Waiver Wire: August 25th

Chances are your trade deadline has passed, so the waiver wire is of supreme importance down the stretch. Here’s a pair of players that could prove useful in the coming weeks.

Coco Crisp | OF | Athletics | 34% owned

Zach Sanders highlighted Crisp as a potential late season steals candidate, but that’s not the limit of his value. He sports a .380/.418/.606 batting line over the last three weeks with three homers, eight steals (caught zero times for you net steal players), and 15 runs scored. (R) ZiPS sees a .268/.338/.423 batting line the rest of the way, but as long as he’s hot, his bat could make a huge difference this late in the season. Chances are you don’t have three outfielders performing this well right now, so jump on it if Crisp is still available in your league.

Ryan Raburn | 1B, 2B, OF | Tigers | 21%

The 29-year-old Raburn has benefited from various injuries to the Tigers’ regular starting nine, having assumed the everyday leftfield job (with Johnny Damon shifting to the DH) this month. He’s hitting .362/.393/.724 with five homers and 13 runs scored over the last two weeks, a bit of a statistical correction for his .191/.286/.265 stretch from early-July to early-August. (R) ZiPS pegs him for just .257/.325/.432 the rest of the way, but again, as long as he’s hot, there’s no reason not to ride it out. The eligibility at multiple positions is a big bonus, particularly since one of them is an up the middle spot.

Ownership rates are based on Yahoo! leagues.

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

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Chu Dog
15 years ago

Crisp – Chances are in a 12 team mixed you can put together 3 OFs better than Crisp to start?

Raburn – 2B eligibility helps, but he’s hovering right around his expected production…depsite his recent tear.

DanPitrowiski
15 years ago

Coco Crisp
“He sports a .380/.418/.606 batting line over the last three weeks with three homers, eight steals (caught zero times for you net steal players), and 15 runs scored.”

In a 12 team mixed league with everyone fighting for 3 solid OF’s. It is IMPOSSIBLE to find 36 quality guys playing as well as Coco is right now. It just is.

He was worth an add 2 weeks ago. I’ll ride out his hot streak as long as possible.

Chu Dog
15 years ago
Reply to  DanPitrowiski

While I am well aware/capable of figuring out on Yahoo that Crisp is ranked 13th over the last month, his 289th rank for the season (yes I’m aware he hasn’t played the full season – 202 AB total) and O-Rank of 489 allows me to put my starting OF spots towards someone else. This is Coco Crisp we’re talking about… who has played a whopping 101 games over the last 2 seasons.

If there’s a roster spot sitting there unused OR if you are lucky enough to be handcuffing Jenks w/ Putz/Thornton (both going on the DL today) AND Crisp is available, go for it. If not, let’s keep in mind – this is Coco Crisp.

coov
15 years ago

Who plays in leagues with only 3 outfielders? In 12 team mixed leagues with 5 outfield spots, Crisp certainly is worth a look.

DanPitrowiski
15 years ago
Reply to  coov

All my Yahoo leagues have 3 OF’s.

I’m on the opposite end. I think having 5 OF’s is weird. Along with have like 2 C, 1 CI, 1MI, yada yada. I like having my starting 9 and a couple Utils for funnsies.

buck turgidson
15 years ago

Crisp is playing like a serious redass right now. Take a flyer and ride it out.

Adam
15 years ago

It’s idiotic to reject Crisp based on o-ranking and full season. Kendry Morales has a great o-ranking too. Maybe you should add him now. o-ranking is a worthless number used to hoodwink people into making bad trades. Player value changes significantly during the season. You think Adam Lind should still be ranked as a top outfielder?

In the games he’s been in, Crisp has been electric. He’s raking now. To win in fantasy, you don’t play names, you play numbers. I wouldn’t drop a higher ranked outfielder necessarily, but if you can make a roster spot and one of your boys is flailing right now (mike stanton), you can always bench him and play Crisp. Crisp isn’t a bum… he’s just been an injury fest. If he gets injured, cut him. But right now he’s got speed, avg, and a little pop to boot.