Two months into the minor league season forces one to consider a lot of preseason rankings. Looking back at my personal fantasy top 100, Yordan Alvarez (25), Dylan Cease (41), and Brendan McKay (88) were too low. Meanwhile Xavier Edwards (34), Khalil Lee (58) and Austin Beck (97) were too high.

While I’ll look to rectify that once midseason lists roll out in a month (we’re basically waiting for July 2 signees), in the meantime we can shift our attention to sussing out some names that have buy low windows for one reason or another.

At this point of your season, there should be some clear divisions in your standings. It’s time to seek out the owners who are going for it in your dynasty league and see if they’re willing to sell some prospects at a discount for some win-now players. Or if you were quick to a pop-up prospect (Jarren Duran, Zac Gallen, Lolo Sanchez, etc), maybe flip one of them for some names that were established in the preseason but have been struggling and are now cheaper.

Because They’re Struggling

Forrest Whitley, RHP (HOU) - We have to get a couple of obvious ones out of the way. Whitley recently landed on the IL with shoulder soreness. That’s a good thing! It gives us something to point to for why he has a 12.21 ERA and more home runs allowed (9) in 24.1 IP this year than his entire professional career (7). Whitley entered the year as the unquestioned top pitching prospect in baseball and we expected him in the Houston rotation by now. I’m not expecting his value to drop to 50 cents on the dollar, but it might be down to…80 cents? Because of his proximity and skill, it doesn’t matter where you are in your contention window, you should make a play for him. Don’t let the numbers scare you.

Royce Lewis, SS (MIN) - I’m hoping to get looks at the former top pick next week when he visits Tampa so I could see what’s been plaguing him. He’s hitting .225/.289/.333 in High-A with 2 home runs and 10 steals. If you have a Baseball Prospectus subscription, here’s a good piece by Keanan Lamb on what he’s noticed from his live looks. I’ll let you dive into the details, but if you can’t, Lamb posits that it’s two specific mechanical flaws. Like Whitley, this is a strong buy low window for a universal top 10 prospect entering the year. Reports indicate Lewis is a strong makeup guy which usually insinuates they’ll work hard to figure out how to fix flaws. And sometimes, you just have to give the benefit of the doubt to the pedigree.

Jazz Chisholm, SS (ARI) - This is the riskiest bat in this list. Chisholm’s numbers have been very rough. He has a 34 K% and is hitting .169/.282/.427 in 49 games at Double-A. OK, time for the good news. His .179 BABIP is in the bottom two percent in the minors. He’s hitting for a ton of extra-base hits (.258 ISO), a trend that’s continued as he’s climbed the minors. He’s got an excellent 44 Hard Hit% according to Rotowire’s Leaderboards. And to top it off, he’s three years younger than his average competition. He was one of nine minor leaguers I said could be the top prospect in baseball one day. There are significant strides to make for Chisholm to right the ship, but the twitchy shortstop has a lot of underlying factors favoring him.

Sherten Apostel, 3B (TEX) - My love for Apostel is no secret. His blend of power and elite on-base skills are an attractive fantasy skill set. My fervor for him landed him 85th on our preseason list, undoubtedly an aggressive ranking. On the season, his .732 OPS is uninspiring. But you’d be ignoring his stretch of three weeks.