Oak’s Corner: Waiver Wire Boosts Down the Stretch

At the end of this weekend, we will only have four weeks left in the regular season. It weirdly seems like forever ago, and just last week, we were starting the season, but here we are in the final stretch of the regular season. Four weeks is still plenty of time to make a run in your league if you're behind, but you need to act now. Similarly, if you have a lead, four weeks can feel like a long time, and as someone who has lost some big leads late, it's extremely important to be active and not try and just bunker down and hold onto your lead. Rather than the usual format, I'm going to offer some players who may be available and can help contribute to your final month run. Most leagues have had their trading deadlines pass, so the waiver wire is king the rest of the way. I picked one guy at each position on which to focus, and each of them is under 50 percent owned in NFBC 12-team leagues (number in parentheses is that ownership percentage). Now let's close out the season strong and win some leagues.

Catcher: Manny Pina (28 percent) – Finding a second catcher in two-catcher leagues who merely doesn't hurt you at this point of the season is a mission in itself, but Pina is in a really good lineup and can actually be an asset these last four weeks. He did have to have five stitches in his lip on Wednesday night, but he avoided a concussion and is good to go by all accounts. Pina has been really solid since the All-Star Break, hitting .329 in his last 25 games, but the power has not been a help, with only one homer and six runs driven in.

In his first real run of playing time in the majors in 2017, Pina displayed a nice batting average at .279 while hitting nine homers. He has nicely dropped his strikeout rate under 20 percent this season, while still maintaining a solid 33.8 percent hard hit rate. His line drive rate is where his profile really pops out with a 27.9 percent line drive rate so far, which would put him in the top 10 in baseball if he had enough at bats to qualify. Pina is also a nice hot hand play, as he's hitting a smooth .400 in August. If he can maintain the line drive rate, the batting average should be an asset, which is really hard to find for a catcher off the waiver wire, and in that lineup with a great home park, I like his chances to fall into some counting categories, too.

First Base: Tyler White (35 percent) – White figures to be a popular add this week after hitting a walk off homer on Wednesday against the A's (ugh) and another one on Thursday night against the Angels. White's recent play has relegated first-half darling Evan Gattis to the bench most nights. Not only is White playing almost every day, but he also finds himself hitting in the middle of the lineup when he plays. With his homer on Thursday night, White now has 11 homers in only 139 plate appearances. He has shown nice power in the minor leagues with 25 homers last year in 111 games and another 14 this year, both stints in Triple-A.

So far this season, White has cut his strikeout rate to about 20 percent after sitting over 23 percent in his first two years in the majors. He's not hitting the ball as hard as he did last year, but his hard hit rate is fine at 34.1 percent and he has shown a nice command of the strike zone with a 11.9 percent walk rate. The thing I like most about White is his spot in the lineup, as he should rack up the runs and RBI as long as he keeps the regular playing time. If he snuck through unbid in your league last week, he is a must bid this week if you need help in power or at corner infield.

Second Base: Joey Wendle (44 percent) – I'll admit I didn't shed any tears when the A's dealt Wendle to the Rays in the offseason, as I just didn't see much upside in his profile, but he has proved me very wrong this year. He has been a really nice piece on a Rays team that has played exceptionally well as of late. Through 432 plate appearances, Wendle is hitting .296 with seven homers and 12 stolen bases, nothing that is going to jump off the page, but it's just a really solid line for a middle infielder in a deeper league, especially when you factor in the plus batting average.

Wendle has pushed himself into an everyday role in Tampa and even hit leadoff four times in the last week. He has been especially hot as of late with a .325 average, 18 runs scored and 19 RBI in 32 games since the break and comes into this weekend's action with four consecutive multi-hit games. It is especially intriguing that he has four stolen bases in the last four games, certainly a very small sample, but if he looks to run more down the stretch, especially from the leadoff spot, he could be a really valuable guy to fantasy teams, especially with his eligibility at second base and the outfield.

Shortstop: Freddy Galvis (8 percent) – Shortstop is slim pickings right now among the available waiver wire guys, but in deeper leagues, I'm willing to take a shot on Galvis who has been warming since the All-Star Break. Galvis had one of the more eye opening seasons in recent memory after he tripled his career high in homers with a 20-homer season in 2016 with the Phillies. He predictably fell to 12 homers in 2017 while playing all 162 games and was shipped to San Diego in the offseason.

Galvis had a really rough start to his Padres' tenure, hitting only .228 in the first half with only four homers. He has flipped a switch in the second half, hitting .271 with seven homers already in only 36 games while driving in 23 runs. Most impressively, after only topping a 30 percent hard hit rate once in his career, Galvis currently sits at a career high 38.5 percent hard hit rate. He has been hitting down the order most of the season but has seen a bunch of starts at the leadoff spot over the past couple weeks as his hot play has caught the eyes of the Padres. If he could find a way to stick at the top of the order, his runs score upside goes way up as does his chances to steal more bases and he has flashed some speed with a combined 31 stolen bases in the past two seasons. I like Galvis as a add in deeper leagues as he has been stinging the ball much of the season and seems to finally be in a nice groove in his new digs.

Third Base: Logan Forsythe (4 percent) – After back to back strong campaigns in Tampa where he combined for 37 homers and hit over .270, Forsythe fell flat in his move to the Dodgers in 2017. Coming off a 20-homer 2016, hopes were high for Forsythe in L.A., but he hit .224 with only six homers in 2017. It wasn't much better for Forsythe in L.A. to start 2018, and the Dodgers finally cut ties, moving him to the Twins in the trade deadline deal for Brian Dozier. Forsythe looks like his old self so far in Minnesota, hitting .318 in 25 games, but the power has yet to come back as he has yet to homer in Minnesota.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect to Forsythe at the moment is after his warm start with the Twins, he has been promoted to the second spot in the lineup and has been hitting there for the past week. While he has not shown a power stroke since 2016, he has run into some bad fortune with an absurdly low 2.6 percent HR/FB rate so far this season, and after striking out a career high 24.8 percent in his rough 2017, he has his strikeout rate back under 20 percent in 2018. In a deeper league where infielders can be tough to find, Forsythe also gives you the added advantage of eligibility at second and third base so he can cover both middle and corner infield. Forsythe never looked comfortable in L.A., and maybe a change of scenery can fully bring back his past performance, but even without the power, if he can stick in the top half of the lineup, he could help in both batting average and runs scored.

Outfield: Ramon Laureano (8 percent) – Phillip Ervin would have fit here at only 27 percent owned, but since I discussed him last week, I will move down to an even lesser owned guy in Laureano. He has earned a lot of attention for his ridiculous throwing arm, but Laureano is starting to make a splash with his bat and legs as of late. He has pretty much forced the A's hand and is playing every day in center field while hitting .305 through his first 21 games. In his short stint with the big club, he has already hit three homers and has recently started to let it loose on the base paths with three stolen bases in his last 10 games. He is clearly really fast, and while the A's do not run at all, it has mostly been because they don't have guys who run. Laureano flashed some stolen base upside in the minors with 24 steals in 123 games last year with the Astros in Double-A.

In his 64 game Triple-A stint this year, Laureano showed both speed and power with 14 homers and 11 steals. Strikeouts are clearly his issue, as he struck out nearly 25 percent of the time in Triple-A this year and that has even gotten worse in his initial run in the majors with a 28.4 percent strikeout rate. On the plus side, he's smoking the ball with an absurdly high 50 percent hard hit rate so far through his first 22 games. He is obviously a high variance play with such a short track record to go on, but now that he has captured a majority of the A's center field job, one has to take a shot on a power/speed combo guy in the hopes of keeping him in a hot streak down the stretch. When you tune in to watch him hit for your team if you pick him up, make sure you stay for the gun show, as George Springer learned the hard way not to run on him earlier this week.

Starting Pitcher: Austin Gomber (32 percent) – Gomber's percentage owned stayed low despite a two-step last week as those two starts were both on the road, facing the Rockies in Coors Field and then the Dodgers in L.A. The starts looked scary on paper, but he answered the bell, allowing only three earned runs total in 11 innings in those starts. Gomber has now made six starts for the Cardinals and has impressively only allowed more than two runs in one of the outings. With the injury move to the bullpen for Carlos Martinez and the recent setback to Michael Wacha, Gomber looks locked into the Cardinals' rotation for the time being.

Coming off a solid year in the minors in 2017 with a 3.34 in 143 innings, Gomber really looked strong in Triple-A this season, bumping his strikeout rate over 10 K/9 with a walk rate of only 2.63 BB/9. Those numbers have not translated to the majors so far, as he has yet to strike out more than six batters in a game and recently had back to back games with four walks, which contributed to his 4.47 BB/9 walk rate with the Cards. He has shown much better control throughout his time in the minors, so I think he will bring that number down as he builds more innings in the majors. Gomber faces the Nationals in Washington this week, but then gets a home two-start week facing the Pirates and Dodgers, and then gets a home start against the Giants. I like that stretch of starts, and Gomber possesses some upside on a good team, something that has been tough to find with pitchers on the waiver wire this season, so I think he is a must bid for me this week.

Relief Pitcher: Jose Alvarado (10 percent) – Almost anyone sniffing at saves is highly owned in fantasy leagues, and while Alvarado cedes most of the Rays save opportunities to Sergio Romo, he has snuck in two saves in the last 10 days as the Rays are willing to mix and match based on matchups. More than that though, I really like how Alvarado looks on the mound, and he has become a nice asset for ratios and strikeouts.

Alvarado has been a total beast since July 1, posting a 1.23 ERA in 22 innings, striking out 24 while walking only seven. He has been even better in August, allowed only two earned runs in 12.1 innings with 17 strikeouts against only two walks. I really liked Alvarado as the top closer option in Tampa after they traded Alex Colome to Seattle in May, but surprising to me, Romo received the job and has been really good and thrived in the role. Alvarado is pitching as well as he has all year and is an asset in deeper leagues even without saves, but I think it's likely he manages to steal a couple more saves down the stretch.

Series of the Weekend:

Diamondbacks at Dodgers. I won't subject you to breaking down the big A's/Mariners series this week, but I will stick on the West Coast with a hugely important matchup in Los Angeles between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers. The D'Backs struck first on Thursday night with a well-pitched game by Robbie Ray, winning 3-1 to push their lead back to two games. The Dodgers need to at least split this series at home to keep themselves very close to Arizona as we head into the final four weeks.

On Sunday, we get a very interesting matchup, as the surprising Clay Buchholz faces the young stud Walker Buehler. Buchholz has been an absolute out of nowhere godsend for the Diamondbacks, posting a 2.07 ERA so far this year in 87 innings. He has clearly been fortunate with that low an ERA helped by his .255 BABIP, but his FIP is still a really good 3.41 as he has used excellent control (1.86 BB/9) to keep hitters off base. Buehler has been similarly large for the Dodgers, as he has been a stabilizing force in a rotation that has seen a ton of injuries. The 24-year-old has been as good as advertised, compiling a 3.02 ERA in 98.1 innings. The strikeouts have been solid at 9.70 K/9, but the 2.29 BB.9 is the really impressive number for a young hurler in his first real run through the majors. Buehler has the stuff you would expect from the hype with a 96 mph, but when you watch him, you just don't get the feel you are watching a rookie starting pitcher. These two facing off should be a fascinating Sunday afternoon in Chavez Ravine.

One of the better stories in the Dodgers 2017 season was the emergence of Chris Taylor, but that story has not been nearly as fun this season. Taylor does still have 14 homers and nine steals, but his batting average is currently down more than 40 points to .245. Particular concerning is the big bump up in Taylor's strikeouts with a current 28.9 percent strikeout rate, a number that feels way too high for a guy without big power. He is actually hitting the ball harder than ever with a 38 percent hard hit rate, but all the empty at-bats from the strikeouts is really dragging down the average. Taylor was a huge spark in the Dodgers deep run in 2017, and if they are going to win the NL West and make another deep playoff run, getting a good finish out of Taylor would be huge for their chances. This series should be a very interesting one, especially with a beautiful matchup of lefties on Saturday between Clayton Kershaw and Patrick Corbin, and could end with us having a clearer view of the NL West heading into the final four weeks.