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Another week, another list of waiver wire pickups. This week, it seems like players who had slow starts are finally picking it up, and owners are picking them up. We're getting into that time of the year where it pays to take a shot on a guy and dump some well-known names if they aren't producing (McCutchen, anyone?) It also pays to stash some injured players if your team hasn't already been hit by the "Great Injury Depression", like the first guy on our list, Wilson Ramos. We're still real early in a long season, so keep your head up if your team is down, and use some of these guys to give yourself a boost on your roster or in the market.
Here are a few guys who can contribute in points leagues, one at each position to consider for the next week. All of these guys have ownership numbers between 30% and 50% so if you're not picking them up, target them in a trade! These are your points leagues waiver wire pickups for Week 9. Let's get to it.
Note: All ownership percentages are courtesy of Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.
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Points League Waiver Wire Adds - Week 9
C - Wilson Ramos, Tampa Bay Rays - 14% owned
The term "60-day DL" will scare some people off, but if you can get the third-highest scoring catcher of 2016 this late into the season, I think it's worth the stash. Wilson Ramos is on his way back, although he'll be in a different jersey than he was in last year, he should still be able to do some damage out of the DH spot. Rays manager Kevin Cash said he was very impressed by the session and progress that Ramos had earlier last week. Ramos should begin some rehab games later this week, which would put him on pace for a mid-late June return. Again, getting a catcher this strong for nothing is a steal. At 14% grab him if you haven't been bitten by the injury bug, or if you have an infinite amount of DL spots.
1B - Yonder Alonso, Oakland Athletics - 48% owned
While he was injured early last week, Yonder Alonso's ownership is absurdly low. Just to show you how real the power is with Alonso, he was injured early last week, only to return and hit a home run. He then got injured after taking a pitch off the wrist, and after missing a few games, he hit another homer in his second game back. His ground ball percentage is way down and his fly ball percentage is way up, which hopefully doesn't regress, because regression combined with the Oakland A's ballpark, will not be good for Alonso. Good news is that eight of his 13 homers have come at the Coliseum, so if he can keep it up at home, he's good for a lot more points.
2B - Devon Travis, Toronto Blue Jays - 53% owned
The fact that he's hit safely in 13 straight games is reason enough that he should be owned. Considering some second basemen haven't been as consistent as we hoped, means he really should be owned. Devon Travis has bounced up and down the lineup in the past few weeks, but with the Blue Jays heating up, we're seeing the Devon Travis that the Jays had hoped for when they traded Anthony Gose to the Detroit Tigers for him. They say hitting can be infectious and without the presence of Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson, the Jays needed to step up, and Travis has arguably been the biggest contributor of them all. Not only is he showing some power, but he's showing some consistency. Grab Travis and hold him until he gets injured again or goes cold.
3B - Chris Taylor, Los Angeles Dodgers - 40% owned
Like Travis, Chris Taylor has been bounced around a few different spots in the Dodgers lineup, but the one thing that's been consistent is his hitting. A .321 average with a little bit of pop is what we like to hear in all leagues; points, categories or otherwise. He can also play at almost every spot in your Yahoo! lineup. With eligibility at second, third, short and in the outfield, the only other thing Taylor could do is learn how to pitch. The 26-year-old is a natural in the Dodgers lineup and his gaudy average gets Taylor a consistent stream of points.
SS - Dansby Swanson, Atlanta Braves - 39% owned
The former number one overall will always be a more valuable real life shortstop than fantasy baseball shortstop, but in points leagues his .190 average doesn't sting as bad. He'll strike out a lot; he's usually good for one a game, but he's also consistently on base. While he doesn't have tons of power, his six doubles are a nice addition, and last week he was driving runs in from the bottom of the order. Swanson still has a long way to go, but as far as points leagues are concerned, he's not a bad option in the land of the injured because he'll give you between 15-20 points a week, which is more than I can say for my shortstop last week. (cough, thanks Freddy Galvis).
OF - Adam Frazier, Pittsburgh Pirates - 34% owned
After taking over leadoff duties for the Pirates, Adam Frazier has been mashing. He hit two of his three home runs last week, and with more consistent playing time, Frazier should continue to light it up. After Starling Marte's suspension, Frazier moved to the outfield. Add that to the struggles that we've seen from Andrew McCutchen and the 25-year-old is the new star of the Pirates outfield. Frazier should be a good source of runs at the top of the lineup, but he's also been able to knock in quite a few runs of his own. At this rate, the versatile Frazier will have a guaranteed spot somewhere in the lineup even when Marte comes back. Hold him, because the average means a steady and consistent flow of points which every manager loves to have from at least one player.
SP - Zack Godley, Arizona Diamondbacks - 39% owned
The next two pitchers are essentially interchangeable. Both Godley and the next pitcher, Andriese, are RP eligible and showing tons of promise when it comes to command. Godley has a total of K/BB ratio of 26/11 in just over 31 innings, and it's because his curveball and fastball use are up. Godley is throwing his curveball about 5% more, and his fastball over 11(!)% more. His cutter use is down, which is why the home runs are down; he's not leaving too much over the plate for them to knock over the fence. Especially in a hitters park, Godley has been masterful, specifically in the month of May. Get ready to read some similar stats with Matt Andriese, because the numbers are actually kind of scary similar.
RP - Matt Andriese, Tampa Bay Rays - 47% owned
Well, what do we have here? A RP-eligible pitcher AND a double start. Andriese had a decent start to the year, but his past few starts have shown what the underlying numbers were saying the whole time. In the month of May, Andriese has a K/BB ratio of 30/11 with only three homers allowed in over 30 total innings. The strikeouts are great, as his curveball and changeup, two offspeed pitches he has working well right now, are up 7% and almost 2.5% respectively. Sound kind of similar? Both he and Godley have been extremely effective with limiting their walks and it's helping them stay out of trouble. He gets Texas and Seattle next week, two teams that don't really scare me, so fire up your Andrieses.
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