Welcome to Waiver Wire Picks, our daily fantasy baseball article that looks at the best available players in baseball that you should be adding to your rosters!
Top Priority Players to Add
Victor Mesa Jr., OF (TB) — 20% Rostership
Mesa Jr. has been one of the best hitters in baseball for a little while now, but he gets overlooked due to his lack of traditional power. While his .660 SLG ranks T-9th in MLB since September 1st, he only has three home runs over that span. Mesa, 25, is a crafty hitter who finds a way to produce in other ways instead. He’s done a great job of limiting his strikeout rate all year long, takes a healthy amount of walks, and boasts the seventh-best wRC+ (206) in baseball since the start of this month.
Travis Bazzana, 2B (CLE) — 30% Rostership
Bazzana is kind of similar, but he’s been doing damage in the home run department this month. I was utterly shocked to see his roster rate this low. Snazzy Bazzy’s six home runs rank T-2nd in September, plus his overall .348/.455/.804 slash line has fueled a 245 wRC+ — second-best in baseball over that span. He’s also got more walks (7) than strikeouts (5) this month.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
Robert Gasser isn’t the sexiest option, but he’s been limiting earned runs, and that’s the name of the game. Grant Holmes and Michael McGreevy are purely matchup-based streaming options. Not enough love in the K-BB% margin for my liking.
Christian Scott is similar, but his ceiling is tremendously higher because he can rack up strikeouts when he wants. The walk rate just needs to stay in check.
Andrew Painter has made some really high-quality changes (check out my boy Joseph Cammisa for in-depth analysis in that department), and I love what he’s done for the Phillies. This is a slam-dunk add — the Houston implosion is what it is. Take advantage of him being on your waiver wire.
Cal Quantrill was an add for yesterday’s game, but he left his outing early and is heading for an MRI. Bummer.
Regression was bound to hit Sean Burke at some point, but he’s still a decent arm at this stage in the year. Outside of that one major implosion against Pittsburgh, he’s been relatively solid. He’s a matchup-based streaming option.
Tanner Bibee is a streaming option at this point. Back-to-back starts with 5+ earned runs followed by a nice 6.2-inning outing with seven strikeouts. Just too inconsistent to claim long-term.
Andrew Alvarez is a sneaky solid add. The walk rate needs to stay in check, but when it has, he’s been super effective. Just two outings since July 27th that have yielded three-or-more earned runs. His strikeout rate is approaching 30% over his last five starts, too.
Streaming Pitchers
Our guy Nick Pollack does a fantastic job at highlighting and ranking starting pitcher streaming options… check out his list here!
Quinn Mathews, LHP (STL) — 28% Rostership
Mathews has spun back-to-back terrific starts for the Cardinals dating back to September 8th (2.18 ERA, 12 Ks over his last 12.2 innings), and I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to bet on him doing something similar again. He faces a premium matchup against the Nationals – an offense that owns just an 87 wRC+ since the trade deadline (2nd worst in MLB over that span).
Justin Wrobleski, LHP (LAD) — 30% Rostership
Wrobleski is probably still limited entering today’s action, but you’re still going to get quality innings out of this left-hander. The Giants have been horrid offensively (93 wRC+) in the second half and were even worse against lefties (85 wRC+) all year long. Who knows… maybe Wrobo can go five innings here despite his likely limited status and rack up some punchies on the way.
