Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Historically, when I’ve done the Big Kid Adds, I looked at the players added in about half of the Elite Leagues (previously named High Stakes). Most of the leagues had just drafted, so there weren’t many moves. This week, I decided to dive into the guys added in two leagues or those that warranted double-digit bids.

Hitters

Moisés Ballesteros: Ballesteros can hit, but it might be hard for the 22-year-old to get full-time at-bats at DH. A solid 20 HR and .275 AVG bat.

Carson Williams: With an injury to Taylor Walls, Williams is now the Rays’ starting shortstop. I think the idea of Carson Williams might be better than the actual player. While he has shown the ability to hit for power and steal bases in AAA, he has major contact issues. In 466 AAA plate appearances, he has a 34% K%. In 106 PA last year in the majors, he posted a 42% K%. And he showed no improvement this Spring Training, with his Contact% dropping from 74% last year to 69%. He’s a broke man’s Oneil Cruz.

Jake Meyers: I’d not be surprised if Meyers ends up being one of the most added and dropped players this year. There will be weeks when he’ll be needed because of an injury replacement.

Starters

Carmen Mlodzinski (2): Lots of preseason talk revolved around Mlodzinski going to the bullpen. Now he’s in the rotation, and I’m interested. Last season, he posted a 3.60 xFIP (8.1 K/9, 48% GB%). And he went off this spring with a 10.2 K/9, 1.5 BB/9, and 57% GB%. He’s changed his pitch mix by leaning into his sinker (67% GB%), splitter (23% SwStr%, 50% GB%), and curve (12% SwStr%, 68% GB%). A must add to see where this goes.

Sean Burke (2): He’s in the White Sox rotation, but has been struggling. The biggest key for him is throwing strikes, as seen by his 4.2 BB/9 last season. His walk rate is down to 3.1 BB/9 in Spring Training. The only change is that he’s not throwing his subpar curveball (9% SwStr%, 42% GB%) as much.

Ryan Johnson (2): Johnson made the Angels rotation. He got hit around last year with a 2.5 HR/9 and .426 BABIP, but posted a 3.97 xFIP. This spring, he focused on his sinker (67% GB%) and splitter (67% GB%), and his groundball rate increased to 57%. He might have similar results to his teammate, José Soriano.

Brandon Sproat: Made the Brewers rotation after a solid 9 IP (2.51 xFIP) this spring. All his pitch velocities increased by 1-2 mph. He threw five pitches between 34% and 14% last season and continued those rates this Spring Training. The four-seamer and change stink, and he might have some upside if he cut down or eliminated their usage.

Landen Roupp: I was hoping he would improve his control after a 3.8 BB/9 last season. Nope, his walk rate jumped to 4.9 BB/9 this spring. He can miss bats and keep the ball on the ground, but he just walks too many batters.

Walker Buehler: By default, he’s in the Padres rotation. He’s been horrible over the last two seasons (5.10 ERA, 4.86 xFIP, 1.53 WHIP) and lost almost 2 mph on his pitches this spring. There are so many better options.

Rhett Lowder: While Lowder’s ERA is all over the place, one item remains constant: he walks a ton of batters (4.5 BB/9 this spring). He destroys a team’s WHIP. In deep leagues, he might be worth adding-and-benching to see if he can start throwing strikes, but be ready to move on once a better option materializes.

Eduardo Rodriguez: In the WBC, he threw over four innings of shutout ball against the USA team. He’s had good starts before, never sticking.  Over 10 seasons, his talent has varied from streamable to unplayable. I don’t expect that to change this year.

Relievers

Jordan Romano (2): Possibly in the mix for Saves with the Angels.

Didier Fuentes: After a great spring (0.22 WHIP, 0.66 ERA), the 20-year-old will be used out of the bullpen as a long reliever.

JoJo Romero: Possibly in the mix for Saves with the Cardinals.

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7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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Denny Medley-Imagn Images

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.

Batters

Sal Stewart: He hit 4 HR in 48 PA since being promoted and started in eight of the last 10 games.

Harrison Bader: Leading off every day for the Phillies.

Daylen Lile: Batting cleanup every game with 6 HR, 8 SB, and .286 AVG in 326 PA.

Austin Martin: Starting and batting second.  He has a .295 AVG and 9 SB in 151 PA.

Caleb Durbin: Started in 14 straight games with a .741 OPS on the season.

Romy Gonzalez: Starting some against righties with seven starts in the last 10 games. A .749 OPS in August.

Jake Burger: Started only three times in the last five games. Batting .229/.255/.521 since coming off the IL.

Zach Cole: Six starts in the last seven games. Batting .273/.360/.545 with 2 HR (36% K%, .364 BABIP).

J.P. Crawford: Batting ninth but playing every game. Normal season for him with a .268 AVG, 11 HR, and 8 SB.

Jared Triolo: Qualified at all four infield positions while batting .226/.318/.351 with 6 HR and 12 SB in 340 PA.

Ha-Seong Kim 김하성: Since joining the Braves, he has been productive (.316/.375/.439) but with 0 SB.

Chase Meidroth: In the second half, he’s batting .306/.363/.414 with just 2 SB.

Dominic Canzone: Strong-side platoon bat who is hitting .400/.441/.733 in September.

Jake Mangum: Only three starts in the last seven games, but a nice source of stolen bases (26 SB).

Mickey Moniak: Colorado will be on the road next week (at SEA, at SF). Hopefully, there are better options.

Brandon Marsh: Eight starts in the last 10 games with middling overall numbers (11 HR, 6 SB, .283 AVG).

Carlos Cortes: Just four starts in seven games, but 4 HR in 82 PA.

Kody Clemens: Even with a September .923 OPS, he started seven of the last 10 games.

Josh Bell: Just seven starts in the last 10 games. Not good enough to be fantasy relevant if not playing.

Thomas Saggese: Starting every game at shortstop but not much else (2 HR, 3 SB, .266 AVG in 261 PA).

Bryce Eldridge: Strong-side platoon bat with major contact issues (50% K%, 54% Contact%). Of the 626 batters with 10 PA, Eldridge’s Contact% is the fourth lowest.

Otto Kemp: Now irrelevant with Alec Bohm off the IL.

Catchers

Carter Jensen: Six straight starts with three of the games coming as the DH. So far, he has a 1.135 OPS with 2 HR.

Gabriel Moreno: Solid source of batting average (.285 AVG) with a little more power and contact this season.

Moisés Ballesteros: Started at DH in seven of the last eight games. Solid bat with 2 HR and a .286 AVG.

Tyler Stephenson: While he provides some power (11 HR), an increase in his strikeout rate means a .223 AVG.

Patrick Bailey: Started hitting for power in September (4 HR, .255 ISO). His season-long stats are almost identical for previous seasons.

Starters (Team and day of expected start in parentheses)

Trey Yesavage (vs TB, TB): Besides going deep into the game (69 pitches last game), he needs to be added to see if he can repeat his debut (9 K, 2 BB, 1 ER, 5 IP), which was also against the Rays.

Connelly Early (vs DET, Fri): My only worry is that he won’t go five innings for a Win; otherwise, solid add.

Michael McGreevy (at SF, at CHC, Mon, Sun): The two starts are going to get everyone’s attention. While he won’t get many strikeouts, he’s a solid add.

Jason Alexander (at LAA, Friday): Anybody against the Angels is a must start, especially a 4.00 ERA talent.

Ryan Weathers (at PHI, vs NYM, Tues, Sun): Since coming off the IL, he has a 3.68 xFIP while facing the Rockies and Nationals. A chance some fantasy managers need to take, but it could be a ratios explosion.

Stephen Kolek (at LAA, Wed): Easy matchup and has seen his groundballs up and strikeouts down since joining the Royals.

Simeon Woods Richardson (at PHI, Sat): Since being recalled, he upped his splitter (18% SwStr%, 46% GB%) usage to 24% after not throwing the pitch to start the season. Putting a value on him is tough with Sunday’s start (vs CLE) determining his value and/or cost. He could easily be three spots higher or lower, depending on how I feel at the moment.

Chad Patrick (vs CIN, Sat): Solid matchup for a solid arm.

Patrick Corbin (at CLE, Fri): I could see adding the low-4.00’s ERA talent.

Tyler Wells (vs TB, Wed): One of several 4.00 ERA talents with reasonable matchups.

Joey Cantillo (vs TEX, Sat): He has his place in bid lists, but he won’t be the top choice. A fallback option for teams low on FAAB. His 1.30 WHIP (4.2 BB/9) could be a determinant for teams fighting in the category.

Eduardo Rodriguez (at SD, Fri): He’s struggled with walks and hits this season, posting a 1.56 WHIP with no late season changes. Stay away.

Relievers: Saves-based ranks

Shawn Armstrong: Good reliever who is the closer.

Jordan Leasure: Good reliever, but may be now sharing the closer’s role.

Keegan Akin: Average reliever who is the closer (last three Saves).

Riley O’Brien: Good reliever who might be the closer (last two Saves).

Andrew Kittredge: Good reliever who is sharing the closer duties.

Brad Keller: Good reliever who is sharing the closer duties.

Phil Maton: Good reliever who is a step or two from closing.

Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Instead of examining the top adds of the week, I decided to look into the drops here at the end. I hoped to see some teams trying going for it and made some major drops to move up in the standings. After looking over the moves, not much happened.

I’ll go ahead and look at a few of the interesting drops and the league standings for the drop (number of leagues dropped in parentheses).

• Kenley Jansen (1): This manager was in 14th place in Saves and needed four to get to 13th and 21 ahead of the 15th place team.

I’m surprised there weren’t more teams dropping closers. The next two “best” dropped closers were Calvin Faucher and Blake Treinen.

• Jorge Soler (1): The team was in last place in home runs and could move up in batting average. Solid move

• Nick Lodolo (1): With the drop of Lodolo, he added Bryan Abreu. The team is in first place by 20 points, but needs 5 Wins to move up or 2 Wins for the three people 8 Wins behind him. With Saves, he is four behind the person ahead of him, and one person is within one spot of catching him.

• Jasson Domínguez (2), Nick Castellanos (2), Cedric Mullins (2), Paul Goldschmidt (2), Hyeseong Kim 김혜성 (3), Miguel Andujar (3), and Spencer Steer (3): These managers are finally cutting players who are not getting regular at-bats. I parted ways with Mullins and Goldschmidt over a month ago.

These too-late drops have got me thinking about creating an automated process to highlight my players who aren’t reaching certain minimum playing time requirements.

• Trea Turner (3): Three teams decided they needed the roster space after they heard the latest news on Turner from Rotowire:

Turner is not with the team in Los Angeles on Monday for the start of their road trip, and the Phillies hope the star shortstop will return to action before the regular-season finale on Sept. 28 against Minnesota. Philadelphia won’t travel back home until the Sept. 23 contest versus the Marlins, so Turner, who’s nursing a Grade 1 right hamstring strain, appears unlikely to make his way back into the lineup for at least another week.

Sounds like the managers who kept him may get a partial week from Turner … maybe.

• Hayden Birdsong: Someone came out of a coma and checked their team’s roster.

Thoughts

Again, I was hoping for more drastic moves to highlight. Maybe there is too much talk on making major moves.

1. I’m weeks behind the major moves. These managers needed to make a move, and a week or two wouldn’t make a difference. Going back a few weeks, I found some moves from teams focusing on individual categories. For example, one manager led the stolen base category by 22 Steals and dropped Chandler Simpson. I might need to do a similar piece to this one closer to the first of September next year.

2. Dead teams. Even though these managers paid $2500 or more to be in these leagues, some may know it’s over and focus on their competitive teams or football.

3. Out of FAAB. After starting with $1000 FAAB, these managers should have some spending control and have a few dollars left to make moves. I know some don’t. Out of that $1000, I leave myself with $10 per week, or $260 total to win the week. Managers would still have $740 left over for adding pop-up players.

I’ve won leagues by streaming my leagues over the last few weeks. I’m close to doing it again this year. Just a little restraint during the season can lead to huge dividends later.

4. Sunk costs. Seeing those Goldschmidt drops is a perfect example of someone who managers probably relied on but couldn’t move on.

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

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Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

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. Read the rest of this entry »

7:31	Jeff Zimmerman:

Read the rest of this entry »

Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images

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. Read the rest of this entry »