Big Kid Adds (Week 23)

While the NFBC Main Event garners most of the attention, there are a handful of leagues with an even larger entry fee ($2.5K to $15K). They were originally named “High Stakes Leagues” and this year there are nine of them. With so much money on the line, these fantasy managers are going to 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 four or more of these leagues.

Batters

Parker Meadows (9): In 25 PA, Meadows doesn’t look lost at the plate (.333/.438/.556) while posting some extreme values (.533 BABIP, 34% K%). While he shoved in AAA (.256/.337/.474, 19 HR, 19 SB), his Steamer600 (ROS) projections aren’t that kind.

THE BAT X projection projects him to perform even worse (.635 OPS). Maybe the projections haven’t caught up to Meadows’s gains or regression is on the way.

There is a chance the lefty will be on the strong side of a platoon. So far, he has sat against one lefty and started against the other.

Joshua Palacios (6): The Pirates outfielder has started in nine of the last 10 games while struggling in 188 PA (.210/.258/.370). The 27-year-old does not process one league-average skill but he’s not a complete zero in any of them (6 HR, 3 SB, 19% K%).

I have issues making sense of his profile his 13 Barrels should have led to more than 6 HR. At the same time, he’s putting half his batted balls on the ground (51% GB%). Part of his issue might be swinging at everything near the plate (51% Swing%, league average is 47%).

Overall, I feel there are better outfield options.

Kevin Pillar (6): Managers added Pillar for Atlanta’s scheduled four games against lefty starters, two being in Colorado. Pillar and Eddie Rosario (vs RHP) are in a strict platoon. In 87 PA against lefties, Pillar is hitting .253/.267/.483 with 5 HR and 2 SB.

Mitch Haniger (5): Haniger is expected to come off the IL this week (and did so on Tuesday!)

Giants update: Haniger and Yastrzemski could come off IL and play in upcoming Reds series, Kapler says.

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) August 27, 2023

My issue with Haniger is that I’m not sure the 32-year-old is worth rostering. The only stat he contributes at this point in his career, unless you’re in an IL days league, is home runs. His power is down this season with an 96.7 iEV that points to 20 HR power and a league-average production.

If he starts every day, there is probably a place for him in some power-deprived lineup.

Davis Schneider (5): Schneider found himself on the short side of a second base platoon and looked like a nice option to start in Colorado over the weekend (two LHP). Additionally, several infield spots opened up with Bo Bichette hurt and Matt Chapman headed to the IL. Schneider remains hot (1.420 OPS, 6 HR) fueled by a .538 BABIP and 40% HR/FB%. I’d ride the hot streak but lack of power so far and just a 67% Contact% (26% K%) means he might be having the greatest two weeks of his career.

Gabriel Arias (5): Every week when I’m looking for a replacement player, Arias shows up for two reasons. First, he is qualified at four positions: shortstop, outfield, first, and third base. The second reason is that his positional flexibility allows him to accumulate plate appearances to be at the top of the playing time leaderboards.

He is not being rostered because he’s not a good MLB player (.643 OPS, Steamer proj: .686 OPS). The biggest issue is that his 34% K% dragging leading to a .209 AVG. He seems to have 20 HR power if he played every day, but a competitive team can’t afford to roll out a sub-.700 OPS talent daily.

This move feels like a bench-bat add to cover several positions if someone gets hurt.

Garrett Cooper (5): With Jake Cronenworth on the IL with a fractured wrist, Cooper (.262 AVG, 14 HR, 0 SB in 384 PA) has taken over playing first base. There is no talent upside with the 32-year-old Cooper but just volume play for a few weeks.

Starters

Jordan Wicks (9): His nine strikeout and five-inning debut will have him on everyone’s radar. The 23-year-old talent leans heavily on his changeup. In AAA, the changeup had a 25% SwStr% and 50% GB%. In his debut, he threw it 27 times and batters swung-and-missed on it nine times.

And here are the pitch’s comps

The comps seem great and I think there may be some upside because comps are the closest to his but are not identical (think Joe Ryan’s fastball). I don’t have a way to measure the differences (e.g. similarity score), but I’ve added it to my to-do list.

On top of the changeup, his cutter (labeled as that here at FanGraphs) stood out with four swinging strikes in 12 pitches. It’s not obvious when he added the pitch in AAA but his “slider” changed in the last couple of starts so maybe the cutter was being grouped in with them. The comps on the pitch are encouraging even though its shape is between a cutter and slider.

The issue is that all of his other pitches are average or worse. I feel he needs the cutter to be a thing so hitters can’t concentrate on his changeup.

Kyle Harrison (8): The worry going into his Monday start was how far into the game he’d throw. In 22 starts before Monday, he never threw over five once AND only reached those five innings once. Then Monday night against the Reds he threw 6 IP with 11 K and 0 ER. The key for him was only walking two batters. Both his fastball (16% SwStr%, 70% usage) and curve/slurve (19% SwStr%) missed a ton of bats so far.

The comps on both pitches stand out.

Fastball

Slurve

At this point, fantasy managers have to assume he has his walks under control and hope he can make those five innings.

Mason Miller (7): While Miller got a ton of hype on his first call-up, I’m tempering my expectation on the often hurt starting. First off, the strikeout machine (17.1 K/9 in AAA) is expected to return in about a week.

Kotsay said Mason Miller was fine after his 29-pitch outing yesterday but will probably make one more rehab outing with Triple-A Las Vegas.

— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 30, 2023

In his starts in AAA for rehab, his velocity is down about 2 mph.

While the image is hard to read, the downward direction is obvious.

Also, he might not be going long into games. Here are the number of innings he’s thrown from first to last rehab appearance.

2.0
1.2
3.0
1.0

It feels like he’s being groomed to be a short-reliever. If I wanted someone with his traits, I’d pick of Matt Strahm who has a higher chance of getting a Win on the Phillies.

Gavin Stone (5): I have no idea why Stone was being rostered. None. He was labeled as a spot starter this past weekend and was immediately demoted. On top of that, Stone has been horrible with a 10.50 ERA (5.84 xFIP), 2.28 WHIP, and 5.0 K/9. It seems like he has no control with a 4.3 BB/9 in AAA and 4.0 BB/9 in the majors. His Ball% is at 35% which equates to a 2.6 BB/9 so there is some hope. I just have no idea why a struggling pitcher who was about to be demoted was rostered.

Relievers

Yennier Cano (6): With the injury to Félix Bautista, Cano (1.56 ERAA, 0.96 WHIP, 8.2 K/9, 58% GB%) took over as Baltimore’s closer and became a must roster in all roto leagues. I’m guessing the only reason he wasn’t added to the other three leagues was that he was already rostered.

Tanner Scott (5): Scott seems to be Miami’s closer with David Robertson losing the role. Scott has been great this season with a 2.48 ERA, 12.3 K/9, and 1.07 WHIP and got the first Save after Robertson was removed.