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What a full out sprint of a Major-League Baseball regular season. It provided highs, lows, and forced fantasy owners to make tough decisions that rewarded those who played boldly. Deciding which players would man a fantasy team’s rotation was the most important of all. Certain players had to be sold or bought much earlier than usual whether it be from injury or just a slumping or surging performance.
Hopefully, your team will be the last one standing on that final day on September 27th. For those who are neck-and-neck and need that final lunge to grab the gold here are some names to put on your roster for the final week.
Most players are well under-owned at this point due to the fact that most fantasy players are out of it by now and no longer active on the waiver wire. We may as well take advantage of this. Due to the fact these pitchers only have between one and two outings left, their waiver wire priority will almost be exclusively down to their matchup.
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Dane Dunning, Chicago White Sox
36% rostered
This is one of those situations where if it was mid-season of a 162 game schedule the White Sox rookie would be universally owned. If there were any doubters at all he silenced them when he went seven innings against the Twins, striking out a batter per inning.
According to CBS Dunning will face Cleveland on the 21st, according to Yahoo he’s at the Reds on the 20th. It doesn’t really matter, both are during fantasy week 10 and at this point, Dunning is matchup proof. Regardless of his next opponent, finish against a Cubs team that may have nothing left to play for at that point. He’ll be motivated to keep the good times rolling to prove he can be an important and trustworthy piece for the White Sox in the postseason.
Trade for Dunning if there is no trade deadline in your league.
Brady Singer, Kansas City Royals
28% rostered
After zero quality starts for the Royals rookie in his first eight Major League games, he is now two for two. Not only that he, in those games he has allowed three hits and three walks while striking out 16 over 14IP. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against Cleveland, throwing a career-high 119 pitches. Impressively, Singer showed absolutely no signs of fatigue his next time out where he leaned on his slider a season-high 50.6% of the time.
Granted they weren’t against imposing lineups, just the Indians and the Tigers. Then again, his next two matchups are against the Cardinals on the 22nd and Detroit again on the 27th. It’s not exactly going to get much tougher for him.
It makes total sense for the rookie to be just starting to round into form, in a normal season he would barely have made over a third of his starts. He’ll be motivated to finish the season strong even though the Royals have nothing to play for.
Deivi Garcia, New York Yankees
49% rostered
Garcia has been immense in three of his four Major League starts this year. The 21-year-old has amassed exactly six strikeouts in each game and will look to keep it rolling against Boston on Sunday and in his final start against Miami on September 25th.
The Yankees have stormed back to take control of the second spot in the AL East. However, they'll still look for the small rookie to take the mound and give them quality outings and he should do just that.
His ownership rate has climbed significantly in the last few days but if he is still available he is a must-add.
Dean Kremer, Baltimore Orioles
29% rostered
If the Orioles get nothing else from this season, they can at least say that they now know Kremer is the real deal.
According to CBS, Kremer has only one more matchup left this season, and it comes against the subpar Red Sox on September 23rd. Meaning his waiver wire addition shouldn’t be as much of a priority as the two-start pitchers but he is still worth grabbing.
Walks have been an issue for the 24-year-old, issuing three free passes in each game. Luckily his matchup is against a down and out Red Sox team that won’t make him pay for those mistakes. In Kremer’s successful three games he has had two starts against the Yankees and one against the Rays. The Red Sox lineup certainly doesn’t stack up to those teams this season, so hopefully the rookie won’t have too much trouble.
Pablo Lopez, Miami Marlins
44% rostered
After a strong season, Lopez had a couple of outings against Tampa Bay and Atlanta that he would like to forget. One of which being the 29-9 loss to the Braves, a game in which Lopez gave up seven earned runs before being pulled before the second inning.
To his credit, he bounced back in a big way against the Phillies. He went seven strong innings, struck out six, gave up three hits, and only one run on a solo jack from Andrew McCutchen.
He’ll run up against the aforementioned Braves on September 24th hoping for a different result this time around. The Venezuelan had a quality start against the Braves earlier in the season and by the time they go against each other Atlanta should have the NL East all wrapped up. At most they will be playing for seeding with the Cubs, meanwhile, the Marlins will be probably still be fighting to get into the playoffs. With all that being taken into account Lopez will have a solid outing.
Take a chance on the hungrier team and Lopez could deliver a gem of an outing. Although, as the 24-year-old has demonstrated he is also one of the riskier plays for starting pitchers in the final week.
Other waiver wire additions to consider:
- Ryan Yarbrough 48% rostered, @Orioles 20th, vs Phillies 26th
- Alec Mills, 47% rostered, @ Pirates 24th
- Taylor Clarke, 5% rostered, @ Rangers 22nd
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