Smoak & Norris: Waiver Wire
The calendar just flipped to May, so even the most patient fantasy owners among us must start re-evaluating roster spots. Here’s two young players that could help…
Justin Smoak | Mariners | 1B | Ownership: 36% Yahoo!, 65.0% ESPN
First base is a big boy’s fantasy position, and you’ve got to produce like one to be rosterable in most league. Smoak is doing that right now. His .388 wOBA tops traditional fantasy stalwarts like Ryan Howard (.380) and Paul Konerko (.368), which is impressive when you consider his home ballpark. Smoak’s teammates will drag his fantasy value down a little bit just because they don’t get many guys on base, but he appears to be a safe bet to out-produce his rest of season ZiPS projection: .232/.339/.381 with 14 homers and 53 RBI. If you rolled the dice on Aubrey Huff or Justin Morneau or someone like that, Smoak’s a fine substitute.
Bud Norris | Astros | SP | Ownership: 28% Yahoo, 17.5% ESPN
Quick, who leads the NL in strikeout rate? Okay fine, that’s Matt Garza (11.87 K/9), and hell, Jonathan Sanchez is second (10.91), but you know who’s third? It’s Norris at 10.85 K/9. It’s not a fluke either, he whiffed well over a batter per inning last season (9.25 K/9 in 153.2 IP) and his minor league career is littered with strong strikeout rates. Norris has managed to cut a walk-and-a-half off his BB/9 this year (3.03 BB/9) thanks in part to a) small sample size, and b) throwing a first pitch strike to six out of every ten batters, up more than 5% from last year. There’s no peripheral funny business going on here, his BABIP, HR/9, GB%, FB%, HR/FB%, and contacts rates are almost identical to last season. The Astros right hander has simply cut down on the free passes for whatever reason, and you’ll want to jump on him before someone else does. Norris’ next two starts come at the Pirates than at home against the Mets.
Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.
It would be helpful if you put the team name next to your entries.
Us in non-mixed leagues would appreciate it.
Thanks.
Done.
You should know the team by just the name, rookie.
gah, really? these aren’t obscure names.
Norris should be good enough to match his K/9 the rest of the way. BB, maybe not. Still a great pickup
What about Matt LaPorta?
I am in a yahoo league and he is also eligible in LF. For me that is huge – look at the other names on the wOBA leaderboard at left field once you get past Braun and Holliday. LaPorta seems like a nice roll of the dice in comparison.
Currently sporting a surprising .372 wOBA. Maybe he is finally getting comfortable. Former bigtime prospect who was consistently popping those .400+ wOBAs in the minors and the Indians have a much better lineup than what the Mariners will be throwing out there – ACab, Sizemore, Choo, Hafner, Carlos Santana.
His updated Zips projection has him hitting 20 hrs and I think he will outdo that.
Thoughts on Brett Wallace? He currently sports a .428 wOBA. Sure, that will come down at some point, but it seems likely that he also may beat his ZIPS updated slash line.
would you trade maybin for smoak? they have comprable projections. if so, would it change your mind if maybin was $1 and smoak was $6?
I’d rather have Maybin at $1 than Smoak at $6. Smoak is pretty unimpressive for a 1B… you have to really mash to be a positive contributor at 1B.
I drafted Morrow last season, and Norris this season, for the same reasons.
Cheap Ks!
Norris is off to a tremendous start, he should be a bigger fantasy story than he has been. 43Ks/12BBs ain’t nothing to sneeze at. I nabbed him in the 25th/last round of a 14 draft. Yayyy. I call him “Lil Brandon,” he seems OK with it.
Also, if this were a Razzball piece, the title would be, “Smoak a Bud.”
Norris is still available in my 12 team mixed – do I drop Jordan Zimmerman for him? ZIPS still seems to like Zimmerman a bit better
No, keep Zimmermann. drop someone else.
I’d love to pick up Norris, but who should I drop? 10-team H2H league, standard pitching categories plus QS.
I would have to drop either Ogando, Bumgarner, Liriano, or Hellickson.
in a 10 teamer you could probably drop any of those dudes
Ogando has some nice trade bait numbers. He’s never pitched over 40 innings, so it’s doubtful he gets much over 100 on the year. Soon inning limits will become a more popular topic — move him before then.
Ditch Liriano. He’s been absolutely horrid and no signs of change for the better.
I agree with you, but the timing of that statement is quite funny.