Waiver Wire: June 18
Before I set off on my move to California and give my teary-eyed goodbyes to New York City, there’s time for one last waiver wire piece. I’ll have to take a break for the next week as things are about to get really hectic, but as I’ve been wont to do, I’ll focus on some deep league options. Because if you’re here, you’re probably playing in at least one league where you’ll consider these guys, warts and all.
Jeff Francis, Colorado (13% owned)
I’ll have to admit I was skeptical when Brian Joura touted Francis as a $1 option in March. I remained skeptical when he showed a sub-five strikeout rate after taking a year off for surgery. In my heart of hearts, I still am skeptical. But here’s the thing, Francis is doing some things right. He’s not getting that lucky, as his BABIP (.282) and strand rate (71.1%) are fine. He’s just not walking people (1.88 BB/9), and keeping the ball on the ground at a career-high rate (50.8%). The pitching mix has changed a bit, as he’s throwing his bad fastball (-39.9 runs career) the least he has in his career (57.4% this year, 62.6% career), and that has to count as a positive. Of course, the bee in the bonnet is his career-best home run rate (0.47 HR/9), which is built on the back of his HR/FB number (4.8%) that xFIP (obviously) doesn’t think is sustainable (4.26 xFIP, compared to his 3.44 FIP). Here’s the thing, though. Not only is that xFIP tied for his career-best, but you could easily double Francis’ home runs to date (two) and he’d still be having a great year. Francis is a decent option for your bench in most formats, although I’d retain my skepticism in mixed leagues.
Rick Ankiel, Kansas City (4% owned)
If you’re in a deep league with five outfield spots, you might just own someone worse than Rick Ankiel. As with many deep league waiver candidates, there are plenty of reasons not to like the converted pitcher who is roaming the outfield in powder blue. His major fault has even been magnified this year, as his poor strikeout rate (26.3% career) has crossed over into terrible territory this year (35.5%). No matter, you don’t own him for his batting average, you own him for his power, like (ostensibly) the Royals do. The best news about Ankiel is that it looks like that power is back (.210 ISO) after a down year last year (.156 ISO). He also has had a decent rehab assignment, hitting for both power and average in Triple-A Omaha. If he comes back and stays healthy, he could put in more at-bats than ZiPs RoS predicts (232) considering the season is not yet at the halfway-point. In deep leagues with divided outfielders, getting 15 or so home runs from your CF might be worth taking the batting average hurt. The power should be there, and therefore the value.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
As the season progresses these just seem to get sadder and sadder as the free agent pool dries up.
They are getting sadder and less useful, but sometimes they seem to ignore worthwhile pick-ups. For instance, I just added Jason Hammel (15%), who’s 3-0 with a 0.98 ERA and 22 k’s in his last 4 starts (27.1 innings). I don’t think he’s been mentioned here, or if he has, I haven’t seen the post.
Another guy FanGraphs has ignored is Kris Medlen (19%). Since moving to the rotation May 18th, he’s 3-0 with a 3.75 ERA and 5 of his 6 starts have been quality. He’s also supposedly picked up a tip on his grip from Derek Lowe, which has contributed to his improved control (22:7 k:bb ratio as a starter; 11:1 in his last three starts). The point is there’s value that FanGraphs is missing; you just have to seek it out.
Both guys have multiple articles about them here; just use that “Player Search” tool in the upper left hand corner of the page.
Thanks. First wrote about Medlen about six weeks ago, and twice since.
Just look at the player page, we link our articles to the guys. And yeah, they do get harder to do as the season progresses haha. Especially when you focus on deep leagues like I do.
Thanks for the info. I’m usually pretty vigilant with the Waiver Wire updates, but I do miss one from time to time. If you talked about them somewhere else, there’s a chance I missed the article altogether. Sorry for calling you out on it. And I was unaware that the articles are linked to individual player pages; that’s good to know.
As an aside, usually what’s written here is really good–if not from a fantasy perspective, then in a more general guys-who-might-be-worth-watching sense. Keep up the good work!
I always thought Fangraphs tried to dig deeper for guys off the waiver wire in these articles. Generally, the Medlens’ and Hammels’ get over hyped by places like Yahoo! Thanks to you guys trying to look for the not so obvious!