Hitters to Target in the Bottom Third: Week 5

In the last few days, much of the waiver wire frenzy has been focused on pitchers in general and on Michael Soroka, Nick Kingham and Fernando Romero specifically. If you were able to pick up one or more of these prospects who have just made their major league debuts, that’s a good feeling. If you acquired them without busting your FAAB budget, even better.

Yet while these young pitchers have been stealing the spotlight, a number of more established hitters have been toiling away beyond the gaze of most fantasy owners. Each of the five hitters featured below are owned in fewer than a third of the leagues on CBSSports.com and Fantrax, where deeper leagues are not in short supply. Some of them could provide an upgrade for your deep-league roster right now, while others may be more valuable in the coming weeks and, therefore, are worth a stash.

Note: Ownership rates in CBS and Fantrax leagues are listed in parentheses, with the CBS rate listed first.

Tyler Flowers, C, Braves (11/28): Flowers has started only two of the six games the Braves have played since his activation from the DL last Friday. With Kurt Suzuki off to a hot start, it is hardly surprising that Brian Snitker hasn’t just moved him aside to give Flowers equal playing time (or more). Given that Flowers is returning from an oblique injury, it may be a better long-term decision, both for the Braves and for fantasy owners, to ease him back in.

Since coming to the Braves in 2016, Flowers hasn’t shown as much pop as Suzuki has (at least since he switched to an ax-handle bat in mid-’16), but with a less pull-minded approach, plenty of solid contact and strong plate discipline, Flowers is likely to be the better hitter in terms of batting average and OBP. He should eventually gain in playing time and be a better second catcher option than, say, Christian Vazquez or Chance Sisco.

Mitch Moreland, 1B, Red Sox (21/28): Last season, Moreland made modest improvements to an already robust Value Hit rate (per xStats.org), increasing it from 8.4 in 2016 to 9.5 percent. That placed Moreland among power-hitting luminaries like Charlie Blackmon, Josh Donaldson, Khris Davis and Nelson Cruz, yet his surface stats (22 home runs, .197 Iso) didn’t exactly reflect it. So far in 2018, Moreland has boosted his Value Hit rate to 13.7 percent. This time around, he has a .277 Iso to show for it, as well as a .323 Avg with 14 RBI and 13 runs.

Those latter two marks are particularly notable, since Moreland has made only 73 plate appearances. He has been the victim of the roster crunch created by the Red Sox’s signing of J.D. Martinez, though the recent minor hamstring injury to Mookie Betts afforded him one or two additional starts he may not have made otherwise. If one of the Red Sox’s outfielders or Hanley Ramirez gets hurt, Moreland is practically a lock for regular playing time. An extended slump for Ramirez may achieve the same outcome. One may even wonder if Ramirez will lose playing time sooner than later, as he has posted a .680 OPS over his last 15 games.

Matt Adams, 1B/OF, Nationals (12/17): While Moreland may have to wait for his shot to play regularly, that time could be now for Adams. He has started four games in a row for the Nationals, and 11 out of the last 12 in which they faced a right-handed starting pitcher. Adam Eaton does not appear to be close to returning, so for the time being, Adams should get plenty of starts in left field, as well as the occasional nod at first base. He has shown good power over most of his career, and he has been on a homer binge so far this season, hitting six of them in 68 plate appearances, while ranking 11th in average exit velocity on flies and liners (min. 25 batted balls, per Baseball Savant).

Enrique Hernandez, 2B/SS/OF, Dodgers (10/21): Hernandez is versatile, has power and should get a bump in playing time with Corey Seager out for the season, but there are legitimate reasons for him getting overlooked in fantasy. He is sufficiently flyball-oriented as to be a poor bet to help with batting average, and even with the Dodgers beset by numerous injuries, they have enough depth that they don’t have to play Hernandez every day. Though he has mashed southpaws for a .371 wOBA over his career, that mark drops to a paltry .263 against righties.

However, in 15-team leagues where your next-best middle infield option could be Miguel Rojas or Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Hernandez could be uniquely poised to boost your squad’s power numbers. With the additional playing time that is likely coming to him, he could be your best middle infield choice for runs and RBI as well.

JaCoby Jones, OF, Tigers (10/22): A couple of weeks back, fantasy owners had a spike in interest in Jones, as he became the main beneficiary when the Tigers demoted Mikie Mahtook. The increase in playing time roughly coincided with a hot streak, but as soon as Jones cooled off, so did interest in him among fantasy owners. Now Jones is heating back up, and he now has a .280/.337/.467 line to go with four stolen bases. While he doesn’t have power on the level of Moreland or Adams, Jones does have an average exit velocity of 93.6 mph on flyballs and line drives and an 8.4 percent barrel per plate appearance rate.

Jones appears due for some batting average regression (can his .352 BABIP and 30.4 percent line drive rate last?), but you may not find a better combination of power and speed among outfielders on deeper-league waiver wires.