Football season is right around the corner, starting Thursday, but there are still a few precious weeks left of the MLB season. And crazy Wild Card races to boot. The other thing or things that make this time of year exciting are the chances to see the young prospects in action for the big club and see what they can do against major-league-caliber arms and bats. Several top prospects have already been called up in Yoan Moncada, Amed Rosario, Rafael Devers, Ozzie Albies, Clint Frazier, Carson Kelly, Dominic Smith, Derek Fisher, Lucas Giolito, Jorge Alfaro, Rhys Hoskins, and Tyler Mahle, but there are still more coming in the next week or weeks. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Anthony Alford (OF TOR MLB) came up early in the season, right from Double-A, but suffered a broken wrist in his brief stint. Since recovering from the injury, he has been back playing at both Double-A and Triple-A, though only three games at Triple-A. In his most recent 34-game stretch in the Eastern League he had an impressive .297/.401/.407 slash with nine steals, to bring his 68-game total to 18 swipes with five homers, 41 runs, and 24 RBI. It’s hard to see how much playing time he actually gets with the outfield depth in front of him, but his plus-plus speed and his consistently double-digit BB-rate should get him some at bats at the top of the lineup in Toronto. He is still more a stash candidate than one will help you down the stretch in fantasy this season.

Chance Sisco (C BAL MLB) has been on O’s fans radar since he was drafted in the second round in the 2013 draft, and has steadily progressed through the Baltimore farm system. He has now made it to the big leauges, granted in a third catcher role, but he’s there.  Sisco is known as a bat-first catcher, but that’s interesting to me as he has never really posted the kind of numbers that come with offensive minded catchers. This year at Triple-A Norfolk, across 97 games, he slashed .267/.340/.395 with a .351 BABIP and .333 wOBA. Sisco added seven long balls, 47 runs, 47 RBI, and two steals to his stat line. The seven homers are a career high, so that’s not saying much plus his defense also needs work with a 22.6% caught-stealing rate in Norfolk this year and nine errors.

Austin Hays (OF BAL MLB) was a third round selection of the O’s in the 2016 draft and since that time, has done nothing but swing a good bat at three different levels. Specifically in 2017, he spent time at two different levels, High-A and Double-A, while playing 128 games and slashing .329/.366/.593 with 32 homers, 81 runs, 95 RBI, and five steals. While those numbers are eye-popping, he had just a 4.5% BB-rate and a staggering 19.9% HR/FB rate between both levels, meaning the power may not stick at that level especially given his 45-50 grade Power tool. Hays is also a pull hitter 52% of the time. So when he hangs in Double- and Triple-A longer, like the whole 2018 season, those numbers should drop his stat line as more advanced pitching figures him out more readily. He has the tools to be an average MLB outfielder starting in late-2018

Ryan McMahon (INF COL MLB) has been a guy that I have been asked about several times this season. So let’s break him down. The first thing that stands out is the versatility he’s shown by playing first , third, and second in the minors and putting up good offensive numbers in the process. McMahon has improved his AVG at every stop, save for his .242 AVG last year, though the Hartford Yard Goats played every game on the road in 2016, getting all the way up to a .374 mark in 70 games at Triple-A Albuquerque this season. 2017 has been his best offensive year to date with 20 combined homers in 119 games with 74 runs, 88 RBI, and 11 steals with a combined .402 BABIP and .421 wOBA. Keep in mind that Albuquerque is one of the top-two hitter’s parks in the hitter-friendly PCL. His defense will be the issue with him with a long history of a lot of errors, 100 in his first 368 games in pro ball, and 12 total this year.

Alex Verdugo (OF LAD MLB) is just 21 years old, having turned in May, yet has recently made it up to L.A. as a September call-up. He was drafted in the second round of the 2014 draft having been a good lefty pitcher in high school, before convincing the Dodgers to let him play the field. That change has worked, clearly. His slash, at Triple-A Oklahoma City in 117 games in 2017, of .314/.389/.436 with a .340 BABIP and .367 wOBA don’t adequately do him justice. Verdugo posted more walks (52) than Ks (50) and had great gap-to-gap power with 37 XBH including six homers and 27 doubles. His HR/FB rate dropped to 4.4% this year from 10% and 14.3% each of the last two year respectively but his power isn’t his main draw. Verdugo also managed an impressive nine outfield assists this season.

Brent Honeywell (RHP TB AAA) was considered one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball coming into the 2017 season, and hasn’t disappointed. Honeywell had a brief two-start stint at Double-A Montgomery to start the year before getting promoted to Triple-A Durham, where he remains. After 24 starts, 123.2 innings, he’s got a 3.64 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP with a 12-8 W-L record. The 2.84 FIP, 2.77 xFIP, 11.06 K/9, 2.25 BB/9, and 0.80 HR/9 all speak to his dominance capability. Of all the pitching prospects in the game, Honeywell has perhaps the biggest arsenal of out pitches with a sinking mid-90s fastball, a 65-grade Screwball, 50-grade Curveball, 55-grade Cutter, 55-grade Changeup that all play up because of his command. He did serve a team-given four-game suspension recently that has damaged his chances of being called-up. Though with Rays still in the hunt in the A.L. Wild Card chase, he does offer a better option than some of the backend arms in their rotation currently.