Spencer Strider (RP, ATL): Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: 23-year-old Spencer Strider has a killer mustache and is off to an excellent 2022 start out of the Atlanta Braves bullpen, producing a 2.49 ERA; 1.06 WHIP; two holds; and a 1.39 FIP off a 37.7% strikeout rate and zero allowed home runs in 21.2 IP across just ten games. On a team as accomplished as this Braves squad (even as they underachieve to start 2022), there are a handful of arms ahead of the Clemson alum on the bullpen depth chart, namely Kenley Jansen; A.J. Minter, Collin McHugh; Darren O'Day; Will Smith; and Jackson Stephens. Despite this back-seating due to Strider's youth, he is currently outperforming several of his teammates, and should be in line for a bigger role moving forward.

With his ability to throw for extended time in a given appearance, Strider averages 3.2 K per game, and while he isn't yet forcing much soft contact (11.4%) on batted-balls, his hard contact rate (31.8%) has done well to suppress the longball, as well as his grounder rate which has increased to 42.1% in the month of May. His 98.6 MPH fastball has seen tremendous success this year to the tune of a 5.5 wFB, with his slider and changeup also producing positive numbers, and his zone contact rate is resultingly down 16.5% from last season. For a deep bullpen sleeper in deep formats, Fantasy Baseball Managers would be well-served to take a chance on Spencer Strider with the prospect of the Braves getting back over .500 and Strider's IP-versatility yielding to both holds; wins; and K totals.

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