Early Waiver Wire Adds
The fantasy baseball season has finally begun. Only a few days of games have been played, but there are already some owners who are scouring the waiver wires, looking to dump their hitless players and pitchers who gave up five earned runs in their one start. This early in the season, it’s usually smart to stand pat and put faith in the players you drafted. Just ask any Michael Morse owner from last season, patience pays off. But if you’re looking to make an early move, or you have a player that recently hit the DL, here are some players whose performances might be worth an early pickup.
Jeff Samardzija (Yahoo: 14% owned. ESPN: 2% owned.)
This spring, no player experienced his stock rise as much as Samardzija. While his move from the bullpen to the rotation was questioned by many, something clicked for Samardzija. For a player who has always struggled with walks, it was extremely encouraging to see Samardzija post a 16-1 K/BB rate over twenty innings pitched this spring. And while spring stats need to be taken with a grain of salt, Samardzija’s scouting reports improved drastically. While Keith Law didn’t envision Samardzija magically turning into an ace in the rotation, he did mention that Samardzija’s stuff and feel for the game looked much improved during the spring.
If it weren’t for a Starlin Castro error in the ninth inning, there’s a good chance Samardzija would have thrown a complete game against the Washington Nationals yesterday. In his 8.2 innings, Samardzija struck out eight hitters and walked none. Not a bad debut for someone who looked like an average bullpen pitcher just a year ago.
Zack Cozart (Yahoo: 38% owned. ESPN: 11.3% owned.)
Though he’s 26-years-old Cozart still rated 75th on Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list heading into this season. While none of his minor league seasons have been particularly impressive, Cozart’s offense has been good enough at a weak offensive position. Since shortstop is still considered one of the shallowest fantasy stops, Cozart might be a popular pickup for owners who waited on short.
While he’s unlikely to be a star with the bat, he’s settled into a nice opportunity as the number two hitter for a good hitting team. With Joey Votto and Jay Bruce hitting behind him, Cozart could score a ton of runs this year. He’s gotten off to a hot start, and while he won’t finish the season as a top five shortstop, he could break the top ten based on the poor state of the position in fantasy baseball. If you waited on short, Cozart is at least a guy you should be monitoring.
Juan Nicasio (Yahoo: 10% owned. ESPN: 1.1% owned.)
Nicasio’s story is incredible. He took the mound yesterday less than a year removed from a broken neck, suffered during a game against the Washington Nationals last season. In the 71.2 innings before his injury, Nicasio was starting to emerge as one of the Colorado Rockies’ best starters. His ERA was just 4.14, but his 3.65 FIP gives you a better idea of how well he pitched.
His recovery will likely be a big story after his outing against the Houston Astros yesterday. Nicasio gave up five hits over seven innings, striking out four. And while it did come against one of the worst teams in baseball, it was promising to see Nicasio didn’t have any lingering issues from last season’s injury. The Rockies may have acquired Jeremy Guthrie this off-season, but Nicasio could emerge as the Rockies’ best starter at season’s end.
How Cozart is only owned in 11% of the teams on ESPN is beyond me. He has posted good speed in the minors (30 SB/ 4CS) in 2010 triple A. Has shown average power in minors (17 homers) in same triple A season. And has shown good average in the minors (.310 in 323 at bats in 2011). All of those are vs decent competition in triple A, and recent stats as well… Look for him to go 15/15 with .280 average (at least that’s what i am projecting him at)
His 30 steals in 2010 stand out as the anomaly for him, not the norm. That’s the only season he’s stolen more than 10 bases. Obviously, it shows that he’s got potential, but it does stand out as odd that he hasn’t recorded anywhere near that many stolen bases in any other professional season, before or since then.
even 12/12 with a .280 average and a ton of runs in the 2 hole made it worth grabbing Cozart in the last few rounds as your starting SS. getting him 10 rounds later than Asdrubal or Alexei is the steal of the draft.
How about for some deeper leagues? Thoughts on Wade Miley and Justin Maxwell for 11-team NL-only leagues?
Pretty sure Maxwell is in the Yankees system now, thus rendering him useless in NL only play
Yanks released Maxwell, he’s an Astro now
As Mike saysm he’s an Astro…so he could see some playing time…if not there, then it’s time to wrtie him off.
Quit spending so much time trying to be a smartass so that next time you’ll actually know what you’re talking about! ;)
Better luck next time, Freddy..
Billingsley?
Two guys in my league which is a lot deeper that just got picked up at SS are CLiff Pennington, and Rafael Furcal. I’m not gonna offer analysis on them, but I like Pennington and am very skeptical Furcal will keep this early season sucess up.
Belt for Cozart in 20 team X 35 man roster dynasty ? Overvaluing positional scarcity if I take Cozart?
I could see it. I’m of the opinion that Brandon Belt is an overrated young player though.
Alex Presley
I think Nicasio is FLY. GOON-SQUAD DOG.#IBN
Cozart’s 17/30 season in AAA looks impressive, sure, but he was 24 or 25 years old when he did it. His typical wOBAs were in the low-to-mid .300s, which makes his MLEs pretty weak. He’ll get some counting numbers simply from his home park and his spot in the lineup, but his individual skills are not very good.
Does Lance Lynn have a shot to stick in the rotation? I didn’t watch the game, but his stat line looked good.
He was pretty damn impressive. Tough to take much away from one start, but that was a good lineup he faced, and he attacked them all and was overpowering at times. But hard to see him replacing any of the vets in the rotation unless there is an injury, or if one of them is really struggling. He definitely has more upside than Lohse and Westbrook.
Yes & yes. This is a big guy whose overall offerings were somewhat underrated by the prospect community & he’s still flying under the radar despite his postseason showing. His stuff plays up as a reliever (obviously) but he has more upside than generally given credit for.
Kirk Neiwenhuis? Is he going to play enough in NL only?
I picked up Samardzija based on his strong spring performance. The lack of walks was impressive, and we all know he can put up a decent K rate. I benched him yesterday, though, and will give him a couple more starts before putting him in the lineup, even against weaker opponents.
Sheesh, I’d have gone with him considering he was at home facing a lineup that was far from imposing on a travel day. Sometimes one has to be at least somewhat bold.
He had a 4.27 xFIP as a reliever last year (3.85 SIERA), and was awful before that. Making the jump to starting means you assume a couple MPH off of his fastball, which means less strikeouts. A good spring doesn’t make up for all of those negative flags. Picked him up as a flier, assuming I’d leave him out of the starting lineup for the first month, at least.
Just like last year, the Nats lineup is going to make a lot of pitchers look good this year — and Samardija is no exception. I’d wait to see how he looks against a more patient club like STL, before trusting him in your starting rotation.
Agreed. If he can keep his BB/9 under 3 after 5 starts without losing his 8+K/9 ratio, then I’ll stick him in the rotation against every team. Until then, I’ll leave him out except against the weakest of teams.
Which 2 of these 3 pitchers would you start this week?
Cueto vs STL
Zimmerman vs CIN
Garza vs MIL
The latter two, but you could probably flip a coin.
Do you think Addison Reed will become the White Sox’s closer at some point this year? If not, why not? If so, how soon?
All owned in any moderately deep (14 team) league
I wonder is it worth it to take Carlos pena over lucas duda
It depends on your scoring settings, but I slightly favor Duda. He does abide after all.
Cozart or alexie Ramirez In a standard league?