Roger Bernadina and Endy Chavez: Deep League Waiver Wire

In today’s look at the Deep League Waiver Wire, we have one outfielder from each league.

Roger Bernadina | 1% Owned (Y!) | 0% Owned (ESPN)
Last season, Bernadina did a lot of things “wrong,” severely crippling his batting average and his fantasy value. This year, Bernadina has done much better, albeit in a very small sample. Bernadina has hit liners at a good rate in the big leagues, and he did just the same during his stint in the minors. He’s also making contact at a higher clip thus far, dropping his strikeout rate by quite a bit, even if it is just a handful of games. Thanks to this small sample, we really don’t know if any of this will continue, but it’s a good sign, at the very least. What we do know, however, is that Bernadina has the ability to steal bases and hit a couple of homers in the process, as he did both last year and has already stolen some bags this season. It’s very unlikely that Bernadina will continue to hit .320 this year, or even .300, but I do think that he’s able to put together a batting average around .270. If he can hit at least .270 while batting atop the Nationals lineup, Bernadina should be able to score a good deal of runs, especially when Ryan Zimmerman returns to the team. Unfortunately, the Nationals have been hitting Ian Desmond in the two-hole as of late, and he isn’t going to drive in a good deal of runners any time soon. Bernadina isn’t much in the way of a standard league option, at least not yet, but he is sure is a good guy to have around in deeper leagues thanks to his counting stats.

Endy Chavez | N/A | 0%
N/A, you say? Chavez was not in the Yahoo! player universe until the site added him after his debut, but he has been in ESPN’s pool of available “talent.” The Rangers currently have Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz on the DL, and with Julio Borbon hurting himself on Friday night, the Rangers’ entire starting outfield is all out at the same time. Now, the Rangers would probably be willing to live with David Murphy and Mitch Moreland out there, but they still need a third who could play left and center. Chavez was hitting above .300 in Triple-A with a handful of steals and a strikeout rate below 5%. Yes, 5%. Chavez has a history of hitting for a decent average in the majors while stealing some bases, so he could be a nice value pickup if the Rangers called him up with the intention of playing him every day against right-handed pitching, as he could add a few runs to his resume.





Zach is the creator and co-author of RotoGraphs' Roto Riteup series, and RotoGraphs' second-longest tenured writer. You can follow him on twitter.

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Jeff
12 years ago

I picked up Bernadina last week and he’s been doing well for my 20 man 7×7 team. He’s a good body with 5 tool potential. I wouldn’t put it past him to start living up to the hype this year. He has good plate discipline also.