Welcome back to another FAABulous Sunday! I’ve added NFBC Online Championship roster percentages this week for an idea of where players may be available in 12-team, two-catcher, five-outfielder leagues. We have six weeks to go, and my main focus is opportunity and schedule — both for the coming week and the rest of the season. Let’s get to it!
Catcher
Pedro Severino (85% TGFBI, 4% Yahoo, 47% OC) – Severino has been a bit disappointing this season with just 9 HR and a .234 BA in 314 PA. However, as you may expect, 2/3 of those home runs have come at home in just 146 PA. The Orioles are at Camden Yards for all six games this week with temperatures forecasted in the 90s.
First Base
Andrew Vaughn (100% TGFBI, 37% Yahoo, 100% OC) – OF – If you have any White Sox fans on your Twitter feed, you’d have thought Vaughn had been sitting regularly when he did so on Wednesday. While he was on the bench for five of the first eleven games this season and has had a couple of other short spurts of being out of the lineup for three of four or five games, he had started seven straight games before Wednesday and has started the three games since. The narrative that he doesn’t play every day is what makes a guy hitting .263 with 15 HR, 42 RBI, and 51 R in 391 PA available in over 60% of Yahoo leagues.
Second Base
Nicky Lopez (46% TGFBI, 12% Yahoo, 3% OC) – Jenny Butler (@JennyButler830) joined Adam Howe (@EightyGrade) and myself for this morning’s episode of On the Wire (@OnTheWirePod) and pointed out that Lopez has moved up to 2nd in the Royals lineup vs righthanded starters (five of past six games and 11 of past 14). We can’t backdate our starting lineups to acquire the seven stolen bases he has so far this week, but we can be confident that KC will continue to turn him loose. He has reached base nearly 35% of the time this season, so an increase in runs scored (49 so far) should result as well.
Third Base
Hunter Dozier (93% TGFBI, 14% Yahoo, 68% OC) – 1B, OF – Yeah, yeah, I know… another Royal, but Dozier was kept on so many rosters throughout his abysmal first half in anticipation of what we began to see this past week. After hitting .174 before the break he has hit .288 in 121 PA since. He seemed to sacrifice his power to get going but has put it together recently, going 4-for-14 with a couple of home runs this week. The Royals only have four scheduled off days in the final six weeks of the season.
Shortstop
Carter Kieboom (66% TGFBI, 6% Yahoo, 14% OC) – 3B – I’m cheating a bit as I typically use NFBC position eligibility (3B only), but for the many players in Yahoo leagues, there’s an opportunity here. Over the past four weeks Kieboom has shown glimpses of what we were excited about a couple of years ago – 21 for 76 (.276 BA), 3 HR, 12 RBI, 11 R. Most importantly, in 97 PA at the MLB level this season, he’s brought his K% down to 23.7% from 37.2% in 43 PA in 2019 and 27.0% in 122 PA in 2020. He’s hitting in the middle third of the Nationals’ lineup, fifth in three of their past five games.
Outfield
Jake Meyers (7% TGFBI, 5% Yahoo, 3% OC) – With Kyle Tucker on the Covid IL, Meyers has been a nice replacement hitting .333 with 3 HR, 10 RBI, 7 R, and 1 SB over the past couple of weeks. At AAA this season he had 16 HR, 52 RBI, 51 R, and 10 SB while hitting .342 in 68 G. I don’t expect Tucker to return until at least Friday (I haven’t seen any updates since last weekend, but 10 days goes through Wednesday), so I’m comfortable rolling with Meyers for the Astros’ three games at KC for the first half of the week in NFBC formats.
Bradley Zimmer (29% TGFBI, 3% Yahoo, 9% OC) – Like Lopez, we’ve talked about Zimmer multiple times this season, but he remains readily available in many leagues for those in need of stolen bases. He continues to play every day, has a home run and multiple RBI in three consecutive weeks, and has stolen at least one base in five of the past seven scoring periods. Cleveland plays six games at home this week where he’s slashing .286/.394/.407 as opposed to .208/.308/.317 on the road.
Pitcher
Tanner Houck (98% TGFBI, 27% Yahoo, 87% OC) – The 46 K and 3.12 ERA in 34 2/3 IP are the appealing bits here. He is still looking for his first win of the season, throwing five innings in just one of his six appearances (five starts) since returning to the Red Sox on July 16. He lines up against Minnesota this week and then looks to get two starts, @ Tampa and at home vs Cleveland, the following week.
Brent Suter (20% TGFBI, 20% Yahoo, 2% OC) and Collin McHugh (24% TGFBI, 23% Yahoo, 4% OC) – I’m going to continue bringing this pair up as long as they continue to produce and as long as they continue to have such low rostership percentages. Despite giving up an earned run in three of his past five appearances, just three pitchers in baseball have more wins than Suter and he continues to sport a sub-3.00 ERA with 60 K in 60 2/3 IP. The Brewers will continue to lean on him as they attempt to preserve their young arms for the postseason and future. McHugh has just four wins, but they’re all since June 12, he’s thrown multiple innings in all but one of his past 15 appearances, and he has 66 K with a 1.30 ERA in 48 1/3 IP this season. Both are better options than the sixth or seventh SP options on some of my fantasy rosters.
As always, good luck tonight and enjoy the games!
Photo from Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire | Design by Quincey Dong (@threerundong on Twitter)