Welcome back to the list! It’s a bit messy and out of order this week as my parents are visiting me for the week and my head is spinning, and it’s been hard to stay on top of things in the post-deadline dog days. But there’s still a lot of playing time changes and reversals of fortunes (not the hot dog eating contest kind, that’s gross). So on to the list!
BUY
Giancarlo Stanton (UT/OF, New York Yankees)
I’ll add & write him obsessive letters because for him, I’ll Stan tons. Odds are he’s taken in even your shallow leagues at this point after he’s hit out of his mind, but the discourse on him was so negative for so long that you still may have a chance. He’s hit a ridiculous .345/.400/.745 with 7 HR and 17 RBI in 55 AB over the past 3 weeks, bringing his season line to an uncharacteristic .300 AVG to go with 12 homers in just 140 ABs. Ladies & gentlemen, this is why you can never fully give up on a Statcast Darling, and he is the Statcast Mr. Darcy.
Sure, you might already be set at utility, but he now has four games at OF, so I had to lie a bit and say he qualifies at outfield already (I typically do this for leagues with five-game in-season eligibility, but it looks quite likely that he’ll acquire it soon and can’t afford to wait for him to get that eligibility). I do think the batting average will likely backslide at some point, but even if so, he’s shown a more virile bat in this sample than other UT-only mainstays like Ozuna and even Rooker so add first, solve later. Pick up in every format.
Isaac Collins (OF, Milwaukee Brewers)
I didn’t want up to pick up the phone for him, but he keeps Collins. I admit that Collins was someone who I ignored for WAY too long, at least for the deep leagues I play in. He has been a machine and a key cog of the Brewers powerhouse for over a month, hitting a fantastic .385/.461/.631 with 2 homers and 2 SB (2 CS) over 65 AB over the past 3 weeks. Sure, the power/speed doesn’t light up the page lately, but he’s hitting a splendid .292/.389/.451 with 8 HR and 13 SB (5 CS) in 277 AB, and the real value for him is the run production. He’s scored 13 runs and driven in 14 over the past 3 weeks, and is on a fantastic pace with 47 R and 41 RBI in those 277 AB, which means he could pace in those categories like an elite 100 RBI/R hitter. It’s time to take him seriously in 10-teamers.
Marcell Ozuna (DH, Atlanta Braves)
Just like friends, Marcell disappeared and then he became a star for someone else’s show. They say it’s darkest before the dawn, and it seemed it took Marcell a demotion teetering on fantasy irrelevance to put some juice back in his bat. Or maybe, like, dude just needed to rest his ailing hip. He’s hit four homers this week with a .304 AVG, raising his season line to .237/.367/.422 with 19 homers in 367 AB on the year.
Sure, it’s far from what we were hoping for, but one thing that goes overlooked is that .367 OBP which has helped him remain surprisingly relevant in OBP formats. We know that Ozuna’s peripherals suggested some bad luck for most of the season, so he’s the kind of player you just have to jump on at the first sign of life if he was dropped.
Luke Keaschall (2B, Minnesota Twins)
Keaschall has no relation to Kristin Schall, but geez Louise is he a rabbit. He tore up the bases in the minors, and while he hasn’t actually stolen a base since he returned, he’s hit quite well with a .345/.345/.655 line with 2 homers and 10 RBI in 29 AB over the past week or so, that raises his overall line to .354/.436/.604 with 2 homers and 5 SB in 48 AB, which is a tiny sample but still demonstrates his fantasy ceiling. With the Twins shipping off Correa he has the playing time locked up, so get him in your lineup as he can outperform many of the other second baseman drafted this year in the 100-200 ADP range, meaning he’s an all-formats must-add. Yeah, I’m probably two weeks too late on this, as he’s 51% rostered in Yahoo, but I can admit I missed out in my deeper formats.
Ben Rice (1B/C, New York Yankees)
He feels like a living embodiment of the open the gates/close the gates meme. But it seems his catcher defense has improved enough for him to be an option there, and like Marcell Ozuna, you need to trust that at some point the luck dragons will turn around. Plus, he’s getting catcher eligibility in all leagues. Trust the process.
Ernie Clement (2B/SS/3B, Toronto Blue Jays) –
It’s time we stop thinking of Clement as just a deep league option, as he’s been arguably more fantasy-viable than Luis Arraez this year, especially with his recent highly unexpected homer barrage. He’s hit an incredible .348/.348/.913 this week with 4 homers (though somehow only 6 RBI), bringing him to a nifty .288/.322/.418 line with 9 homers and 3 SB (3 CS) in 416 AB. It’s actually looking similar to last year but with a better batting average and less speed, which isn’t surprising given his skillset. But the trajectory of his season, with the terrible start but excellent utility since, makes him a sneaky 12-team add who is basically Brendan Donovan (minus the walks, which, like, does matter, but still).
Sal Frelick (OF, Milwaukee Brewers) –
He’ll never be my type of player, but he’s been useful as the poor man’s Steven Kwan, and is less punch-less this year overall. He’s hitting .289/.349/.474 with 2 homers in 38 AB the past few weeks after fighting through a nagging injury, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting him negatively. With how unbelievably hot the Brewers have been, you want run producers like Frelick in your lineup.
Josh Bell (1B, Washington Nationals)
Bell has kept ringing out hits, with a .350 AVG and 2 homers this week, and while those are the first power displays for a few weeks now, he’s returned to his high OBP ways with a .286 AVG but .426 OBP over the past 3 weeks. Thanks to his .233 AVG, he’s still going unnoticed in too many leagues.
Ha- Seong Kim (2B, Tampa Bay Rays)
This is a chance to board a fast train before it’s left the station. Kim is doing some interesting things by hitting the ball harder this year with his typical high pulled flyball rate, and while it’s led to a K rate spike, I expect things will balance out and he will steal a fair amount of bases with more than his usual amount of homers, at least on a rate basis.
J.J. Bleday (OF, Athletics)
He’s cooled off this week, with nary a homer, but he’s still playing regularly, and given his strong production at Triple-A in combination from the homer-happy home park, he’s a sleeper for a late-season homer outburst. He’s a fine spec add in 15-teamers and a straight add in AL-only in leagues where they already forgot his 2024.
Masataka Yoshida (UT, Boston Red Sox)
Perhaps we can say now that the Yoshida hate went a bit too far. He’s hitting .310 with 2 homers and a whopping 10 RBI in just 29 AB over the past 2 weeks, with most of the playing time coming in the last week with 20 AB over that span. He’s a great batting average and run production streamer in deep leagues, and qualifies now at OF in leagues with one-game eligibility such as Yahoo.
Blaze Alexander (2B/SS, Arizona Diamondbacks)
Blaze isn’t as interesting as the awesome first name implies, and doesn’t have the stolen bases to match the name, but his bat has been blazing hot this week, hitting .444 with 3 homers and 7 RBI in 18 AB. With a total .273/.366/.477 with 4 homers and 2 SB in 88 AB, he can be quite the sparkplug stopgap in 15-teamers. And his power/speed combination seems to have ticked up this year, with an impressive small sample 15% Barrel% and 87th percentile sprint speed. Just beware of that 29% K%, but he can still be useful despite it.
Kyle Karros (3B, Colorado Rockies)
He’s not a top prospect, and less interesting than Bernabel who was also not a top prospect (but higher up), but he has the opportunity to play in Colorado and doesn’t strike out too much, and in deep leagues you just gotta take that shot.
Jack Suwinski (OF, Pittsburgh Pirates)
In super deep leagues, he’s worth the flier simply because he jacked 25 homers a week ago and Pittsburgh finally seems to be serious about playing him. High-risk high-reward lightning in a bottle play, though it’ll most likely electrocute you.
SELL
Alec Burleson (OF, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals)
Burleson has been a useful swiss army knife, but the kind of cheap one that you might toss into storage when you get something that can really cut. Burleson is hitting .304 with no homers and 1 SB this week and hitting just .217 with 2 homers, 8 R, 8 RBI, and 1 SB over 69 AB the past three weeks. The playing time is nice and all, but even though he doesn’t hurt you in any category, he doesn’t really help you much either. If your team is short on power, you might want to consider moving on from a player who may not reach 20, and the same can be said for a lack of stolen bases. His rolling xwOBA has been in steep decline with a .314 rolling 100 PA xwOBA (down from .426 the previous 100 PA) and an even worse .238 xwOBA over his past 50 PA.
Royce Lewis (3B, Minnesota Twins)
If his season is a simulation game, Royce is not a life well-lived. He seemed to be breaking out with a two homer game and good peripherals last month, but then he went back to the carpet store, with an awful .253 rolling 50 PA xwOBA (down .166 xwOBA) which is the top 10 biggest decliners in this short time span. He’s hard to cut, but to give you an idea of where he’s at, I’ve been starting Ernie Clement and Ben Rice over him for weeks.
Otto Lopez (2B/SS, Miami Marlins)
I’ve been quite in on him all year, but he’s been mired in a Miami Marlin Mudpit, with a .325 rolling xwOBA over his past 100 PA (down .051 xwOBA), and an even worse mark recently with a .288 50 PA xwOBA (down .073 xwOBA). He faded in the second half last year and he may be getting fatigued.
Sean Murphy (C, Atlanta Braves)
Murphy has hit hot runs from time to time, but this isn’t one of them, and with Ozuna heating back up and Baldwin has been much more consistently reliable, which means Murphy is the one who loses out. His rolling xwOBA over his last 50 PA has been in a steep decline with a .257 rolling xwOBA, and with 6 weeks left, you might have to just jump off and jump back on if and when the situation changes.
Lars Nootbaar (OF, St. Louis Cardinals)
I love Nootbaar but I need to cut down on candy. He’s been sluggish for a long while, with his .294 rolling 250 PA xwOBA the 3rd-worst in all of baseball, and it’s been at its worst recently with a .232 50 PA rolling xwOBA. In non-nerd stats, that looks like a .231 AVG with no HR in 26 AB over the past 2 weeks, and an even worse .154 AVG this week.
Otto Kemp (2B/SS, Philadelphia Phillies)
I once suggested to add two Ottos, but it’s a palindrome (but Oreo is NOT a palindrome, no matter how much AI tells me otherwise). Anyway Kemp does have a useful blend of skills, but has been homerless for two weeks and with Bohm coming back, the playing time has dried up.
Ke’Bryan Hayes (3B, Cincinnati Reds)
I TOLD YOU TO SELL! He was given a dead cat bounce in valuation after a trade to the homer happy park of Cincy from the pitcher’s park of PNC, but that don’t matter much when you constantly smack balls into the ground. He’s hitting just .136 this week with no homers in 22 AB, and .164 with 1 HR and 0 SB in 61 AB. Roll the dice with any waiver wire pick who’s getting regular or even semi-regular playing time and you’ll probably be better off.
