While the obvious strategy is to have everyday players in your lineup to achieve maximum offensive production, sometimes, it makes sense to go with a platoon player. Maybe the at bats aren’t as regular — maybe he gets only three or four starts per week. But if his numbers are solid and he’s outproducing some of your regulars, then why not give him a try. Here’s a pair of platooners worth a look right now… Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s Deep League Waiver provides fantasy owners with a potential third base replacement for Ian Stewart and my first dive into the pitching free agent pool.
Two weeks into the fantasy season, frustration can mount pretty easily. Even though “small sample size” has been pounded into your head, it’s still tough to deal with two weeks worth of failure. Thankfully, there’s still value out on the waiver wire. Some popular pre-season sleepers may have been dropped (or not even drafted) in your leagues. While it may have taken two weeks, these players are heating up and you might be able to take advantage of their hot streaks. Matt Joyce and Russell Branyan are two players that fit this bill perfectly.
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Franklin Gutierrez – 22.5% owned – Stomach Virus – Franklin was scratched from a AAA start on Friday for more tests on his stomach. The cause of the ailments has not been found and the effects seem to show up every few days. If/when he returns seems up in the air. The one aspect to remember is that he may get back to the Mariners rather quickly once the cause of the discomfort has been found. I really don’t blame anyone for not picking him up due to the unknown nature of the injury, but once he gets it resolved, I see him getting back to the majors rapidly.
In today’s Deep League Waiver Wire, we look at three players who could help your batting average, among other things.
In today’s waiver wire, I give you two safe middle infield options, as well as an outfielder that may make you throw up in your mouth. Just a little bit.
Fantasy owners in search of The Next Big Thing™ should take note of a certain starting pitcher in the Brewers system who is on the verge of the big leagues and has legitimate Cy Young stuff. Unfortunately, Zack Greinke is already owned in your league. Although he’s set to make a rehab start or two while recovering from his fractured rib, Greinke isn’t exactly eligible for a spot in this edition of Mining the Minors. But here are three lesser-known minor leaguers who could make an impact at some point in the near future. In fact, one of them is Greinke’s Nashville Sounds rotation mate.
There are a number of prominent fantasy players who are currently injured but are scheduled to come off the disabled list in the next few weeks. Late April could end up feeling like Christmas to some owners. We’re going to take a look at three of those players today.
Surprise, surprise, Josh Hamilton is hurt again. Yesterday, Eno Sarris outlined what the Rangers are likely to do in terms of divvying up playing time in Hamilton’s absence. David Murphy is a potential replacement for your fantasy team, but he is likely to already be owned in deep leagues. As a result, I have decided to ignore him and provide some other outfield options for those owners struggling to replace Hamilton’s production.
Let’s take a look at a couple National League outfielders that might be interesting for teams of different depths.
Michael Morse (20% owned in Yahoo, 2.8% owned in ESPN)
Maybe ESPN has fewer five-outfield leagues. Maybe Yahoo has more NL-only leagues. ESPN’s projections aren’t fabulous – a .341 OBP with 15 home runs – but you’d think that would be owned in more than 2.8% of all leagues. Let’s not get too up in arms about this, though, because Morse is making it tough for us to love him. Yes, he’s playing at first base with Adam LaRoche feeling his sore shoulder, but its unlikely he’s going to be worth much more as a corner infielder than a fifth outfielder. The thing that is most concerning about his early-season work is his strikeout rate. So far he’s struck out in a third of his at-bats after putting up a 23.9% percentage over his career. It’s in a small sample size, but given that Morse struck out in 30.1% of his 55 PAs in 2009 and 24.1% of his 293 PAs last year, and that makes up about half of his 717 career major league PAs, we shouldn’t be sure that we know his true-talent-level strikeout rate just yet.
