Week 5 Fantasy Baseball Prospect Watch Featuring Kyle Teel & Dylan Crews

Chicago White Sox catcher Kyle Teel against the Los Angeles Dodgers during a spring training game at Camelback Ranch-Glendale. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images The balance of waiting for talented minor league bats and churning not so sexy journeymen players is a real challenge for game managers.

This past Sunday, Ildemaro Vargas was in the free agent pool in most leagues while riding an impressive 15-game hitting streak (21-for-57 with 11 runs, two home runs, and eight RBIs). Over his previous 460 games in the majors, he hit . 249 with 128 runs, 20 home runs, 145 RBIs, and 16 steals over 1,219 at-bats, with a weaker outlook at AAA (.

246/116/17/126/16 over 1,104 at-bats). Surprisingly, Vargas opened this week with three hits over nine at-bats with three runs, three home runs, and eight RBIs at age 34. So, a guy like me carrying an injured Mookie Betts or Jackson Holliday isn't looking for the 'hot player of the week," while others feast on adding bats with favorable matchups and trending stats.

In this case, Vargas pushed fantasy teams up the standings, but two weeks ago, Mark Vientos punished those similar game managers with a 4-for-38 stretch with one run, one home run, and three RBIs. He flashed over his previous five games (9-for-18 with five runs, one home run, and four RBIs). Catchers Kyle Teel, Chicago White Sox Twenty-four games into the White Sox season, Teel has still not seen a pitch in the minors.