Every Monday, this column will break down the most popular waiver wire and free agent acquisitions from the weekend. I dig into the top adds on the ever-popular Fantrax and in the NFBC Online Championship (OC), a national mid-stakes contest with 240 total leagues of 12 and a six-figure grand prize. Reviewing player adds between the two should provide us with a well-rounded perspective and barometer of the fantasy baseball marketplace.
It’s the final week of the regular season! It’s now extremely important to accumulate PAs to give you the best chance of racking up the counting stats. So let’s discuss four hitters who have recently been recalled from the minors and now find themselves in a strong playing time situation.
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Note 1: I’m going to focus more on available players who will help next week with little to no long-term implications.
Note 2: I’m using our starting pitcher grid from Friday morning. It will change between now and Monday, so try to keep up.
Note 3: Any noted rostership rates come from the NFBC RotoWire Online Championship, the same rates we use on the FanGraphs Player Rater. For reference, these leagues are 12-team Roto leagues with 30-man rosters (2 C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI, CI, 5 OF, UT, 9 P) and weekly add/drops. This rate can be compared to other rostership rates found in this article.
Angels
• With three righties and three lefties on the schedule, no platoons are viable. The team starts at the Athletics, so Vaughn Grissom (35% rostered, .683 OPS) and possibly Denzer Guzman (3% rostered, .620 OPS) are in play. Read the rest of this entry »
How nice of Luis Medina!
On the Agenda:
We’re following up on an earlier article about hitters who are outperforming their projected value this season. But there’s also the other side of that coin: 19 hitters among the top 200 picks who are underperforming their projected value by at least $20. Unsurprisingly, the hitters drafted within the top 50 picks who were injured or struggled have been the biggest busts.
The visual below shows hitters who have lost $20 or more this season.
Over the course of a 162-game season, many casual fans may be surprised by how much a hitter might adjust their stance and setup. Often, the assumption is that once any athlete reaches the pinnacle of their sport, there is resistance to change, particularly mid-season, and any major mechanical changes are reserved for the off-season. But it turns out hitters are constantly tinkering with parts of their stance, particularly when looking to find some form.
Raving and ranting!
It was John Rave’s sixth of the season and third in September.
On the Agenda:
In 12-team leagues, 37 hitters earned $20 or more on the Player Rater. Of those 37 hitters, 24 were drafted within the top 100 picks. Meanwhile, four hitters went undrafted or were past pick 400: Jake Bauers, Jake McCarthy, Jordan Walker, and Liam Hicks. We want to hit on these breakout hitters in the draft or acquire them during the season. These are the waiver pickups that turn into regular starters on our fantasy squads.
The 37 hitters who earned $20 or more are seen below.
With just two weeks left in the season, we need to take advantage of every possible edge. On the hitting side, one of those potential edges is looking at the opposing pitcher’s handedness. With so many hitters stuck in platoons, it’s insightful to learn which teams are expect to face the most number of left-handed starters and which hitters on those teams that schedule is likely to impact. So let’s share those teams and which players gain and lose from the plethora of southpaws.
If you thought all the top prospects had already been recalled after rosters expanded earlier in the month, you would be wrong. There have been another four promotions over the past week, and this group includes two names all keeper leaguers are very well aware of. Let’s dive in.