Jed Lowrie (2B, OAK) – Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 20% of Yahoo Leagues

ANALYSIS: Jed Lowrie has had a lot of things working for him in 2017, including finally being healthy enough to stay on the field. Lowrie has flashed enough skill in the past, but over the past few seasons he has failed to log enough plate appearances to showcase it.

As far as skills, Lowrie has bounced back to the high-end of his previous career norms with a hard contact rate of nearly 35%. Importantly, he has also paired this with a 45% flyball rate, up 13% from last season. This has led to seven home runs early in the season.

While we have seen power from Lowrie before, he has not shown the ability to hit for average since 2012. However, he has shown a newfound ability to spray the ball all over the field without sacrificing the ability to hit the ball hard or in the air. This has led to a career high .326 BABIP and a strong .295 average.

Lowrie still struggles when batting against left-handed pitching which is illustrated by his .508 OPS vs LHP. That means daily lineup leagues would be the best fit to get maximum value out of Lowrie by sitting him whenever he faces a lefty, but even in weekly leagues he is worth looking at thanks to his healthy start to the season and ability to hit the ball hard to all parts of the field.