Relative Waiver Wire: Brad Miller, Aaron Hicks

At a time when call-ups – those who arrived prior to September as well as the gaggle of them that joined major league rosters this month – pique the interest of many fantasy baseball owners, a player who reclaims playing time can be overlooked.

Not all call-ups will be exciting options just because they’re new to roto or head-to-head managers anyway. Some are players whom folks have seen fail a time or three. Those players are unlikely to capture imaginations, although an automatic dismissal is often hasty.

2B/SS Brad Miller, Seattle Mariners

Ownership: CBS 23% | Yahoo! 30% | ESPN 6.2%

Yep, I’m back on this kick. (Please ignore the three-month-old rec of B.J. Upton. *Shiver.*)

Seattle’s call-up of Chris Taylor seemed to spell the end of Miller’s playing time for the rest of the season. It’s worth noting that manager Lloyd McClendon displayed a sense of loyalty to Miller, demonstrated a desire to get Miller going, or both prior to Taylor’s call-up, however. In fact, the skipper seems to have done so, to a lesser degree, since Taylor’s call-up, also.

McClendon’s faith may have finally paid off. Miller has started seven of his team’s last nine contests. His results in that time frame – a .423/.444/.808 slash line, with two home runs, a triple, two doubles, and a stolen base – are probably not going to do much to discourage the manager from playing the shortstop.

In this small sample size, is there anything besides great results on which fantasy owners can hang their hats – a reason to believe that Miller has figured out something? Well, he’s struck out a bit less often. In particular, swinging strikes are down from 9.6% to 8.1%. Not much of a story by itself.

Eno discovered during Tuesday’s podcast that Miller has started to lay off stuff up and in, though. That’s probably the biggest potential problem area of the heatmap for any player. The left-handed batter also reduced his swings on stuff outside the zone significantly (from 33.4% to 21.4%) in the specified span, backing up the thought that he’s improved his plate discipline observably.

Remaining sked: HOU (1), OAK (3), @LAA (4), @HOU (3), @TOR (4), LAA (3)

Miller is on the advantageous side of the platoon, if that’s how this is going to play out. That’s exactly how it has been playing out, beginning on Aug. 31. The M’s should face five, maybe six left-handers for the rest of the season – making a projection of two-thirds of the playing time at short more than reasonable for Miller.

I put my money where my mouth is, as Jason Collete likes to say, and picked up Miller in both my Tout (15-team mixed, OBP, not AVG) and FSWA (12-team mixed, OBP and SLG, not AVG and HR) leagues. Miller is probably more valuable at shortstop, but it doesn’t hurt that he made several appearances at second base and thus may have added eligibility there in your league.

OF Aaron Hicks, Minnesota Twins

Ownership: CBS 3% | Yahoo! 0% | ESPN 0.2%

Hicks has gone nowhere but down since his MLB debut on opening day 2013. He’s a .200/.289/.316 hitter in 494 career plate appearances. The switch hitter struggled more from the left-handed side, so, after the Twinkies had demoted him, he decided to give up the practice. I had doubts about how that choice alone could improve his outlook, but he apparently then scrapped that idea after a few weeks, so he’s back to batting from both sides.

Hicks has been working on his swing for some time. Perhaps that’s part of a problem. But whatever the overall issue has been, he seems to have found a comfort zone – a place that reportedly involves use of more of the field and a sounder approach at the dish. The Twins have also been deploying him at all three outfield positions, incidentally, and that has allowed the club to move Danny Santana to his natural position, shortstop.

Hicks has made six straight starts, beginning on Sept. 3. He’s slashed .304/.360/.348, with a double, in the 25 PAs that make up the SSS September stretch. It’s not the most encouraging set of marks – he’s still not hitting for power – but it’s probably one step at a time for him, and that’s his best span of the season. I couldn’t figure out a way to verify whether there was a more varied distribution in his spray charts since his recall, unfortunately.

I harbor some mild hope for Hicks. His control of the strike zone, or at least his willingness to take a free pass, in the minor leagues was pretty good. He takes a lot of pitches, which is part of why he strikes out so often. I like that he’s brought with him to The Show his below-average reach and swinging-strike rates. He’s still not figured out how to keep pitchers from attacking him high and inside, though.

Still, if Hicks is learning to develop plans to against big-league pitchers as opposed to the lost approach he featured beforehand, then next might be some of that power, speed, or both from his minor league record. His upside in a full season’s worth of PAs is probably as a double-digit-homer, 20-steal guy. He may turn out to project as a less exciting fantasy commodity, and PT is in question for the foreseeable future without some more noteworthy improvements, but it’s something.

Remaining schedule: @CLE (2), @CWS (3), DET (3), CLE (3), ARI (3), @DET (4)

In theory, handedness of the opponents doesn’t really matter for Hicks, rest of season. He’s generally had more trouble versus northpaws, as mentioned, however. Minnesota is lined up to face only a half-dozen or so southpaws the rest of the way – about what could be expected.

Fantasy owners may have given up on Hicks, even in AL-only leagues, but in those setups, he’s worth a look as a fifth outfielder, at least. He’s getting PT, he’s done a little something with it, and the news suggests some maturation. He unlikely to do any damage beyond a couple of thefts, but again, the PT has some potential value.