Welcome back to the list! This week is prospect-palooza aplenty, though unfortunately for me and you dear readers, most of the prospects getting called up are pitchers. Still this is the dog days but also the homestretch, and when dealing with samples this small, sometimes you need to forget what you know and chase after hot streaks with vim and vigor like it’s April again. On to the list!
BUY
Ben Rice (1B/C, New York Yankees)
Looks like Ben Rice is looking more and more like Juan Risotto. He’s been playing much more regularly and for once seems to really be paying off regardless of format, hitting .278 with 2 homers this week and hitting .305.417/.644 with 5 homers and 13 RBI over the past 21 days. Now that he has catcher eligibility in even the most restrictive of leagues, he’s been extra useful, and given that all of his xStats said he was having bad luck the whole time, I expect the good times to continue and for Rice to continue to bashmati in all formats.
Noelvi Marte (3B/OF, Cincinnati Reds)
I’ll admit that I was skeptical of Marte’s hot start being legit, and while in a sense I was right in that he hasn’t torn the cover off the ball, he’s continued to be pretty darn good at everything, with a .294/.331/.504 line with 10 HR and 7 SB in just 228 AB. While he’s outperforming the expected stats, I don’t care much while he’s playing half his games in Great American Smallpark, and I think by maintaining his much-improved 20% K%, he’ll be able to take a lot more advantage of it. I still think there’s another level to the power with his elite 117 mph MaxEV. so if someone impatient dropped him in a shallow league due to a ho-hum week, snag him immediately.
Jurickson Profar (OF, Atlanta Braves)
When it comes to assessing if he could succeed post-PED bust, the Profar’s in the pudding. After stumbling in July leading me to call him a sell candidate (and trying and failing to trade him away in some of my leagues), he caught fire in August with a studly .303/.436/.592 line with 6 homers, 6 stolen bases, and a whopping 20 R and 22 RBI as Atlanta’s leadoff hitter. Those of you in OBP formats are feeling the love even more as he’s rocked a splendid 16/11 BB/K over that span, bringing his season line to a more modest .261/.365/.469 (I guess he really likes 60s) with 10 HR and 8 RBI in 207 AB. It’s no fluke either as his xwOBA keeps going up, with a .401 rolling xwOBA in his last 100 PA and a .424 rolling xwOBA in his past 50 PA. He’s a must-add in all formats.
Brooks Lee (2B/SS/3B, Minnesota Twins)
Brooks is a good name for him, because he’s twisting back and forth and his path to fantasy relevance is pretty darn narrow. But even though nearly every slider on his Statcast page is blue (most surprisingly, a 7th percentile sprint speed), he’s earning his good hitting performance lately, in which he’s hitting .295/.396/.545 with 2 homers and 11 RBI over the past two weeks, along with a 7/5 BB/K ratio. The walk rate is especially surprising given his near-total lack of walks before this, which i why he still has a .299 OBP to go with his .249 AVG and 13 HR in 389 AB. In 12-team OBP formats, this makes him a sneaky play with his super-helpful triple eligibility.
Ryan O’Hearn (1B/OF, San Diego Padres)
I still remember last year when I traded a slumping Ryan O’Hearn in August only to see him reignite in September. And yet I still traded Ben Rice for him this year in a keeper league… oops. Well now he may be getting locked in again. Although he struggled with the bat and playing time after coming to San Diego, he’s now getting more reps and hitting .341 with 2 homers this week. Statcast still isn’t very impressed as it’s true he’s striking out more suddenly with 12 Ks in 41 ABs (38 PA), but I think I’d actually like O’Hearn to be less passive so maybe this is a good thing. I managed to scoop him back up for the batting average in 12-team formats and you probably should too.
Tommy Pham (OF, Pittsburgh Pirates)
It’s time I finally gave Pham his due, after writing him up the past few weeks and cutting off the final version of the list several times. He just looks like an entirely different hitter in the second half, in other words, his old self, hitting .310 with 2 homers and 1 SB over the past two weeks, to bring his season line to .265/.340/.384 with 7 HR and 5 SB in 310 AB, and I know that still looks hella boring, but remember that his bat was a limp spaghetti noodle in the rain for the first two months of the season. His rolling xwOBA of .441 over his past 50 games is legit good and he’s starting to graduate from being a 15-teamer to being a 12-team OBP streamer consideration.
Colton Cowser (OF, Baltimore Orioles
He’ll keep doing this ’til the Cowser come homer. He’s hit 3 taters with a .360 over the past week and 7 RBI, to bring him up to 12 HR and 7 RBI with his unsightly .226 AVG in 235 AB on the year. His sophomore campaign has been a regression in almost every way, but he’s still hitting homers at a similar rate of about 28 homers and 10 SB per 600 AB. I don’t think with his high 34% K% that he can be trusted for anything other than power, but I could see him being a diet Jo Adell for a month. He’s a must-roster in 15-teamers and a power streamer for 10-teamers.
Gabriel Moreno (C, Arizona Diamonbacks)
In a year of catchers being the hot new thing, now we have another one. Moreno showed absolutely no rust from his injury layoff, hitting a blistering .357 with a pair of blasts and 7 RBI in 15 AB in his first week back. With Adrian Del Castillo revealing himself to be just a very brief flash in the pan, the catching role is back for Moreno’s to take, and despite his reputation as being a low-power bat, he’s a sleeper for power as well. The 25-year-old already had good max exit velocity (111 mph) but is now adding lift and hitting hard more consistently, with a career-high 56% AIR% and 26% FB%, as well as an excellent career-best 48% HardHit%. He could be in for a big September, yet I find it hard to call him more than a 15-team play in single catcher leagues simply due to the depth of the position. But I will call him 12-team viable anyway, at least if you need batting average.
Mark Vientos (3B, New York Mets)
Vientos is Spanish for winds, and Mark Vientos apparently means winds of change. He’s suddenly shifted course from his terrible season with a shocking 5 homers and .342 AVG and a whopping 14 RBI over the past 2 weeks. I know you’re probably skeptical, and you have every right to be, but his rolling xwOBA over his past 50 PA is a whopping .429, and his .401 rolling xwOBA over his past 100 PA is actually the second highest in baseball behind only Riley Greene. It’s time to pick him back up, y’all, lest we forget how good he can be when he’s locked in.
Jared Triolo (2B/3B/SS, Pittsburgh Pirates)
It seemed dangerous to take a chance on my season on a guy who’s hit under .220 the past 2 seasons, but I decided to Tri-YOLO. He’s seemed to respond quite favorably to being given regular reps in light of the Oneil Cruz injury, hitting .415 with 2 homers and 4 SB over the past 2 weeks, and in the past week he’s hit .500 (11 for 22) with both homers and 1 SB. It does seem he may have been the recipient of some rotten luck with a much better .252 xBA. which frankly makes more sense given his sub-20% K%, merely below-average power and good speed. With his triple eligibility, it’s time to look past the ugly season numbers and dive in, especially in OBP formats.
Jeremiah Jackson (3B/OF, Baltimore Orioles)
He’s someone who is playing, has multiple eligibility, and a pulse. I was skeptical of his small sample, and remain so a bit, but he’s hitting .324 with a homer and hitting .308 this week and playing every day with 26 AB. It remains to be seen if he’ll lose playing time when Mateo returns, but I’m betting the Orioles will prefer to see what they have in their young core and role players. He has no real flaws to his game, so that with his plus 47% HardHit% makes him worth rolling out in AL-only formats.
Bob Seymour (1B, Tampa Bay Rays)
Bob means business. Not Robbie, not Bobby, just Bob. He’ll hit a homer off you and then adjust your deductible. I ignored him in his debut week, and after posting a 40% K%, many have already moved on to the next shiny new toy, but I see something here. For one, I don’t think it’s super likely a guy with a 25% in Triple-A (high, but not outrageously so) is likely to maintain a 40% K% in the majors. For two, after an ugly first week, he’s improving this week with a .313 AVG this week and elite power rates, with a 75 mph bat speed and a 56% HardHit%. That’s the #1 thing I like to see from a hitting prospect, he may keep sitting against lefties but is a deep league homer sleeper.
SELL
Addison Barger (3B/OF, Toronto Blue Jays)
When you’re trying to get onto the other side of a the champion’s gates, turns out it’s better to jump over them then try to ram your way in… be a Springer, not a Barger. I’ll admit to brainlessly trotting him out in some of my leagues, unaware of just how bad he’s been for a good while now. He’s hitting .135 with no homers over the past two weeks, and an even worse .063 this week, despite playing almost every day. The expected stats say this swoon has been going on for longer, as he’s one of the top 15 biggest decliners in rolling 100 PA xwOBA, with an ugly .293 xwOBA over that span. The season line still looks fine at .251 with 18 HR and 3 SB, and the elite bat speed and strong expected numbers make it tougher, but in 10-teamers, especially OBP formats, you really can get burned by not jumping off when a player is this off-course.
Cedanne Rafaela (OF, Boston Red Sox)
I really thought he was finally going to be a fantasy success, but he’s turned into a Rafailure. He’s hit an abysmal .138/.208/.212 with no homers over 66 AB the past 3 weeks, and even though it helps a little that he’s at least stolen 4 bags over that time, it’s obviously not enough to make up for the damage he’s done to your championship odds. While he has decent power/speed with 14 HR and 19 SB, the .247 AVG and even worse .291 OBP make the bad outweigh the good, especially while mired in such a terrible slump. He could be at risk of losing playing time when Wilyer Abreu returns. Cut in 10-team and 12-team OBP.
Anthony Volpe (SS, New York Yankees)
He’s been a tougher one to drop despite all of his struggles on both sides of the ball, for the sheer reason that his run production had continued to be pretty stellar, and of course you didn’t want to miss the boat when he finally figured it out and went on a legendary run. I thought that might be happening a few weeks ago (more hopium than actual evidence of a change) and then he went right back. I still don’t think he’s this bad, by which I mean.057 AVG and 13 Ks in 35 AB over the past 2 weeks bad, but you just can’t afford to wait any longer, especially at deep position. If you don’t have a bench, or if you don’t desperately need both power and speed. I think it’s time to cut him even in 15-teamers.
Kody Clemens (1B/2B/OF, Minnesota Twins)
Clemens is in such a Drought, I’m calling this situation a Code D. He was handed the reins when they dealt away most of their infield, and I had been ecstatic since I looked at his batted ball data and figured that all would be fixed with more playing time. Well, that didn’t happen. He’s been a tad better this week, hitting .235 with a homer, but the 29-year-old is hitting just .136 with 2 HR and 6 RBI and 6 R in 59 AB over the past 3 weeks. It’s seeming more and more likely that he just saw the ball unusually well for a month and it continues to inflate his Statcast rate stats, which are slowly sliding down. I just cut him in a fairly deep league for Triolo and I’m very happy I did.
Jake Cronenworth (1B/2B, San Diego Padres)
There are two things I don’t get: 1. Why a competitive team like the Padres continues to trot this mediocrity out and 2. Why fantasy leaguers didn’t move on from him years ago or at least ignore him this year. 2025 has been his worst year on record after several bad years, and I’ll admit I’ve been a Cronenworth hater ever since he burned me following his intriguing rookie year. His .224 xBA and .344 xSLG are just awful and a career-worst even for him, since his peripherals stayed mostly similar but his K% jumped from 18% to 22%. I’m writing him above Mayo to say he’s probably more of a 15-team cut than an NL-only cut, but if there was anyone else on the wire who got regular playing time, I think I’d go with them.
Coby Mayo (1B/3B, Baltimore Orioles)
Just when you think he might be turning a corner, he pulls a U-turn and crashes into a pedestrian. Mayo has been nearly laying a goose egg this week with just one hit, a single, in 17 AB, and not much better over the past two weeks with a .119 AVG, 1 homer, and 1 RBI. Yuck. The raw talent may still be there, but at such a deep position, you’re really shooting yourself in the foot starting a guy like this even in deep 15-team and AL-only before he can prove he belongs. I’d even drop him for Bob Seymour, there I said it.
