Waiver Wire: May 6th
Three outfielders, one for standard leagues and two for the deepest of deep leagues…
Nick Swisher | Yankees | 53% owned
Best known as a three true outcomer, the former Ohio State Buckeye has been slightly more aggressive at the plate in 2010 than in the past (68.9 Z-Swing% in ’10 vs. sub-60% from ’08-’09), which has resulted in fewer strikeouts (18.9 K%), a slightly higher BABIP (.319), and thus a better AVG (.295). More contact for Swisher means more extra base hits (.253 ISO), and with the Yankees’ lineup, more extra base hits means more runs scored and more RBI for your fantasy team. As an added bonus, he also has both 1B and OF eligibility.
Brennan Boesch | Tigers | 1%
Called up once Carlos Guillen hit the disabled list, the lefty swinging Boesch has put up a .412 wOBA while facing nothing but pitchers of the opposite hand. His dominance of righties goes back to the last few years of his minor league career, so this is nothing new. You’re not going to get much help with the OBP category, but he’ll offer a nice amount of pop and good average if managed properly. Detroit faces lefthander David Huff tomorrow night, but after that you’re in the clear until at least the middle of next week.
Marcus Thames | Yankees | 1%
Signed during the offseason to be the team’s designated southpaw masher, Thames is going to see some more plate appearances this month because of Curtis Granderson’s injury. He’s sporting a small sample .503 wOBA, with basically all of the damage coming against lefties. Thames is obviously not going to maintain that pace all year, but he’s been a lefty killer his entire career (.367 wOBA vs. .326 vs. RHP), so 2010 is nothing different. With dates coming up against Jon Lester and Dontrelle Willis, Thames could pay dividends this weekend if you pick your spots with him.
Ownership rates based on Yahoo! leagues
Mike writes about the Yankees at River Ave. Blues and baseball in general at CBS Sports.
For some reason, ESPN has Swisher’s primary position as 1B. This forced me to drop him several weeks ago when he was hovering at .220 BA for Smoak (my other two 1bs are Pujols and Helton, and 3 is the limit). With Manny and Grandy on the DL, and Sizemore playing terribly, I am missing Swish now. So goes the game.
Swisher played OF almost all last year and has been 1B/OF eligible all year in ESPN. This doesn’t make any sense.
Except that, as I explained above, Swisher’s primary position, as labeled by ESPN, is 1B. Keep this in mind. The positional limit in my league is 3 1b’s per team. I had Pujols, Helton and Swisher. In order to acquire Smoak, I had to drop Swisher, because I was at my positional limit.
Of course I know his primary position in real life is OF. That is why I made the comment in the first place. The problem with his dual eligibility is, as I stated, his primary position is supposedly first base. Therefore, my comment was in anger at ESPN for costing me the benefit of his recent performance when, if he was classified correctly, I would not have had to drop him (because I would have had 2 first basemen rather then 3).
Does that make sense?
I’ve never heard of dual positionality being a bad thing. So if someone’s primary position is 1B, you can only hold 3 of em? Like even if you have one at C, one at 1b, one at CI, and one at UTIL?
The dual eligibility isn’t hurting me; if his primary position (again, as defined by ESPN) was OF rather than 1B, I wouldn’t have had to drop him. This is because I would only have two players who had the designation of 1B as their primary (Pujols and Helton; Smoak would be the third). Alternatively, a player like Jeff Clement does not add to my positional limit, because 1B isn’t his primary position, according to ESPN’s classification (he counted against my catcher allotment).
If you play in an espn league, check out the eligibility tab on Swisher. You should see a “PP” under the 1B slot and an “X” under OF. This denotes his primary position and other eligibility. Because of league positional restrictions and ESPN’s incorrect classification, he had to be dropped.