While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with even larger entry fees ($2.5K to $15K). They are named “High Stakes Leagues,” and there are eleven of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers try to gain any advantage. Most of the time, these managers will be a week or two ahead of everyone else on their adds. Here are the players and some information on the ones added in five or more leagues.

Batters

Ronny Mauricio (11): In eight games since being recalled from AAA, he has started in seven games while batting .208/.296/.375 with 1 HR and 2 SB. The lack of production stems from a 50% GB and 30% K%. He’s been struggling against slower secondaries.

Pitch: SwStr%
Changeup: 27%
Splitter: 20%
Curveball: 19%

While there is some swing-and-miss in his game, his power stands out with a 13% Barrel%, 44% HardHit%, and 90.5 mph avgEV. Batters with similar overall skill sets to Mauricio are Johan Rojas and Noelvi Marte. Add and hope he makes contact eventually.

David Fry (9): Fry slots into the short side of the DH platoon. Seven of the nine games since he came off the IL were against lefty starters (22 PA vs LHP, 3 vs RHP). They have eaten him up. So far, he’s batting .143/.280/.286 (44% K%) with 1 HR and 1 SB.

His arm isn’t healed enough to catch and hasn’t hit lefties yet, so he feels like dead weight. He has three lefties on the schedule for next week, so maybe give him one more chance before moving on.

Tyler Freeman (9): Started in nine straight games, mainly batting ninth. So far, he’s been fine while batting .303/.372/.455 with 1 HR but 7 SB. In roto leagues, those stolen bases are gold. Hopefully at some point the Rockies management pulls their heads out of their asses and moves Freeman up the lineup, but I would count on either happening.

Ryan Ritter (7): Ritter seemed like a solid add. In AAA, he hit .305/.413/.635 with 16 HR and 3 SB in 245 PA (two triples so far). While he only had a 20% K% in AAA, it has ballooned to 38% in the majors with pitchers feeding him secondaries (41% fastballs). Here are his AAA per-pitch swing-and-miss numbers.

He’s seen more sliders than any other pitch with a 32% SwStr%.

Besides his struggles at the plate, Ezequiel Tovar will return from the IL, thereby forcing Ritter to move to a new position or back to AAA.

Kyle Teel (6): Since the 23-year-old was promoted, he started all five games while batting .250/.471/.250 (3 H, 5 BB) in 17 PA. His managers hoped for a continuation of his AAA stats (8 HR, 7 SB, .295 AVG in 213 PA).

He’s only seen fastballs 34% of the time with a swinging-strike rate of 20% or higher against sliders, curves, and changes. His 29% K% (16% SwStr%) is not debilitating, but it will hold him back.

Rosterable in all two-catcher formats based on the playing time prospect status.

Parker Meadows (6): Since coming off the IL, Meadows is hitting .161/.278/.258 (.217 BABIP) with 0 HR but 2 SB. Besides the low BABIP, all of his previous metrics line up. I was hoping he’d lower his launch angle, but he’s still trying to air every ball out (46% FB%).

The team doesn’t trust him against lefties even though he’s hit lefties (108 wRC+) better than righties (101 wRC+) over his career. He sat the first time the team faced one. The other time, he hit ninth.

Hopefully, he can stay healthy and provide 20/20 production over the rest of the season.

Nick Gonzales (6): Started in eight of nine games since coming off the IL while batting .242/.278/.455 with 1 HR. Solid middle-infield bench bat.

Jac Caglianone (5): In most instances, managers rostered Jeffrey Allen weeks ago. He’s not been great but also not a complete zero (.242/.242/.303).

Jacob Melton (5): The top prospect is starting (eight of nine games) but struggling to hit (.185/.241/.185) with the culprit being a 41% K%. Seems outmatched with limited upside.

Jerar Encarnacion (5): No stat line will positively stand out with a .077 BABIP. Besides having no batted ball luck, in seven games since coming off the IL, he’s only started in four of them. A pass for now.

Starters

Sawyer Gipson-Long (11): The 27-year-old righty debuted last week and is now in the middle of a two-start week. Over three levels during his rehab, he posted a 2.20 ERA (3.01 xFIP), 0.98 WHIP, and 8.8 K/9. The results have continued with a 4.32 ERA (3.09 xFIP), 1.08 WHIP, and 8.6 K/9.

Besides focusing on the least predictive stat (ERA), everything so far points to him being an above-average pitcher. The STUPH models love him with a 64 botOverall (2.78 batERA) and 105 Pitching+ (3.78 Pitch+ERA). His 15.7% SwStr% would rank third among qualified starters behind Tarik Skubal and Dylan Cease. His 26% Ball% points to a 1.0 BB/9.

I’m guessing I’ll have Gipson-Long as the top add in this week’s waiver wire report.

Note. The formula I use to convert Pitching+ to an ERA equivalent is: Pitch+ERA = -0.067 * Pitching+ + 10.815

Brandon Walter (8): In two starts, the 28-year-old lefty has been solid with a 1.64 ERA (2.45 xFIP), 0.91 WHIP, 58% GB%, and 8.2 K/9. He posted similar stats in AAA with a 2.08 ERA (3.63 xFIP), 0.76 WHIP, 60% GB%, and 9.3 K/9.

In the small sample, only the core stats are important, and they look good. His STUPHs are a 57 botOverall (3.46 ERA) and 104 Pitching+ (3.85 ERA). His 31% Ball% points to a 1.9 BB/9. While his fastball clocks in at only 92 mph, he has decent secondaries, a slider (15% SwStr%) and change (14% SwStr%), to get lefties and righties out. While his sinker hasn’t missed many bats (4% SwStr%), it does have a 75% GB%.

Walter needs to be added in all formats to see if the results continue.

Hunter Dobbins (6): Dobbins is a tough pitcher to value with him leaving the rotation and then rejoining it. In the last three starts, he has a 3.5 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. Before that, it was a 7.9 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9.

He’s experiencing some issues with his release point as seen from his game plot.

His slider is released about a foot over compared to his fastball.

There was something there, and there still could be, but we can’t know for sure. None of the managers who added Dobbins started him against the Yankees, so they are going with a wait-and-see approach.

Mitch Spence (5): He was scheduled to face the Angels and did his best with 4 K, 0 BB, and 0 ER in 5 IP. Under the hood, things look great with a cutter (9% SwStr%, 48% thrown), slider (21% SwStr%), and curve (20% SwStr%). There are some questions about him staying in the rotation.

Justin Wrobleski (5): He was promoted to start on Wednesday but didn’t get the start or an appearance in the game. I have no idea what his role is going forward.

Casparius is more than an opener. Dave Roberts envisions him being able to go around 3 innings.

Justin Wrobleski is available to pitch, but not a guarantee he gets into the game.

— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) June 11, 2025

I’ve go no idea on how to value him right now.

Trevor Williams (5): I was part of these adds. With little pitching available, his next two starts were against Miami and Colorado in Washington. While Williams has a 5.91 ERA (.327 BABIP, 60% LOB%), his ERA estimators are at 4.00.

Mitchell Parker (5): Parker gets the same two opponents as Williams, but Parker’s is worse. His 6.0 K/9 is the 9th worst among 79 qualified starters, and his 3.6 BB/9 is too high for someone with so few strikeouts. His ERA and estimators hover around 4.50.

Bryce Elder (5): These adds were because of Elder’s home start against Colorado. On the season, Elder has shown high-3.00 ERA talent, so a reasonable dart throw against the Rockies.

Relievers

Randy Rodríguez (7): In 29 IP, he’s been elite with a 0.61 ERA (1.69 xFIP), 0.61 WHIP, and 13.2 K/9. So far, he has 3 Wins and 1 Save.

American League

Mariners

• Dominic Canzone will be part of the right field rotation.

Prior to the game, manager Dan Wilson noted that Canzone would be “in the mix” for at-bats as part of a right field rotation moving forward.

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7:30	Jeff Zimmerman:

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I started writing this week’s Big Kid Adds, and the article morphed into how to evaluate starters who have thrown just a few games (normal list of added players at the end of the article). With little information to go off besides prospect reports, it’s key to find the best talent before others.

For the four starters, I’ll use a simple FanGraphs query to collect the information I use when there is just a few games worth of data. Read the rest of this entry »

In the article, I cover the players using CBS’s (about 40% or less initial roster rate) and Yahoo’s ADD/DROP rates. Both hosting sites have the option for daily and weekly waiver wire adds. CBS uses a weekly change while Yahoo looks at the last 24 hours. Yahoo is a great snapshot of right now, while CBS ensures hot targets from early in the week aren’t missed. The players are ordered for redraft leagues by my rest-of-season preference, grouped by starters, relievers, and hitters.

Thanks for putting up with a limited list last week with my son at the state track meet. He performed as expected and it was great to see my family who came to see him.

Batters

Addison Barger: Over the past week, he’s batting .300/.364/.900 with 4 HR.

Trevor Larnach: Solid, steady approach by hitting .260/.324/.430 with 10 HR and 2 SB.

Matt Wallner: Just four starts in six games since returning from the IL. Over that time frame, he’s batting .235/.381/.588 with 2 HR.

Wenceel Pérez: Off the IL with eight starts in nine games. So far 25-year-old is batting .323/.364/.710 with 3 HR. Add now to see if a breakout is occurring.

Ryan Ritter: In AAA, the 24-year-old hit .305/.413/.635 with 16 HR and 3 SB. With Colorado inflated Steamer600 projections, he could be worth a dart throw.

Ronny Mauricio: The 24-year-old was batting .323/.384/.508 with 3 HR and 6 SB in AAA. Since being recalled, he has 12 PA where pitchers are not throwing him fastballs (37% seen). It’s tough to know how long he’ll start. I ranked him high on upside, but he might get demoted in a week when Vientos returns.

Willi Castro: El Fuego. Over the past week, he’s batting .385/.500/.885 with 4 HR and 1 SB. He was unrosterable until that point, so the hope is that he keeps the production going.

Abraham Toro: Started in nine of the last 10 games while batting .319/.333/.514 with 3 HR (career .249 BABIP, .339 BABIP in ’25).

Carlos Santana: Boring but steady (.256/.358/.389, 7 HR).

Isiah Kiner-Falefa: Started 13 straight at shortstop while batting .303/.348/.383 with 1 HR and 9 SB.

Giancarlo Stanton: Stanton is supposed to return in a week or so. I expect him to be fantasy irrelevant due to low production when he plays. If my team were searching for power, I would add Wallner instead.

Parker Meadows: Strong-side platoon bat with an .800 OPS and 1 SB since returning from the IL.

Jesús Sánchez: Continues to sit against lefties but batting fine otherwise (.265/.353/.391, 4 HR, 6 HR).

Mike Tauchman: Likely a platoon, but he’s leading off for the White Sox while batting .321/.435/.554 with 2 HR.

Thairo Estrada: Batting second since coming off the IL. No stolen bases or home runs so far, but hitting .273 AVG.

Andrew Benintendi: He starts every game and not much else (6 HR, .246 AVG).

Ernie Clement: So far, he is batting .281/.322/.395 with 3 HR and 2 SB. Clement’s playing time may take a hit with Andrés Giménez off the IL.

Jo Adell: Compared to previous seasons, few steals (2 SB) and ratio-killing batting average (.210). He is only providing home runs (9 HR).

Josh Bell: Struggling to get hits (.186 AVG, .189 BABIP) but does have 9 HR.

Tyler Freeman: Started four straight games while providing some batting average (.291 AVG) and stolen bases (4 SB) in 63 PA.

Jacob Melton: Four straight starts since being promoted. An .423 OPS so far after in the majors (.880 OPS in AAA). He is struggling with groundballs (90% GB%, -21 LA) and contact (35% K%).

Cole Young: So far, MLB pitchers are eating him up with a 40% K% and .153 OPS. They are doing it with 57% fastballs.

Denzel Clarke: Starting in centerfield but struggling to make contact (56% K%, .217 AVG). A .500 is the only thing keeping him in the majors. Additionally, he’s dealing with a shoulder injury.

Dominic Smith: Two starts at first base for the Giants with a career .717 OPS

Jorge Mateo: Only five starts in the last 10 days while batting .180 with 14 SB.

Hyeseong Kim 김혜성: Unrosterable with just four starts in the last 14 games.

Catchers

Dillon Dingler: Solid (6 HR, .293 AVG) while maintaining a hold on the job.

David Fry: He’d be the easy #1 if he were going to play more. For now, the plan is for him to be the short side of a DH platoon.

Kyle Teel: He was hitting great in AAA (.295/.394/.492, 8 HR, 7 SB), but the playing time will be up in the air with two catchers already on the MLB team.

Carlos Narváez: Starting most games and hitting (.284/.359/.451, 5 SB)

Alejandro Kirk: Continues to be a source of batting average (.304 AVG) and nothing else.

Hitting Prospects

Colby Thomas: In AAA, the 24-year-old is batting .302/.365/.566 with 14 HR and 2 SB in 260 PA.

Brady House: In AAA, the 22-year-old is batting .300/.353/.526 with 12 HR and 0 SB in 252 PA.

Starting Pitchers

Mick Abel: A must add in all leagues, even with just the possibility of a few more starts. So far, he hasn’t shown any weakness.

Landen Roupp: I’m a little surprised Roupp was still this lowly rostered with his stats (3.18 ERA, 3.63 xFIP, 1.38 WHIP, 8.8 K/9).

Ben Casparius: The 26-year-old righty has been great this year, moving between starting and relieving (2.54 ERA, 2.83 xFIP, 0.90 WHIP, 10.2 K/9). With an injury to Tony Gonsolin, it seems like Casparius will join the rotation next week.

Colton Gordon: A .370 BABIP inflated his ERA to 5.11 while his ERA estimators have him as a 3.50 ERA talent. His 91 mph fastball is suspect, but his 21% K%-BB% ranks 29th of 97 starts with at least 20 IP.

Sawyer Gipson-Long: He got hit around in his debut with 5 H and 3 ER in 3 IP. Both STUPH models were in love with him (70 botOvr, 112 Pitching+), especially the cutter. Roster to see if the grades hold up.

Kyle Harrison: Day-to-day with an elbow injury. The 23-year-old has a 2.5 mph increase in fastball velocity and a 4.5% SwStr% increase. His ERA estimators are in the mid-to-high 3.00’s.

Charlie Morton: Over his last five games, he has a 1.64 ERA (3.01 xFIP), 9.8 K/9, and 2.1 BB/9. All the improvement was from not walking as many batters. Before this stretch, he had a 6.3 BB/9 and 9.38 ERA (5.39 xFIP).

Ryan Yarbrough: The magical 88-mph fastball keeps it going with the career-high 8.7 K/9.

Adrian Houser: While the 1.48 ERA will regress upward, the regression points to him being average ( 3.62 xFIP, 6.9 K/9, 0.98 WHIP). His fastball is up about 2 mph.

Edward Cabrera: The walks are at a career-low 3.8 BB/9, and he still has a 1.47 WHIP. With the 9.6 K/9, he’s a 4.00 ERA talent. His WHIP is a major drag in roto leagues.

Chad Patrick: He has suppressed home runs so far (0.7 HR/9), but even with expected regression, he should be near 4.00 ERA talent.

Chris Paddack: I’m not sure the .245 BABIP will hold, and everything points to him being a low-4.00 ERA pitcher. Streaming option.

Cade Povich: A .338 BABIP has inflated his 5.11 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. Even with some downward regression to each, he’s at best a 4.00 ERA talent.

Stephen Kolek. Almost an identical twin to Paddack. My only issue would be if Kolek gets demoted once Darvish comes off the IL.

David Festa: Tons of strikeouts (11.3 K/9) but nothing else (5.40 ERA, 3.8 BB/9, 1.50 WHIP, 1.6 HR/9, .357 BABIP). He’s always gotten hit around with a career 1.3 HR/9 and .327 BABIP. I want him to be better, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Luis L. Ortiz: The 4.6 BB/9 leading to 1.40 WHIP. The WHIP does as much ratio damage as a 4.93 ERA. Better in a points league.

Ryne Nelson: He got lit up on Saturday with 7 ER, 3 K, and 4 BB in 3 IP. Even with the blowup, he remains a streaming option.

Bryce Elder: The positive part of his game is generating ground balls (51%). Every other aspect is below average, making him a below-average arm.

Bailey Falter: Among the 80 qualified starters, his 5.3 K/9 is the third lowest. Once his 0.8 HR/9 regresses to his career 1.3 HR, his ERA will jump a point or more.

Landon Knack: In AAA and not worth holding for a later date.

Miles Mikolas: A 0.6 HR/9 (with a lower GB%) is suppressing his ERA. A solid 5.00 ERA talent.

Paul Blackburn: Even though he had 0 ER in his first 2025 start, he’s moving to the bullpen.

Relievers

David Bednar: Good reliever who is the closer.

Robert Garcia: Average reliever who is the closer.

Calvin Faucher: Average reliever who is the closer.

Tommy Kahnle: Average reliever who is sharing the closer duties.

Kirby Yates: Good reliever whose role is unknown. He could be sharing the closer duties or a few steps away from closing.

Zach Agnos: Below-average reliever who is the closer.

Randy Rodriguez: Great reliever who is the backup closer.

Alex Vesia: Good reliever who is a backup closer.

Abner Uribe: Good reliever who is the backup closer.

Reed Garrett: Good reliever who is the backup closer.

Ronny Henriquez: Good reliever who is a couple of steps away from closing.

Craig Kimbrel: Designated for assignment by the Braves.

American League

Angels

• Second and third base aren’t set with Kevin Newman (.451 OPS), Chris Taylor (.325 OPS), Luis Rengifo (.507), and Scott Kingery (.472) splitting time over the last three games. Read the rest of this entry »

American League

Astros

• Jacob Melton will not play every game, and when he does, it’ll be against righties.

“We’re taking it a little slow with the groin. We were playing [Jacob Melton] four days a week in the minor leagues and it kind of fits here,” Brown told the team’s pregame radio show.

“He’s probably going to come up here and face right-handers, gives us that left-hand bat we’ve been looking for. We don’t have to play him here every day, but we’re gradually going to break him in and see what he can do.”

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Every week, I look through my rostered pitchers noting the worst ones and churn them out next week. This week, the Yusei Kikuchi stood out. Someone with a 3.06 ERA and his ERA estimators around 4.50. It was his ERA estimators throwing red flags, but I have other pitchers worse. It was his 1.52 WHIP, third worst among qualified starters behind Kyle Freeland (1.63) and Jack Kochanowicz (1.56). With WHIP being its own Roto category, it has as much weight as ERA but ERA is the mentioned multiple times more often than WHIP. I’m just going to create a simple WHIP to ERA conversion to put both on the same scale.

To get the conversion equation, I used the overall rankings for the NFBC’s Main Event (15 team) and Online Championship (12 team). With them, I ranked the WHIP and ERA values separately. I removed the the first and last 10% of values because the change for them isn’t linear.

With the tails removed and plotted the best remaining WHIP with the best remaining ERA. I did that for each one. Here are the plotted results.

The correlation is nearly perfect, so the correlation equations can be used to convert a WHIP to an ERA equivalent. Here is conversion table.

The results for the two league types are close so I’ll only use the Main Event information going forward. Besides the above table, I have created a public Google Sheet (copy by going to File -> Make a Copy) where a WHIP can be entered and an equivalent ERA is spit out.

Kikuchi’s 1.52 WHIP would be equivalent to a ~5.50 ERA. No one is starting/rostering a pitcher with a 5.50 ERA this deep into the season. The high WHIP can’t be ignored and I’m likely to move on where I can find decent options.

Besides Kikuchi, Here are the qualified pitchers who have a WHIP that does as much ratio damage as a 4.50 or worse ERA.

Gavin Williams and José Soriano have been devastating managers’ in the WHIP category but it doesn’t seem as bad with sub-4.00 ERA.

WHIP is probably one of the most misunderstood categories and hopefully I made it easier to understand an expectable value.

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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American League

Angels

• Chris Taylor (.408 OPS) started three straight games in the outfield. Read the rest of this entry »