10 Watchlist Guys: Vol. 6
Most platforms have a feature where you can click something by the player’s name to put them on a virtual watchlist. It is smart to use this feature before the season starts because once it starts you be sorting by stats and you could miss out on someone you really want about to get a new role because you sorted by PA and he just didn’t show very high.
Brandon Belt used a trip to Coors (.400 AVG, 2 HR, 7 RBI) to garner some more attention and get himself on track.
SHALLOW LEAGUES (mixed leagues – 10 or fewer teams)
Willie Calhoun| UT, TEX
Is Calhoun finally breaking out? I guess 2019 was essentially a breakout (110 wRC+, 21 HR), but he’s hitting .328/.397/.492 so far this year with 3 HR and 7 RBI in 68 PA. The 26-year-old DH is playing almost daily since coming off the IL on April 17th with an occasional sit against a lefty, but otherwise he usually just moves down the lineup against southpaws. He is leading off against righties and part of this Rangers lineup that is shocking the league a bit with the 17th most runs (135) and 16th highest wRC+ (98).
Calhoun is only a watchlister for 10-teamers right now because being UT-only makes him a tough squeeze into a lineup given how well the elite UTers (Cruz, Martinez, Ohtani, Stanton, Alvarez, and Reyes) are doing and covering the spot for more than half of a 10-teamer and the fact that a lot of 10-teamers only use 3 OF spots which leaves some strong OF options filling the UT role on other teams. If he continues to perform like this, though, he will force his way onto more rosters.
Jake Odorizzi | SP, HOU
Odorizzi hasn’t started his rehab yet and will likely need a start or two before returning to the Astros and I implore you not to forget about him. Sure, he has struggled in his 8 IP so far this year and wasn’t particularly strong in the 14 he threw last year, but a healthy Odo still has a ton of upside. Heck, even in his two ugly outings this year (technically three, but he threw a third of an inning in the last one), he has a 30% K rate. He probably works as a 12-team watchlister, too, but I think deeper league folks can jump now if they have the space to stash him for a 10-14 days before he returns.
MEDIUM LEAGUES (mixed leagues – 12-14 teams)
Tyrone Taylor | OF, MIL
Taylor has been excellent in a 4th OF role this year, hitting .282/.378/.564 in 45 PA with 3 HR and 1 SB. A quick return to the IL by Christian Yelich and a brutal start by Jackie Bradley Jr. should open up some more playing time for Taylor as opposed to just spotting in against lefties. Taylor averaged 20 HR and 10 SB per 500 PA in Triple-A with an .813 OPS.
I actually wrote Taylor up recently and he was sent down as I was finished that piece only to return almost immediately because of Yelich’s re-injury. I mentioned that he was mostly an NL-only consideration in that piece, but that was with Yelich and Lorenzo Cain returning to join JBJ and Avisaíl García. Cain is back and Garcia is surging, but as I mentioned earlier Bradley has struggled badly thus far (59 wRC+) so the Brewers would be justified in giving Taylor some more burn to see if he can do anything against righties.
Griffin Canning | P, LAA
Canning has a 6.20 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 20.3 IP so far this year and yet I want you to keep an eye on him. He has a 30% K rate fueled by an 18% swinging strike rate which is 4th best among the 140 pitchers with at least 20 IP (deGrom, Burnes, and Bieber are top 3). A hideous 2.7 HR/9 is holding him back thus far, but at least he had his first HR-free outing last time out!
The 3.42 SIERA has me intrigued enough to at least watchlist him especially with a trip to Boston on the docket next week. If you have a free spot and need pitching, you might consider stashing him now while the price remains cheap because an unexpected gem against the Red Sox would drive the price up quite a bit.
DEEP LEAGUES (mixed leagues – 15+ teams)
David Bote | CHC, 2B/3B
Bote hasn’t done anything of note thus far with an ugly 55 wRC+ in 96 PA and it was looking like 2B was ready to be taken over by Nico Hoerner, but he just hit the IL with a forearm strain. Bote was a league average hitter coming into the season with a 101 wRC+ in 711 PA and I certainly think he can get back there if he just smooths out that .210 BABIP.
Eric Lauer | SDP, SP
Maybe Lauer needs to get in touch with Griffin Canning because Lauer has a similarly insane HR rate (2.5 HR/9, 33% HR/FB) yet he still has an amazing 1.64 ERA in 11 IP. The soft-tossing lefty has seen his fastball velo jump a tick to 92.4 mph and his cutter is 3 ticks to 90.4 mph. He is using the four-seamer less often with a career-low 45% usage and funneling that usage into all of his secondary pitches with the slider getting the biggest boost, up 7 points to 24% usage. Of course, this is all of two starts, but I am keeping an eye on Lauer as he could be this year’s Zach Davies: a soft-tossing control artist who has everything come together for a career year.
AL-ONLY
Nick Gordon | 2B, MIN
He hadn’t yet played his first game when I was making this week’s watchlist, but now he might actually become an insta-pickup because he swiped two bases in his MLB debut. I don’t think he is ready to unseat Jorge Polanco at 2B after just one game, though, so don’t get overzealous paying for those 2 SBs. Gordon doesn’t have the speed or hit tool of his brother Dee, but SBs are definitely his carrying fantasy tool with 19 per 500 PA in Triple-A, though he also has a paltry .249/.297/.359 line in 729 PA at that level.
Dean Kremer | SP, BAL
An inadvertent theme of this week’s pitching recommendations is that they are all struggling with home runs so far. Kremer’s 2.1 HR/9 rate has his ERA sitting at 6.43 but the 4.20 SIERA hints at his underlying skills. As the weather heats up, it can be tough find confidence in Orioles pitchers who aren’t John Means, but he flashed some skills last year and can definitely find himself being a useful streamer option. He just needs to get away from the Yankees for a while. Four of his nine career starts have come against the Yankees and he’s slated to face them again this week.
NL-ONLY
Ka’ai Tom| OF, PIT
I thought Tom could carve out a role with Oakland, but they waived him after 16 games and the talent-light Pirates swooped in. He has started five of the last six games and should at least carry the strong side platoon with Pittsburgh. In his 36 PA thus far, he has just a 6 wRC+ as a comically low .136 BABIP is stifling any level of production. With time, that will obviously regress and given his minor league work, I could see a .260/.350/.450 line with a double-digit HR output and a smattering of SBs.
Zach Pop | MIA, SP
I still don’t buy Yimi García as a legit closer especially with his career home run issues returning after a HR-free 2020. Pop hasn’t done enough to just take the role right now, but he has shown a ton of swing-and-miss with a 15% swinging strike rate in his 10 IP so far. Pop allowed just 1 HR in 80 minor league innings so the two he has already allowed in the majors is a bit of an outlier.
Pop isn’t next in line if the Marlins decide to move on from Garcia, but he can be a strikeouts and ratios asset even without saves in NL-Only leagues. Since allowing 3 ER on April 15th against Atlanta, he has reeled off 6.7 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts and two walks.
Definitely watch Calhoun. There is still regression necessary from a few points of this swing. Until then it will be difficult to see which are long-term changes in the metrics.