Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 13
With more than three months still left in the fantasy baseball season, let’s figure out who to target at various positions to help our fantasy rosters.
MLB Fantasy
Waiver Wire Week 13 Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
Eddie Rosario, OF, Atlanta Braves (53% rostered) – When the Braves games on May 31 ended, Eddie Rosario was languishing with a .239/269/.405 slash line and just five home runs. Before his game on June 22, Rosario’s slash line sat at .271/.311/.520 with 13 bombs. That’s due to a Bondsian last three weeks when he hit .362/.422/.845 with eight home runs and 19 RBI in just 15 games. He looks like the Rosario that helped with Braves win the 2021 World Series, but can he keep this pace up? His BABIP in that span is .333, so a little high (.298 is average), but nothing extraordinary. It’s really been due to a more contact-focused approach at the plate. On May 13th, Rosario’s contact rate bottomed out at around 66%. As of now, he is at a 79.5% average over his last 15 games.
Mike Yastrzemski, OF, San Francisco Giants (14% rostered) – Mike Yastrzemski missed his second straight game on Thursday due to a sore hamstring, but that’s about the only thing that has been able to slow him down over the last two weeks or so. In that span, he has hit .279 with four home runs and 11 RBI, including a couple of huge homers that won games for San Francisco. Yastrzemski has been pulled all over the lineup for the Giants this season, but before the hamstring issue, he had hit second or fifth in five straight games after a long string in the seventh through ninth spot. Always a very good contact hitter, Yaz has taken that to new heights this season. He has a career-high hard-hit rate and average exit velocity going this season. After struggling to a 10% HR/FB rate last season, that is back closer to 17% this year and has he is hitting his most line drives since the 2019 season. Assuming he can get healthy, he is going to be a strong part of this lineup for the rest of the season.
Brendan Donovan, 1B/2B/3B/SS/OF, St. Louis Cardinals (52% rostered) – Just looking at that positional eligibility tells you why Donovan would be a benefit in any sized Yahoo league. The fact that you can slot him in anywhere but catcher gives you tremendous flexibility to account for off days, injuries, and scheduling quirks, especially in daily leagues. But it’s not just help in your positions that Donovan has been providing over the last month. He is batting .323 with four bombs, 10 RBI, and two steals in that span and has now started every game for St. Louis since June 5th. Over the last month, he is the 25th most-valuable fantasy hitter primarily because he has knocked eight percentage points off his groundball rate this season and added eight points to his flyball rate. With a hard-hit rate over 40% this season, he is doing much better about making strong contact in 2023.
Taijuan Walker, SP, Philadelphia Phillies (51% rostered) – At first glance, it looks like another one of Taijuan Walker’s roller-coaster, up-and-down seasons. His strikeout rate is lower, his walk rate is up, and his HR/FB ratio is above his career average. But what that doesn’t show is the complete dominance he has displayed for the Phillies over the last four-plus weeks. Most of the damage done to Walker’s ratios (4.31 ERA, 1.28 WHIP) was from a stretch of five starts from April 26th to May 17th. In that span of five games, he posted a 9.45 ERA and struck out less than a batter per inning. He gave up 34 hits+walks in just 20 innings pitched. But about a month ago, Walker started to completely turn it around. And it happened quickly. Why? He has basically ditched his slider over the last month or so. He was using it around 15%-20% of the time in his first six starts, but now that is less than five percent while he is favoring the cutter and the sinker. Those pitches have proved more effective and have helped him generate a 1.75 ERA and a .296 opponents’ slugging percentage since May 21st. He has allowed more than one earned run just twice in his last six starts in that span.
Jordan Hicks, RP, St. Louis Cardinals (45% rostered) – With David halsey on the shelf for the Cardinals, there was a debate about who they would turn to in the ninth. Giovanny Gallegos has had a very up-and-down season, and the Cardinals’ management really like the heat they can get from Jordan Hicks. It seems like Hicks has the role for the foreseeable future, and he has three saves already since June 17th. Hick’s fastball averages 101.2 miles per hour this season, which is almost a career-high. Combine that with a nasty 88-mile-per-hour slider and Hicks, if he is spotting his locations, can be borderline unhittable in that role.
Waiver Wire Week 13 Waiver Options for 15-Team Leagues
Tommy Pham, OF, New York Mets (10% rostered) – With Tim Locastro on the IL and Mark Canha now playing much more of a bench, fourth-outfielder role, it’s been Tommy Pham who has been thrust into the role of starter and he has been playing out of his mind with it. Now with a start in 12 straight games, Pham is continuing the display we’ve seen over the last month-plus. In his last 30 days, Pham is hitting .319 with four home runs, five steals, and 18 RBI. With this level of consistency in production and playing time, I am not sure how he is just 10% rostered at this point. Pham is doing it with both terrific on-base ability and power. His 10.8% walk rate is among the game’s best in 2023. And his .486 slugging percentage is his highest since he played 128 games with St. Louis way back in 2017.
Mike Tauchman, OF, Chicago Cubs (6% rostered) – I can’t say I predicted Mike Tauchman would have a two-week stretch where he was a top-50 hitter in fantasy baseball this season, but that’s just what he has done. Batting leadoff often for the Cubs now, he has hit .283 with two home runs, two steals, and 12 runs in the last 14 days and remains almost completely unrostered in Yahoo leagues. There is only one game since June 6th that he has not started for the Vucs and he is on the strong side of a platoon where he only bats low in the order against left-handers. In terms of production compared to past seasons, Tauchman has significantly altered his patience at the plate this season. After striking out 30.4% of the time in 2021, he is now at 21.2%. After walking just 12% of the time in 2021, that is now up to 16%. Add in a career-high barrel rate and his is a player worth having in very deep leagues.
Aaron Hicks, OF, Baltimore Orioles (3% rostered) – The New York Yankees castoff has found a new home and apparently also found the fountain of youth in Baltimore. In his 18-game stint with the Orioles, he is demolishing all pitchers in his path with a .321/.424/,571 line including three homers, two steals, and 10 RBI. After a .188/.263/.261 line in 28 New York games, is this just a case of “I’ll show you!” or is he actually doing something differently? His BABIP was actually higher in May (.368) than it has been in June (.333), so this isn’t just luck-related. His fly balls are down this month, his groundballs are up, but his hard-hit rate has doubled since what he was doing in April. It also doesn’t hurt to be a left-handed hitter in Camden Yards, so this may be a good spot for Hicks, even after the return of Cedric Mullins.
Kyle Hendricks, SP, Chicago Cubs (26% rostered) – Old man Kyle Hendricks has had a major resurgence this season. Despite just 4.67 K/9, he has a 1.60 ERA through his six starts since returning from injury. After pitching in just 16 games in 2022, there was no expectation that Hendricks would be able to come right in and pick up off of his 2019 and 2020 seasons, but he is doing it with a strong 41% groundball rate and a minuscule 0.26 HR/9 allowed. His expected stats paint a slightly messier picture (4.52 ERA), but that’s what happens when you don’t strike anyone out and relay on soft contact to get hitters out. Fortunately, his soft contact is the best it’s been since 2018. There are bound to be some bumps on the road when you roster Hendricks, but right now he is getting everyone out and already has a 3-2 record to show for it.
Scott McGough, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks (28% rostered) – The Arizona closer situation has been a revolving door all year with Andrew Chafin and Miguel Castro taking the role at times. But those have been roller coaster experiences so far, so the Diamondbacks have now turned to Scott McGough. On Thursday, McGough saved his fifth game of the season, including his third over the last week. He hasn’t allowed an earned run since May 12th or a homer since May 6th thanks to a career-high 10.62 K/9 this year. He is also walking only about 2.7 batters per nine innings because he is following the major league trend of throwing his fastball in less than 50% of his pitches. It’s working so far in the desert, so Arizona may finally have someone reliable in the role for their playoff run. He will be a popular waiver wire pick-up this weekend.
