Corey Kluber & Jimmy Paredes: Deep League Wire

Tiptoe along the deep league waiver wire,
Search for a player you want to hire,
With the hope that he catches fire,
Gives you a performance in which you won’t tire,
And is featured in a story by Rob Neyer

::takes a bow:: Thank you, thank you very much. That was my practice round as an aspiring poet. How does my RARP (rhyming above replacement poet) rank?

Corey Kluber | CLE SP | 6% Owned

Kluber is getting an opportunity in the Indians rotation while Brett Myers is sidelined and he’s somebody I mentioned several times last year. Of course, he didn’t exactly work out with that 5.14 ERA, but his SIERA was a much more respectable 3.87. His SwStk% has remained above the 10% mark, which is excellent and suggests he should maintain a strikeout rate around 8.0. While he won’t continue to walk just two batters per nine, he should be around league average, which still gives him a good K/BB ratio.

The 27-year-old is no hot prospect and has a rather unimpressive minor league career for the most part, especially if you’re just focusing on ERA. But his skills in recent years have been pretty good and his stuff so far has obviously been difficult to make contact with. As expected, the Indians have an excellent defense, ranking fifth in UZR/150, so Kluber should eventually experience better luck on his balls in play. He is currently sporting a .327 mark, after finishing with a .342 last season. However, his line drive rate is below the league average and IFFB% above the average, both of which should more than offset the extra ground balls he’s allowing that go for hits more often than fly balls. Though it’s anyone’s guess how long he’ll remain in the rotation, for the time being he makes a worthwhile pickup for pitching starved deep league owners.

Jimmy Paredes | HOU OF | 1% Owned

You wanted deep, you got deep. He’s owned in just 1% of leagues! This is a guy I actually drafted in last year’s LABR league in the reserve round, but he didn’t make it on my roster through the beginning of the season after failing to win the Astros third base job. Throughout his minor league career, he has played at every position on the diamond except for pitcher and catcher. That gives him a boatload of opportunities to get into the Astros lineup. In his 2013 debut yesterday, he batted second and played right field.

Paredes possesses a strong power/speed combination of skills. He posted a .160 ISO at Triple-A last year, and his power spiked during his short stint there this year, as his ISO jumped to .214. A full season’s worth of at-bats would probably yield mid-teen homer totals. Even more intriguing though is his speed. He stole 39 combined bases last year when you include his time with the Astros, and he swiped 7 bases before being recalled this season. He would potentially flirt with the 30 steal plateau playing a full season.

So a reasonable projection given full season at-bats might yield 15 homers and 30 steals and he could be had for peanuts in probably 100% of leagues! He makes solid enough contact and his walk rate surged during his time at Triple-A this year. Houston is just cycling through players until it finds a group that could stick, so Paredes should get an extended look and offers exciting upside for deep leaguers at little cost.