When we broke down the Padres’ outfield in this space just two weeks ago, it was in response to a recent callup — Jaff Decker — and yet we found that that the outfield was mostly set in the present and the future. And so Jaff Decker hasn’t played like a regular (31 plate appearances over 11 team games), and hasn’t made much of an impact. There are many reasons to be a little bit more optimistic about this week’s callup.

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This is it. We’re getting real close to the end here. August is nearly finished and then we’re into the home stretch. The waiver wire will start to fill up a little more once we hit September and MLB rosters expand, but for right now it’s a matter of sifting through the rubble and seeing if there’s anyone out there who can help you in some way. There’s really no more time to sit and wait for someone to turn things around. They’re either producing or they’re not and if they aren’t, you need to make a switch fast. Time is running out. Maybe these two can be of some help… Read the rest of this entry »

It’s time to dive into the free agent pool to make that last push into a money spot in your deep league. September is fast approaching and that’s when a ton of new options will pop up and make a case for significant playing time.

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With B.J. Upton’s struggles and Jordan Schafer returning from the disabled list a few weeks ago, the Braves have quietly moved to a platoon in centerfield. This obviously destroys almost all of B.J. Upton’s fantasy value for any owner who was holding onto him down the stretch, and makes Schafer an ownable asset for teams in need of some steals.
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The Nationals made a move that could leave fantasy owners mildly perturbed, acquiring David DeJesus from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for a player to be named later. DeJesus was batting .250 with a .330 OBP while playing a well-regarded centerfield before being traded.

When you boil it down, this is a deal involving a newly minted fourth outfielder, but there are many players whose values could be altered with this simple deal. Let’s examine each and every one of them, shall we?

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Per usual, this is the rest-of-season thoughts on the American League outfield. All stats cited are through August 12, 2013.

Tier One
Mike Trout

We’ll be telling our children and grandchildren about how we remember Mike Trout’s first two seasons and hopefully his entire career. Right now he is simply in a class by himself. Trout fills up the stat line and is the ideal fantasy player. He does it all.
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Injuries afford opportunities for increased playing time and suddenly make waiver wire fodder fantasy relevant. That’s the theme of today’s free agent pool recommendations as both hitters are getting a chance to play due to injuries to players ahead of them on the depth chart.

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As the season heads into the last six weeks, things get funky. It happened earlier in Miami, where September roster expansion seems to happen in May these days. But in San Diego, it’s about that time. Coolstandings has the squad with a less than one percent chance for the postseason, and the team’s Vaunted Slugger has a busted wheel. The team doesn’t really have a top prospect ready to take over out there, either — this is the recipe for full-time plate appearances for a readily-available player. AKA fantasy gold.

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Is he the instructor for the new dance-workout craze Limbo with Lambo? No silly! He’s the minor league home run leader who will be making his debut in right field for the Pirates tonight. With 31 long balls in just 436 at-bats, he is seemingly a must-add for fantasy owners in need of power. But alas, there is more to analyzing a minor leaguer’s potential than solely looking at his home run total. Luckily for you, that’s what we provide here on RotoGraphs, a 360 degree view of a player’s likely future, using my trusty crystal ball that has never once failed me.

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Darin Ruf is hitting just short of .300 with great power in his first 150+ plate appearances in the big leagues. Evan Gattis has 15 home runs in less than half of a debut season, and is catcher-eligible to boot. Let’s get crazy.

Of course, you knew what was coming, because titles work that way: they’re old. As terrible as it sounds for a mid-thirties desk jockey who has never been much better than the second- or third-best player on the court for his weekly lawyer league style pickup basketball game, two players that will be 27 years old at the end of the week are old, and that means something about their ceilings.

Still, there might be a chance these players are in different situations.

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