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The trendiest names may be gone from your league's waiver wire, but there is still help out there. It just requires a bit more digging to find. That's where this piece comes in.
Most of the players who will be written up in this feature won't be the next breakout star. Some may only be useful for a brief period. A few might not provide any value at all. It's the nature of the beast; if these players were slam dunks, they wouldn't be widely available for free. We're looking for plausible upside with naught but opportunity cost. By considering a wide swath of factors including but not limited to evidence of a change in approach, favorable upcoming schedules, and plain ol' potential, the goal is simply to find as much marginal value as possible.
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 waiver wire pickups for Week 7 - May 10 through May 16.
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Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Kolten Wong, 2B, Milwaukee Brewers (46% rostered)
A three-hit game on Saturday lifted Wong's season line to .278/.363/.430. He's locked in as the Brewers' leadoff man and has multiple 10 HR/20 SB seasons to his credit. Wong won't win you any leagues, but he's a solid MI option and an excellent injury replacement.
Paul DeJong, SS, St. Louis Cardinals (45% rostered)
Wong's former teammate and double-play partner is below the Mendoza line currently, but he's contributing everywhere else. DeJong has seven home runs and a pair of stolen bases, along with 35 R+BI in 28 games. Statcast has him pegged for a batting average in the .260 range, and also suggests he should have a significantly higher slugging percentage based on a career-best barrel rate.
Adam Frazier, 2B/OF, Pittsburgh Pirates (33% rostered)
Frazier is still looking for his first homer of the year, but he went 3-for-4 with a walk and his third stolen base of the season on Saturday. That brought him up to a .304/.380/.416 slash overall, and he's batted in the leadoff spot in all but two games so far.
Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Josh Harrison, 2B/3B, Washington Nationals (17% rostered)
Harrison had a rough Saturday, going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. Even after that, his line still stands at .305/.364/.493, with three homers and 24 R+BI in 22 games. A new batting grip has paid dividends, and he's been hitting in the top three of the Nationals lineup regularly in recent weeks.
Miguel Rojas, SS, Miami Marlins (17% rostered)
Rojas hit his second homer in three games on Saturday, part of a five-game hitting streak that has raised his season line to .290/.377/.467. He's scored nine runs and driven in another five during that span as well, and ranks among the league leaders in runs scored overall. The veteran has also stolen three bases in four attempts.
The Watch List
Brandon Crawford, SS, San Francisco Giants (9% rostered)
Crawford hit his third homer in four games on Saturday, giving him seven on the year. He's also swiped three bags and has 32 R+BI in 28 games. With counting stats like that, you can forgive the middling .241 batting average. The 34-year-old hasn't been much of a fantasy contributor in his career, but his underlying metrics suggest his results so far are actually underselling him a bit.
Niko Goodrum, 1B/2B/SS/OF, Detroit Tigers (8% rostered)
Goodrum reached base safely in four of five plate appearances on Saturday and drove in three runs. It was his third multi-hit effort in four games. He's got four homers and four steals thus far, he plays every day, and he can be plugged in at four positions. Not bad for a guy who's rostered in one out of every 12 leagues.
Matt Duffy, 2B/3B, Chicago Cubs (3% rostered)
With both Ian Happ (ribs) and Nico Hoerner (forearm) on the shelf, Duffy's a decent short-term play. He has a couple of .290, 12 steal seasons on his ledger and solid Statcast numbers so far this year.
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