Anthony Bass & Joe Wieland: Deep League Waiver Wire

Welcome to an all Padres, all the time edition of the deep league waiver wire. As you all know, Padres pitchers are the ones you want. And given how starters are dropping like flies recently, it is likely some of you are hunting for someone with a pulse, with the hope that this someone may not actually kill your ratios.

Anthony Bass | SD SP | 12% Owned

Although not exactly a top prospect, Bass has reached the Majors after pitching just 10.2 innings at the Triple-A level. He threw 48.1 innings, mostly in relief, last year for the Pads, and somehow managed to post a sub-2.00 ERA despite poor peripherals. Looking deeper though, we find a solid 9.3% SwStk%, which suggested his strikeout rate was due for a significant rise from the lowly 4.5 mark he recorded. Sure enough, his strikeout rate has jumped to 8.8 per nine, even after his move into the rotation which usually hurts a pitchers’ strikeout rate. That above average SwStk% has increased to a very strong 11.3%, fully supporting that K/9 surge.

Bass has shown about average fastball velocity for a right-hander and has displayed a four pitch mix, adding a cutter to his repertoire according to the BIS data. Throughout the minors, he also showed a ground ball tilt and typically displayed pretty good control. Though the caveat with Padres starters is always that they may not win a lot of games given their meager offense, he should still earn some positive value in NL-Only leagues from the ratio categories.

Joe Wieland | SD SP | 6% Owned

Like Bass, Wieland has had limited experience at Triple-A, throwing just 7.2 innings. His strikeout rates have just been decent throughout the minors, likely translating to a below league average mark in the Majors. His control though has been excellent, which is his best skill. Though we usually like ground ball pitchers over fly ball guys, all else equal, being a fly ball pitcher may actually be more desirable at PETCO Park. I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but since it suppresses home runs, fly ballers probably benefit more than ground ballers. So the fly ball tendency isn’t as bad as it would be in another park. He has induced a strong SwStk% of 10.3%, which if maintained, suggests some strikeout rate upside.

Unlike Bass, Weiland possesses below average fastball velocity, and has used his curve ball nearly 25% of the time. I do question how effective his change-up ends up being as it is just about 6.0 miles per hour slower than his fastball. All of his pitches have negative run values, but that’s pretty meaningless this early.

Of the two, I would prefer Bass slightly as he has more of a chance of being a home and away start, as opposed to Wieland who could be dangerous in away games given his fly ball ways.