Ike Davis & Trevor Bauer: Waiver Wire

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.

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.