I have a secret that I've never told anybody, but here goes... I miss watching Chris Sale pitch. That's right, even as a devout Yankees fan, I can admit that. It's been nearly two years since we've seen the lanky ace on the mound in a regular season game. Well, he's one step closer after making it through his first rehab start on Thursday. While it came at the lowest possible level at the Florida Complex League, Sale made it through three shutout innings, averaging 93-94 MPH on his fastball. Not too shabby for his first outing.

We all knew something was wrong with Sale back in 2019. He just didn't look himself and the velocity kept fluctuating. However, just one season earlier, Sale finished as top 10 starting pitcher in Roto leagues. I don't think anybody is expecting Sale to get back to that level, but even if his 75-80% of the pitcher he used to be, that's likely a top 30 starting pitcher for Fantasy. If you held on to Sale this long, you should be pretty excited. 

Of course, as always, you can subscribe to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify.

We were supposed to have a baseball game on Thursday night, but a Covid outbreak got in the way. As of now this is the information that we have: Pitchers Nestor Cortes, Wandy Peralta, and Jonathan Loaisiga are confirmed positive for COVID (Loaisiga actually tested positive). There are three more cases pending, including: Gio Urshela, Kyle Higashioka, and Aaron Judge.

The Judge situation is especially worrisome because he was just at the All-Star game, where he was exposed to other American League compadres, including a bunch of Red Sox. Maybe you're wondering how this happened. Most of the Yankees are vaccinated with either Johnson & Johnson or Moderna. Yes, even if you are vaccinated, you can test positive for COVID and spread the virus; the vaccine reportedly just helps lessen the symptoms. That's it from Dr. Frank. Obviously, it's a serious situation and we hope nothing comes of this.

If you're wondering if they will play at all this weekend, that is completely up to MLB and seems like it's up in the air right now, contact tracing is currently taking place. Is this as simple as if the game is on Friday, leave your Yankees and Red Sox in your lineups and if it's postponed, take them out? Scott wouldn't take his Yankees or Red Sox out of his lineups. The turnaround on these outbreaks has been quicker this season. The advice is to only bench these players if they're placed on the Covid-IL.

Other news from this game: Top Red Sox OF prospect Jarren Duran was slated to start in center field and was batting seventh. For the Yankees, Zach Britton was activated and outfielder Trey Amburgey (AM-BER-GEE) was called up. He's 26 years old and was batting .312 with seven homers and 15 doubles at Triple-A. What also came of this was utility man Hoy Jun Park was promoted to the taxi squad. He's a 25-year-old utility man who was batting .303 with nine homers and nine steals in the minors, and we're interested to see what he can do.

Scott's advice: Keep an eye on Britton because both Aroldis Chapman and Chad Green have struggled as of late, leave Amburgey on your waiver wire and don't get too excited about a lower-level prospect like Jun Park in spite of the numbers he has put up in the minors. It's more of a wait-and-see approach for both Amurgey and Jun Park in much deeper leagues.

• First up: Red Sox SP Chris Sale had the following dominant start in his first rehab start back from Tommy John: 3 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. His fastball averaged 93-94mph and apparently touched 97 MPH. At Sale's best in his career he sat at 94-95 -- not bad for his first outing. His next start will come Tuesday at Double-A. He's 85% rostered but should be 100%.
• Mets SP Carlos Carrasco at High-A: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 2 K and he threw 17 of 27 pitches for strikes -- four of those were swinging strikes. He's 82% rostered.
• Orioles SP John Means at Triple-A: 3+ IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. Earlier this season, there were videos circulating on the interwebs with Means' hand sticking to his glove, but his spin rates are the same this year as they were last year. Anything is possible but he was always going to regress from his 2.28 ERA.
• We had a trade! The Cubs sent OF Joc Pederson to the Braves in exchange for 1B prospect Bryce Ball. He hit .329 with 17 homers back in 2019 in the minors but was batting just .207 this year as a 23-year-old in High-A. Pederson is 38% rostered and is mildly interesting if he leads off against RHP. On the Cubs side, Ian Happ likely gets back into playing time, but he has had a brutal year.
• Rays SP Tyler Glasnow has resumed playing light catch. He's been optimistic all along about the partial tear in his UCL. There is currently no timetable for his return.
• Nick Anderson will throw live batting practice Friday. He's dealing with a partially torn UCL himself. We didn't mention him on yesterday's podcast but probably should have. He's 11% rostered; think he can work his way into saves with Tampa Bay?
• Reds SP Sonny Gray will return from the IL and start Sunday for the Reds.
• Diamondbacks SP Madison Bumgarner will return from the IL and start Friday.
• The Mets plan to activate 3B J.D. Davis on Friday. He was batting .390 with two homers over 14 games and is 42% rostered.
• Hector Santiago's 10-game suspension was upheld Thursday. He becomes the first player this season to be suspended for sticky substances. 
• Reds P Michael Lorenzen will return to the Reds on Friday. The bullpen could definitely use him. He's a name to watch.
• Angels SP Griffin Canning was placed on the IL at Triple-A with a lower back strain.

Scott went deep and took the plunge into breaking down the top-25 prospects at this point and their Fantasy outlooks. You can find that entire breakdown here. The focus below will be on players who can still make an impact this season in your Fantasy season. Let's dive into it with that parameter below:

• Royals SS Bobby Witt came in at No. 2 overall. He's batting .301 with 15 homers and 14 steals. He's just 50% rostered and Scott considers him to be the next big prospect to stash. 
• Who would you rather stash: Rays pitcher Shane Baz (who Scott has ranked 12th) or Marlins pitcher Edward Cabrera (who Scott ranked 15th)? Scott is rolling with Cabrera as the better 2021 stash.
• Padres SP MacKenzie Gore was high on most preseason lists but has a 5.85 ERA at Triple-A and has been working at the alternate site to improve his delivery. Sounds like he has a lot going on.
• The other two prospects Scott has as possible second half call-ups are Red Sox SS Jeter Downs and Angels SP Reid Detmer. Both have their hurdles. Downs is already at Triple-A but has struggled and Detmers has had massive strikeout games but is only at Double-A.
• Scott has a bunch of fun names who just missed the top 25, but the one that stood out to me who could make an impact in the second half is Rangers 3B Josh Jung (spelled J-U-N-G).

1. Cubs

2. Rays

3. Tigers

4. Dbacks

5. Astros

1. Brewers

2. Royals

3. Rockies

4. White Sox

5. Red Sox