Recently the Braves changed their lineup dramatically for the first time this season. They have altered a few different pieces here and there at times throughout the first few months, but now they have moved Jason Heyward to the fifth spot, Justin Upton to sixth, and inserted Tommy La Stella in the leadoff spot.
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A former first rounder and college quarterback, Kyle Parker has finally been called up to the Colorado Rockies. Parker seemed like he was going to get an opportunity to start at first base this year before the Rockies signed Justin Morneau to man the position.
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The Brewers made a move last week to put Scooter Gennett in the leadoff spot and, while it doesn’t drastically help his fantasy stock, it does make him a bit more appealing.
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As injuries start to pile up as we get closer and closer to the middle points of the season, specialists that either hit for power or steal some bases become a bit more attractive when looking on the waiver wire to fill holes.
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Cleary the Yankees are not going to stick with Brian Roberts forever. Even if he stays with them the entire season, the Yankees will be looking elsewhere at second base after this season.
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Over the past two years Evan Gattis leads all catchers in home runs. His 32 is four better than the next behind him, former teammate Brian McCann. On top of Gattis leading in home runs, he has fewer plate appearances than any catcher that has even 18 homers. The Braves have been careful with Gattis after he received knee surgery in the offseason and has battled some wrist and sickness issues, so he has seen his plate appearances limited even more than the average catcher so far. Even so, Gattis has provided excess value both in real life and fantasy. To take a quick look at it, Gattis has now played in 147 games with 537 plate appearances and has 32 home runs and 89 RBI, albeit with a .245 average and .294 on base percentage
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To start, I am a big fan of Tommy La Stella and as a Braves follower, I am one of the biggest advocates of the Braves giving him the starting second base job. They could use another left-handed bat and specifically can use one that will get on base. Only three of their current regulars have an on base percentage above .300 and while it is still triple-A, La Stella’s mark of .370 in Gwinnett should translate over to a respectable on base percentage with the big club. I have heard from a source that the Braves are waiting until the super 2 deadline to bring La Stella up. Whether that is a good idea or not is unimportant to me, but it does seem to be what is going on. Sooner or later, La Stella will be up with Braves.
With that said, there is not much appeal to La Stella in standard fantasy scoring formats. Much like Matt Carpenter, his value will almost totally be derived from a high average and solid on base percentage. While coming from a middle infielder that has value, the amount of value is uninspiring considering much of fantasy baseball is focused on homers and steals. Unfortunately, neither of those attributes are strong points for La Stella.
With injuries starting to compile across many a fantasy team, the waiver wire is becoming an attractive place to find some value on your rosters. While many have already started on this boat, I wanted to do a bit of an analysis on A.J. Pollock as he is someone I have recently added to fill in, at least for the time being, while some of my better players are on the disabled list.
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Moving to the National League from the American League is always a boost, as is moving from a park like US Celullar to Turner Field. To boot, having the Atlanta Braves defense behind him, most notably Andrelton Simmons and Jason Heyward, should give Floyd’s numbers a bit of a boost as well.
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We all know the story with Juan Francisco. He hits for an insane amount of power, strikes out a ton, and generally does not play great enough defense to warrant regular play. The latter is actually my biggest concern with Francisco. As Brett Lawrie nears full health, the Blue Jays will be looking to find creative ways to get Francisco in the lineup, whether that means Lawrie becoming the regular second baseman or the Blue Jays pulling a Dodger Outfield move on the 1B/DH spot with Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion, and Francisco is yet to be seen.
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