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Week 13 of the fantasy baseball season will begin on American Independence Day which is always a good time to take stock of the season. By now, the standings in rotisserie leagues are firming up and it's getting more challenging to gain points in the standings. Now is a great time to look at the league standings and identify areas where the most points can be gained; then target players that can help in those areas.
In head-to-head leagues, don't look now, but the playoffs are rapidly approaching as most fantasy regular seasons are at least halfway done. No matter what your league format, we've got some great waiver wire options to help make that push towards a championship.
As a reminder, we'll be looking at pickups for shallow leagues (30-49% rostered) and deeper formats (10-29%), as well as highlighting players in the single-digits who deserve a spot on your watch list at the very least. These are your second base and shortstop fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 13 – July 4th through July 10th.
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Christopher Morel, 2B/3B, Chicago Cubs (56% rostered)
Morel is an eyelash above the rostered threshold laid out in the intro, but the rookie is still available in about half of all leagues and that should change given the hot streak he's riding. Morel had a 5-for-5 game last Thursday which included a homer, then he extended his RBI streak to four-straight games on Friday afternoon with another homer. Morel has batted leadoff for the Cubs more often than not and has eight homers and seven steals on the season. He should be good to double those totals in the second half making him a five-category asset in fantasy.
Nico Hoerner, 2B/SS Chicago Cubs (35% rostered)
Let's double up on the Cubs this week. Hoerner has been in this column multiple times this season, yet his roster rate remains low despite solid production for most of the season and elite production in June. This past month, Hoerner batted .344 with a .844 OPS and scored 13 of his 22 runs on the season. He's been around for a while, but Hoerner is still just 25 years old and is finally starting to live up to the hype that surrounded him when he was first breaking into the Majors. This is the definition of a post-hype sleeper and he should continue to put up big numbers playing half his games in Wrigley Field.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Luis Garcia, 2B/SS, Washington Nationals (15% rostered)
Garcia continues to mash for the Nationals as he's now 110 plate appearances into his MLB career and is batting a healthy .327 with a .477 slugging percentage. Despite another week batting over .300 with three extra-base hits, Garcia's roster rate is down from last week. It's hard to tell who looks at solid production from a 22-year-old prospect and drops him, but that person's loss is our gain. The rebuilding Nationals are committed to getting Garcia every day playing time so there's no reason to fade the rookie.
Bryson Stott, 2B/SS, Philadelphia Phillies (5% rostered)
Stott's overall numbers still look bad, but that's mostly due to the fact he batted under .200 in April and May before being sent back down. Stott is back up with the Major League club and hitting more like the solid prospect he was when he tore up Double-A and Triple-A last season. Stott's .727 OPS in June isn't elite, but it's more than double what he posted in his first stint in the Majors and he hit all four of his homers since being called back up. Throw in three stolen bases in June and you've got an intriguing asset for deeper leagues.
Waiver Wire Watch List
Esteury Ruiz, 2B, San Diego Padres (14% Rostered)
Looking for help in stolen bases? This Padres prospect is up to 54 stolen bases this season between Double-A and Triple-A. You read that correctly, 54 stolen bases in 70 games this season at the top two levels of the minor leagues. Can that success translate to the Majors? Can Ruiz hit Major League pitching? Will the Padres give him a chance to prove it this season? All of those questions need to be answered. However, in an era where the stolen base is a lost art, Ruiz is a name to know if/when he gets the call to the Big Leagues.
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