Ike Davis & Trevor Bauer: Waiver Wire

by
June 18, 2012

Two youngsters this week, one a corner bat off to a dreadful start and another a starting pitcher yet to throw a big league inning…

Ike Davis | 1B | Mets | Owned: 38% Yahoo! and 27.0% ESPN

Things seem to be slowly coming around for Davis, who at -0.8 WAR, is no longer the worst player in baseball (Brennan Boesch at -1.1 WAR). He has a neat little eight-game hitting streak going that includes a monster three games against the Rays — 6-for-11 with a double, a homer, three walks, and two strikeouts — and has raised his OPS nearly 100 points. More importantly, his batted ball profile is starting to look like a power hitter’s…

It’s hard to hit for power when you’re beating the ball into the ground like Ike was earlier this season.

Now obviously an eight-game hitting streak doesn’t mean he’s cured of all ills, but the 25-year-old first baseman is starting to show some positive signs. Given his talent and the kind of production he’s capable of — .280-ish average, 30+ homers, 100+ RBI in a 5×5 league over a full season — he’s worth keeping an eye on just to see if this is the start of Davis getting back to being himself. ZiPS projects an unsightly .239/.323/.417 line the rest of the season but I think Ike can do quite a bit better.

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Trevor Bauer | RHP | Diamondbacks | Owned: 19% Yahoo! and 3.4% ESPN

Mike Trout is a top-12 producer in WAR (2.9) and Bryce Harper is making headlines for every reason imaginable, leaving Bauer as the next uber-prospect in line for a promotion to the big leagues. The 21-year-old right-hander followed up his eight dominant (2.72 FIP) starts in Double-A with six equally dominant (2.82 FIP) starts in Triple-A, and he’s starting to get his walk issue under control — two walks or less in three straight starts and in five of his last seven starts.

Bauer is a strikeout machine (career 11.9 K/9 and 30.7 K%) and should post lower than usual BABIPs as a fly ball guy — he’s admitted to preferring fly balls over ground balls on Twitter, so it is a conscious thing — the perfect combination for a division with some huge parks and offensively challenged teams. The D’Backs are going to call Bauer up at some point in the coming weeks — the only thing standing is his way is Joe Saunders or an injury — and you’re going to want to have him on your roster and ready to go right from the first start.





 

Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.

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lester bangs
13 years ago

Ike has been drawing walks of late, too. Strikeouts down. All good signs.

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