I usually drop these on Monday here on the Brick Wall, but I’ve been doing my Target Series the last 2 Monday’s on the Patreon, so Tuesday it is for this week. The May Mailbag is coming this week and the Updated May Dynasty Rankings are coming next week on the Patreon too. But first, here is the Tuesday Morning Dynasty Baseball Rundown (5/19/26):
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL SEASON, INCLUDING:
-TOP MLB HITTER TARGETS FOR MAY 2026
-TOP PROSPECT TARGETS FOR MAY 2026
-TOP 417 APRIL 2026 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS (May Update coming next week)
-TOP 310 MAY 2026 DYNASTY PROSPECTS RANKINGS
-TONS OF DYNASTY RUNDOWNS
–SPREADSHEETS
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: APRIL 2026 MAILBAG! (May Mailbag coming this week)
Anthony Volpe – NYY, SS, 25.0 – Volpe’s upgraded supercharged shoulder check … 50% Hard Hit% with a 92 MPH EV … HAHA … shut the fuck up hahah … this shit is wild. Dude has a 201 wRC+ in 5 games hahah … I’m dying. I mean, I told you if Volpe came back with the supercharged shoulder that I’m going under the knife. I gotta start looking up doctors now I guess hah
Colt Emerson – SEA, SS, 20.10 – Emerson got the call to the majors and it didn’t take him long to make his mark with a his first homer that really showcased his excellent feel to hit more than his power. It was impressive bat control and contact ability. He slowed the bat down to get it with a 65.1 MPH swing and only hit it 97.2 MPH, but that is a microcosm of his hit/power combo. We know he can hit it harder than that but even if he doesn’t he has the feel to hit to do stuff like that too. He wasn’t ripping up Triple-A with a 105 wRC+, but he got red hot in the 2nd half of 2025, and maybe we see the same thing this year. Just what Seattle needs, another 2nd half player.
Steele Hall – CIN, SS, 18.9, RK – We can now officially say that Hall is annihilating rookie ball after going 4 for 4 with a homer, double and stolen base. He’s slashing .282/.451/.641 with 3 homers, 7 steals, and a 19.6/21.6 K%/BB% in 11 games. The 26.5% whiff% isn’t bad and has been getting better. He’s lifting and pulling and he’s running a ton. He’s still only 18 years old and age appropriate for the level. While he has to show it at higher levels, that explosive true top level upside is clearly shining through. I thought he was getting faded way too hard in FYPD’s, predicting he would end the year in top 20 prospect land, and while he has a long to way to go to get there, this is step one. I would imagine he gets the call to Single-A pretty soon, and then if he keeps it up, the hype is going to hit hard.
Sam Antonacci – CHW, 2B/3B, 23.3 – Antonacci continues to do nothing but hit, going 2 for 3 with 0 K. He’s now hitting .298 with a 12.5% K%. Just call him Sam McAntonacci. The guy has a .400 xwOBA. He doesn’t hit the ball weakly or anything either with a 10.1% Barrel%, 88.6 MPH EV, and 36.3% Hard Hit%. He hasn’t been a big lift and pull guy in his career, so he’s probably not going to hit a ton of homers, but he should hit enough combined with his BA and steals. He’s getting a caught stealing a ton right now, going 3 for 7 on the bases, but he was a really good base stealer in the minors, and I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt right now. He’s potentially on track to be one of the best hit/speed/enough power combos in the game.
Xavier Edwards – MIA, SS/2B, 26.9 – Dude is a power hitter now after drilling his 5th homer at 101.2 MPH. And the power is most certainly up with an 88.5 MPH and 36.2% Hard Hit%, but he’s also clearly not this good. He doesn’t lift and pull enough with those still only decent hard hit numbers. With his contact and speed though, any uptick in power is a big deal. Just call him Xavier McEdwards.
Noah Schultz – CHW, LHP, 22.9 – 5.1 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 6/0 K/BB vs. SEA … not a bad outing but the 20% whiff% and 92.5 MPH EV are a bit less impressive. He really hasn’t been all that impressive in his MLB debut in general with a 4.93 ERA and 21.6/14.2 K%/BB% in 34.2 IP. The 25.1% whiff% is only average. It’s not great. If we are looking for silver linings, the 95.4 MPH 4-seamer is a really good pitch with a 27.7% whiff% and .299 xwOBA. His sweeper and change are also missing plenty of bats with a 34% and 40.7% whiff% respectively. He’s got 3 fastballs with the sinker and cutter. The ingredients are so obviously in here to breakout but it’s not quite there yet. Maybe he’ll get traded to Milwaukee and make it easy on all of us ;).
Shane McClanahan – TBR, LHP, 29.0 – 5 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 6/2 K/BB vs. BAL … not his best outing, but even in this one we see the old Shane starting to pop up more and more with a 33% whiff% and 95.8 MPH heat. His season line looks like the old Shane too with a 2.82 ERA and 25.8/9.3 K%/BB% in 44.2 IP. The K/BB really isn’t back to prime form, and neither is the 28.1% whiff%, so he’s still not the guy who was arguably the #1 pitcher in dynasty at one point, but he’s clearly re-establishing himself as an impact fantasy pitcher. I’ll put #2/3 borderline on him right now. After all of his setbacks and long road recovery, it’s just genuinely great to see him back to where he is.
Max Meyer – MIA, RHP, 27.2 – 6 IP, 3 hits, 0 ER, 6/2 K/BB vs. ATL … The excellent slider led the way as usual with a 43% whiff%, leading to a 27% whiff% overall. He now has a 2.85 ERA with a 26.7/8.4 K%/BB% in 53.2 IP. The 31.9% whiff% backs up the strikeouts. But I have to say that I’m still not willing to treat him as a young ace or near ace. The 4.28 xERA isn’t buying it at all. All of his pitches have been getting lucky according to xwOBA. Even in this outing the 93.8 MPH EV against showed luck was on his side. The other ERA estimators are kinder to him, but even those mostly have him as a mid 3’s ERA guy, which is where I land on him too. So more of an impact mid rotation guy is how I would value him in trades personally.
Junior Caminero – TBR, 3B, 22.9 – 2 for 4 with a 105.8 MPH homer for his 13th homer of the season and 7th homer at home. I didn’t have much doubt to begin with, ranking Caminero 12th overall on the Top 1,000, but if you did, I think we can put the minor league ballpark thing to rest now. It don’t matter what ballpark he’s in, he’s going to be one of the premier power hitters in baseball for a long time.
Sal Stewart – CIN, 1B/3B, 22.5 – Nice to see Stewart come back alive as he went the opposite way on a 77 MPH swing that cleared the fence for his 11th homer. He also tacked on a 106 MPH single. He now has 2 homers, 3 steals, and a .820 OPS in his last 11 games. He’s starting to stabilize. He’s still running a ton which I love. The only thing I would like to see is more pulling in the air, but I know he has that skill in him, so I’m not too concerned about. He also has the power and ballpark to be just fine hitting oppo field dingers (this one was in Philly). I was buying low through the struggles and it seems he’s now come out the other end of it.
Kendry Rojas – MIN, LHP, 23.5 – Rojas slowly worked his way into the starting rotation, and now that he’s in, he’s not letting the opportunity slip through his fingers, going 4 IP with 2 hits, 0 ER, and a 3/1 K/BB vs. HOU. He’s coming at you with 96 MPH from left side and it put up a 45% whiff%. The slider notched a 50% whiff% and the changeup notched a 40% whiff%. He had a 81.2 MPH EV against. It was utter domination. He wasn’t quite this good out of the pen, but the stuff is nasty and fastball/slider/changeup combo all miss bats. There is control risk and he can still be raw, but his upside is worth the pick up if you are a pitching needy team.
Michael King – SDP, RHP, 30.11 – 7 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 9/2 K/BB vs. LAD … This one was against the Dodgers and he both missed bats (29% whiff%) and induced weak contact (82.7 MPH EV against). He now has a 2.31 ERA with a 25.8/10.5 K%/BB% in 58.1 IP. He looks pretty much back to where he was when he was dominating last year. The only slight concern is that the walk rate is up and the K/BB isn’t great, but he wasn’t even really a great K/BB guy last year either. At the least, he’s a fully locked in #2 and that could be light.
Walbert Urena – LAA, RHP, 22.4 – 6 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 4/2 K/BB vs. ATH … he’s a weak contact machine with an 85.1 MPH EV against in this one and a 86.1 MPH EV against on the season. He also missed bats in this one with the changeup (50% whiff%) and sweeper (43% whiff%). The more he keeps it up, the more you gotta believe in him, but I’m still only treating him as a guy to ride until we see more. 1.35 WHIP isn’t good. The 20.7/13.1 K%/BB% isn’t good. The stuff is big, he can miss some bats and he induces weak contact, so again, I’m down to ride it, but I’m not paying up big for him or anything.
JT Ginn – SAC, LHP, 27.0 – 8 IP, 2 hits, 2 ER, 10/1 K/BB vs. LAA … it’s Ginn’s 3rd lights out performance in a row. He has a 94.3 MPH sinker that can keep the ball the ground. The slider and change can miss some bats. The cutter and 4-seamer give him the 3 fastball combo. Like Urena, it’s hard to buy in too hard with a mediocre K/BB (21.7/8.4 K%/BB%), and his 23.2% whiff% isn’t great either, so he’s just a guy I’m happy to ride but not pay up for.
Tatsuya Imai – HOU, RHP, 27.11 – 4.2 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 5/0 K/BB vs. MIN … yea, this sucks, but the guys still put up a 43% whiff%. The fastball sat 95.8 MPH. The slider and change missed a ton of bats. He’s been brutal, I know, but I would stay patient here. I think he’s going to figure it out.
Nick Becker – SEA, SS, 19.5, RK – Time for a Nick Becker check … and it’s not good. He’s a 19 year old in the rookie ball and has a 35.4% K% and a 41.8% whiff%. He’s actually hitting well with a 135 wRC+, but that swing and miss, especially at already 19 years old, just puts him in insane danger zone territory. It’s more or less exactly what we didn’t want to see. His value is on the decline.
Andrew Painter – PHI, RHP, 23.1 – 6 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, and a 3/2 K/BB vs. CIN … solid outing but the 4-seamer put up a 0% whiff% and he had a 9% whiff% overall. He now has a 5.77 ERA with a 19.1/7.2 K%/BB% in 43.1 IP. The ship sailed on Painter being a true ace level pitching prospect last year, but nobody wanted to believe it. I get it. It’s sad when an injury diminishes such a great prospect. But if you didn’t believe then, you better believe now. He’s still talented with breakout potential down the line, but it’s just not the guy from 2022.
JR Ritchie – ATL, RHP, 22.11 – 4 IP, 6 hits, 6 ER, 4/1 K/BB vs. MIA … the 93.8 MPH 4-seamer didn’t get a single whiff and put up a 95.2 MPH EV against. He put up a 24% whiff% overall. Ritchie has just never been my guy, and that take is cementing with his MLB debut. He has a 4.91 ERA with a 18.4/14.0 K%/BB% in 25.2 IP. The 4-seamer isn’t that good and the whiffs are below average overall. I’ve never been impressed with the stuff. I do still believe he can become a solid MLB pitcher in time. I don’t hate him, but I didn’t see the big fantasy value to go after as a pitching prospect.
Nick Lodolo – CIN, LHP, 28.3 – 5.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 3/5 K/BB vs. PHI … he’s been rusty as hell since returning with a 7.20 ERA and 16.4/13.4 K%/BB% in 15 IP. Nothing to worry about though. It’s just all part of the plan. He’s not nicknamed the Eternal Target for nothing. He’ll get hot and start pitching well, but because of these early blowups and late start to the season the season line won’t look great, making him, yup, a legit Target going into 2027 for the 29th year in a row. You know something had to happen to keep him a Target. The Universe works in mysterious ways.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY PATREON FOR TONS OF EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ALL SEASON, INCLUDING:
-TOP MLB HITTER TARGETS FOR MAY 2026
-TOP PROSPECT TARGETS FOR MAY 2026
-TOP 417 APRIL 2026 DYNASTY BASEBALL RANKS (May Update coming next week)
-TOP 310 MAY 2026 DYNASTY PROSPECTS RANKINGS
-TONS OF DYNASTY RUNDOWNS
–SPREADSHEETS
-HALP’S DYNASTY BASEBALL PODCAST: APRIL 2026 MAILBAG! (May Mailbag coming this week)
By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@DynastyHalp)
Blue Sky: Dynasty Halp (@ImaginaryBrickWall)