RADIO
This weekend marked the triumphant return of CI-eligible Cody Bellinger. He was likely the highest drafted or most costly CI a team selected to start the season. Bellinger was out since April 5 with a broken leg. He was off to a terribly slow start, but the sample size was small enough to read nothing into it. Every Bellinger manager is exhaling deep breaths that he is finally back in the lineup.
The return of a player like Bellinger around your league could result in the jettisoning of replacements and fill-ins. (Bellinger is 1B- and OF-eligible in Yahoo! leagues.) We could see a small uptick in releases of other 1B or CI players this weekend and going into next week. It may not be enough to make a huge difference in rostered percentages, but if your league now has Miguel Sano, C.J. Cron, etc. suddenly available for the taking because their former manager no longer requires their services, all the better. If not, there'll at least be one fewer manager looking to add first basemen this weekend.
For our purposes in this column, we are looking at Yahoo!'s rostered percentages, as well as its positional eligibility. We are searching for useful players rostered in fewer than 40 percent of Yahoo! leagues. With that being said, below are my first base and third base waiver wire pickups to consider for Week 10 - May 31 through June 6.
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Ty France, Seattle Mariners
25% Rostered
France has returned from the injured list, recovered from his wrist injury. He seems to have picked up where he left off early in the season, prior to a slump that eventually led into an IL stint. He has been slotted right into the middle of the Seattle lineup and has collected seven hits in his first five games back. Hopefully, the downturn is in the past.
Although he isn't going to bat .389 for an extended period, France's numbers since returning are a good look at what fantasy managers can hope for from him. He gets on base, will score some runs, and will have lots of RBI opportunities. France's overall numbers are pretty solid thanks to a good batting eye. He doesn't chase out of the zone nor swing and miss too often. He can also put some major power behind the baseball when he does connect, ranking in the 79th percentile in max exit velocity. His power is not the draw, though. He has just a .389 xSLG thus far. Instead, it's a balanced approach with a 30.7 line-drive rate that makes him someone worth adding.
Evan Longoria, San Francisco Giants
23% Rostered
Longoria can't get no respect. I'll grant you a few things which go a smidge of the way to explaining why he isn't widely rostered, but even they don't explain the whole picture. Granted, he gets banged up and misses games. He's been steadily in the lineup for a few weeks, but another mini-stretch on the sideline could come. Granted, he is a boring name that is past his prime.
We aren't expecting prime production, though, and if you care about flashy names, you aren't as concerned with winning as you are with rooting. Which is fine; that's a fine way to play if it's more fun for you. Lastly, granted, he has been much worse against righties than lefties this year. However, the data is so overwhelmingly good that if you just started Longoria and left him alone, not worrying about platooning at all, you'd have had a top-15 third baseman and someone who is underperforming by a pretty good amount!
But that isn't even a requirement. If you want to only start him against lefties until the total numbers better reflect how he's hit the ball this year, so be it. The point is, he needs to be rostered in more than a quarter of all leagues.
Pavin Smith, Arizona Diamondbacks
22% Rostered
It is still May, yet Smith has already made a couple of appearances in this article. He is someone we've been following for weeks, and the production seems to finally be catching up with the peripheral numbers. Smith is on a tear: four consecutive games with multiple hits and an eight-game hitting streak overall heading into Saturday night.
For a refresher, Smith is doing pretty much everything well besides drawing walks. His xwOBA is .359. He ranks in the 87th percentile in xBA, 80th percentile in hard-hit percentage, and 92nd percentile in whiff rate. So, although he isn't drawing walks, his eye at the plate has remained steady.
A lot of the batted-ball data has been good for Smith all season, but the production wasn't there. Just now are the real-life stats reflecting the way he is hitting the ball. Yet there is still so much growth left. Just take a look at what he's doing against fastballs. Smith has a .282 batting average and .495 slugging percentage against fastballs; not bad. And yet, his xBA and xSLG against the same pitch type are .324/.595. This past week is just a glimpse of the way he has been trending.
Category Adds
Not every player deserves to be added in every situation. Depending on your league settings and team needs, here are a few lower-impact bats that could heavily aid in one or two categories.
Niko Goodrum, Detroit Tigers
21% Rostered
Goodrum could be worth having on a fantasy team regardless of category targeting. He has a pretty good walk rate and makes hard contact 46.9 percent of the time. His main draw, obviously though, is steals. Goodrum leads all 1B-eligible players in steals, with eight.
Hunter Dozier, Kansas City Royals
18% Rostered
Dozier is back off the IL and ready to put the beginning of the season behind him. For managers looking for home runs, Dozier can collect them in bunches. His power numbers are legit, even if the production has yet to follow. Dozier currently ranks in the 86th percentile in max exit velocity, 74th percentile in average exit velo, and 76th percentile in hard-hit rate.
Josh Harrison, Washington Nationals
18% Rostered
Harrison is another boring name who has continued to produce. He is going to help in average and the runs/RBI will continue to stack up as long as he stays in the middle of the Washington lineup.
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