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Last week’s recommendations worked out pretty well. On the buy side, Joey Votto hit .318/.464/.727 with two homers and three (!) stolen bases. Scott Kazmir had his outing against the Braves cut short by leg cramps and didn’t post great ratios. He still struck out a batter per inning and got a win, though.
Moving over to the sells, Jimmy Nelson got knocked around by the Phillies, and Jean Segura continued his rapid transformation back into a pumpkin. He’s got a .628 OPS over the last month.
Editor’s Note: To read about waiver wire options, be sure to check out our famous waiver wire pickups list which is a running list that is updated daily. Prefer using your phone? Our free waiver wire app is available for download in the Apple & Android Stores.
Week 10 Buys
Jake Lamb, 3B, Arizona Diamondbacks
Lamb’s ownership rate on Yahoo has finally climbed above the 50 percent mark. Frankly, that’s still too low by half. He has four homers in his last nine games, giving him 11 on the season. For all the hand-wringing about his platoon splits, Lamb is sitting on a .268/.350/.531 line with 64 R+RBI in 58 games. He’s even chipped in three steals.
Those numbers compare favorably with fellow hot corner breakouts Travis Shaw and Nick Castellanos, both of whom are owned in over 80 percent of leagues. Shaw’s actually been worse against southpaws than Lamb has, to boot.
Danny Duffy, SP, Kansas City Royals
Duffy’s supposed breakout in 2014 was a mirage, built primarily on the back of an unsustainable BABIP. He was more or less the same pitcher last year, but when that number normalized, his ERA rose by a run and a half. This season may be a different story.
Though the bulk of his work has come in relief, Duffy has been successful in his five starts, posting an impressive 26.3% K-BB. He’s seen his fastball velocity tick up and is pounding the strike zone. Small sample caveats aside, it also appears as though his changeup is legitimately improved. Duffy’s still on the wire in the vast majority of leagues right now, even after an impressive showing at Baltimore on Monday night.
Week 10 Sells
Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, New York Yankees
Ellsbury has been excellent recently, hitting .330/.398/.490 with seven stolen bases since the calendar flipped to May. He certainly hasn’t looked like the albatross that several members of the media implied he could be, as FanGraphs’ Dave Cameron pointed out yesterday.
Regular readers will remember that I was fairly pessimistic about his outlook coming into the season, and that rationale remains unchanged. Ellsbury’s hitting well and, perhaps more importantly, running often. That much is obvious. But he remains a player on the wrong side of 30 with an extensive injury history who gets the bulk of his value from his legs. There’s enough risk in that profile that your best play may be getting out while the getting’s good.
Kenta Maeda, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers
A fantastic beginning to his MLB career has kept Maeda’s overall numbers looking excellent. That’s obscuring the fact that over the last six weeks, he’s been pretty mediocre. Even after a solid turn against the Braves in his last start, Maeda has a 4.50 ERA and 12.0% K-BB since April 23.
He’s averaging less than six innings per start on the year, which hurts his value in points and QS leagues. It’s fair to wonder about his durability, given his less-taxing schedule in Japan and the iffy physical that led the Dodgers to revise his contract terms. Another potential concern is whether or not he can make the necessary adjustments as the book on him grows thicker.
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