reasons discussed more thoroughly in a recent edition of the Five — the author has considered eligible for the Five any prospect who was absent from all of three notable preseason top-100 prospect lists.

That said, it should also be noted that in cases where the collective enthusiasm regarding a player’s talent becomes very fevered — like how the enthusiasm collectively right now for Philadelphia third-base prospect Maikel Franco is very fevered, for example — that will likely affect said player’s likelihood of appearing among the Five, given that the purpose of the series, at some level, is to identify prospects who are demonstrating promise above what one might expect given their current reputations within the prospect community.

With that said, here are this week’s Fringe Five:

Mookie Betts, 2B, Boston (Profile)
This marks the fourth week in which Betts has appeared among the Fringe Five, nor have the conditions which first earned him a place here changed, really, at all. Now in 160 plate appearances with High-A Salem, Betts has continued to control the strike zone (having recorded a 10.0% walk and 10.0% strikeout rate there), to hit for more power than his body might otherwise suggest (5 HR), and to demonstrate exciting baserunning skills (as his 17-for-17 record on stolen bases likely suggests). Since last week’s edition of the Five, Betts has performed along all those same lines, having posted a 2:2 walk-to-strikeout rate in 30 plate appearances and stolen three bases on as many attempts.

Eddie Butler, RHP, Colorado (Profile)
Butler was less dominant than he has been recently, but no less effective, in his lone start since last week’s edition of the Five, recording a 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 18 batters over 5.0 innings, while conceding just a lone hit and earned run (box). Strikeout rate is the metric which most directly informs a pitcher’s success, and Butler’s hasn’t been as uniformly impressive as those produced by other pitchers who’ve appeared in this column. Butler remains here, however — due partly to the memory of his impressive Futures Game appearance (which included a strikeout of very talented Boston prospect Xander Bogaerts), and due partly to the exciting repertoire which that appearance revealed.

Juan Oramas, LHP, San Diego (Profile)
A member of the Next Five each of the past two weeks, Oramas makes his debut here among the Fringe Five proper after another excellent start for Double-A San Antonio. Signed originally out of Mexico in 2006, it appears, Oramas returned this June from a Tommy John procedure which had sidelined him for slightly over a year. Now, over nine starts and 38.2 innings, Oramas has produced one of the Texas League’s most impressive lines, the left-hander having recorded strikeout and walk rates of 29.3% and 7.3%, respectively, over that stretch. In his most recent start, the 23-year-old was excellent, posting a 7:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio against 21 batters over 5.2 innings (box). “But what does Oramas throw?” one wonders. On that subject, the entire internet appears to be uncharacteristically hush-hush.

In any case, here’s footage from Oramas’s most recent start of what appears to be a curveball — in this case to strike out Northwest Arkansas’ Matt Fields:

And here’s a second pitch — what appears to be a changeup — for a swinging strike to Northwest Arkansas shortstop Orlando Caxito:

Stephen Piscotty, OF, St. Louis (Profile)
One excellent, homer-saving catch likely doesn’t indicate with any sort of authority what sort of fielding skills a player possesses — and, yet, that might certainly seem like the implication being made by the author, who has definitely captured (from this longer video), rendered into GIF form, and presents here this excellent, homer-saving catch by Stephen Piscotty from Tuesday night:

Offensively, over the past week, Piscotty continued to exhibit the same control of the strike zone which earned him a place among the Five originally, recording a 3:3 walk-to-strikeout ratio over 27 plate appearances. The 22-year-old has now posted walk and strikeout rates of 10.6% and 9.3%, respectively, with Double-A Springfield.

Marcus Semien, MI, Chicago AL (Profile)
A type of player that’s valuable in baseball is a middle-infield sort who walks and strikes out at about the same rate and hits 15-20 home runs over the course of a season. That’s more or less the skill set Semien exhibited at Double-A Birmingham — and it’s also what he exhibited over the past week at Triple-A Charlotte, as well, during the course of which week he recorded a 2:2 walk-to-strikeout ratio and home run in seven games. The greater level of competition in the International League has had some influence on the 22-year-old’s rates overall, but the same profile remains — i.e. that of a hitter with a good eye, good contact skills, and good (if not huge) power.

Here’s footage of Semien homering last Friday against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Brett Marshall:

The Next Five
These are players on whom the author might potentially become fixated.

Ji-Man Choi, 1B, Seattle (Double-A Southern League)
C.J. Edwards, RHP, Chicago NL (High-A Florida State League)
Edwin Escobar, LHP, San Francisco (Double-A Eastern League)
Ty Kelly, 2B, Seattle (Triple-A Pacific Coast League)
Mike O’Neill, OF, St. Louis (Triple-A Pacific Coast League)

Fringe Five Scoreboard
Here are all the players to have appeared among either the Fringe Five (FF) or Next Five (NF) so far this season. For mostly arbitrary reasons, players are assessed three points for each week they’ve appeared among the Fringe Five; a single point, for each week among the Next Five.

Name	Team	POS	FF	NF	PTS
Marcus Semien	White Sox	SS	11	6	39
Mike O’Neill	Cardinals	OF	10	6	36
Danny Salazar	Indians	RHP	8	5	29
Wilmer Flores	Mets	2B	8	3	27
Maikel Franco	Phillies	3B	6	1	19
Brian Flynn	Marlins	LHP	4	3	15
Rafael Montero	Mets	RHP	3	5	14
Burch Smith	Padres	RHP	4	1	13
Mookie Betts	Red Sox	2B	4	1	13
Stephen Piscotty	Cardinals	OF	3	3	12
Chad Bettis	Rockies	RHP	3	2	11
Robbie Ray	Nationals	LHP	3	2	11
Corban Joseph	Yankees	2B	3	1	10
Eddie Butler	Rockies	RHP	3	1	10
Edwin Escobar	Giants	RHP	2	4	10
Matthew Bowman	Mets	RHP	3	1	10
Chase Anderson	D-backs	RHP	2	2	8
Nick Kingham	Pirates	RHP	1	5	8
Arismendy Alcantara	Cubs	SS	2	1	7
Max Muncy	Athletics	1B	1	4	7
Cody Martin	Atlanta	RHP	2	0	6
Joc Pederson	Dodgers	OF	1	3	6
Ronald Torreyes	Astros	2B	1	3	6
Tim Cooney	Cardinals	LHP	1	3	6
Danny Winkler	Rockies	RHP	1	2	5
Ji-Man Choi	Mariners	1B	1	2	5
Juan Oramas	San Diego	LHP	1	2	5
Jose Ramirez	Yankees	RHP	1	1	4
Zach Walters	Nationals	SS	1	1	4
Zachary Petrick	Cardinals	RHP	1	0	3
Brad Miller	Mariners	SS	0	2	2
C.J. Edwards	Cubs	RHP	0	2	2
Nolan Fontana	Astros	SS	0	2	2
Taylor Lindsey	Angels	2B	0	2	2
Ty Kelly	Mariners	IF	0	2	2
Victor Payano	Rangers	LHP	0	2	2
Chris Heston	Giants	RHP	0	1	1
Clayton Blackburn	Giants	RHP	0	1	1
Garin Cecchini	Red Sox	3B	0	1	1
Greg Garcia	Cardinals	SS	0	1	1
John Murphy	Yankees	C	0	1	1
Josh Vitters	Cubs	3B	0	1	1
Nick Delmonico	Orioles	CIF	0	1	1
R.J. Seidel	Brewers	RHP	0	1	1
Ryan Brett	Rays	2B	0	1	1