Grant Green & J.P. Arencibia: Deep League Wire

It’s September call-up time! Other than Javier Baez, who is actually still owned in a whopping 48% of CBS leagues, there doesn’t appear to be any players with much of a chance to make a real impact in fantasy leagues. But there are still some names worth considering for the last month of the season that are lightly owned.

Grant Green | 2B LAA | CBS 1% Owned

Green was the 13th overall pick in the 2009 amateur draft and he has performed very well at several minor league levels. He showed excellent power back in 2010 at the High-A level, but that power has tapered off since. It hasn’t evaporated though, but he has yet to translate it to the Majors. Over 300 plate appearances, his ISO is a pitiful .085. Nearing his 28th birthday, clearly time is running out. Yet, that’s still a young enough age to maintain some semblance of hope that it will all suddenly click.

And now, he has a somewhat extended opportunity to showcase what skills he still possesses with Johnny Giavotella on the disabled list for what may prove to be the rest of the season. Even if Green’s minor league power doesn’t fully come out and say hello, maybe his sprinkling of speed will. He has never been a big base stealer, but he did swipe 14 bases back in 2012 and could perhaps steal five to 10 bases over a full season.

As with many so-called Quad-A hitters, Green has struck out a lot more at the big league level than he did in the minors. But his SwStk% isn’t so inflated, and it’s not likely he’s just not swinging and taking strikes. He actually swings more frequently than the averaged MLBer, which helps to explain his low walk rate. But it provides optimism that he could improve his strikeout rate.

Green is clearly not a league-winning player. But the playing time is there right now and the Angels don’t have any other intriguing options that deserve to steal at-bats away. So might as well take a chance here and hope the extra at-bats result in some respectable counting stats the rest of the way.

J.P. Arencibia | C TB | 1% Owned

Yes, that Arencibia. He seems to randomly show up every season on a new team, and this year’s version now wears a Rays uniform. We know what Arencibia is — all power and nothing else. And he did exactly that at Triple-A this season, swatting 22 homers over 405 plate appearances for a .216 ISO, but also hitting just .227, while posting a laughably poor 15/125 BB/K ratio.

But with Curt Casali on the disabled list, the team had an opening and Arencibia was the beneficiary. The Rays could certainly use the power (then again, which team couldn’t?), as they rank 10th in both homers and ISO in the American League. And really, picking up Arencibia is a signal that you’re in dire need of a couple of homers and runs batted in. Fifty or so at-bats of a .220 average is going to barely make a dent in that batting average for your team. But if you’re trotting out a second string catcher who plays once a week and stinks, then the potential for an extra couple of homers and RBI is actually attractive.

I always talk about how you should essentially ignore batting average potential over short periods, and Arencibia is a perfect example. There’s the luck component since BABIP could really jump around, plus the fact that it’s just going to impact your team so insignificantly. So the counting stats will more than offset any possible negative effect a low batting average ends up having, if any. And while I hate to recommend a player the day after he has a big game, the big game itself may result in some additional playing time. So, he’s worth a roll of the dice.