Scooter Gennett & Corey Dickerson: Deep League Wire

Injuries afford opportunities for increased playing time and suddenly make waiver wire fodder fantasy relevant. That’s the theme of today’s free agent pool recommendations as both hitters are getting a chance to play due to injuries to players ahead of them on the depth chart.

Scooter Gennett | 2B MIL | CBS 3% Owned

Aside from a strong June, Rickie Weeks was a massive disappointment this season and he’s now out for the year with a hamstring injury. Enter the fun-named Scooter Gennett. He first made his debut in June during the Brewers’ attempt to spark Weeks out of his slump and Gennett wiggled himself into somewhat of a platoon, facing right-handed pitching. Now he’ll be the team’s everyday second baseman and despite hitting from the left side, he was starting against a southpaw just a couple of games ago.

The 23-year-old makes respectable contact, but isn’t much a fan of the base on balls. While Weeks had been hitting lead off before getting hurt, there is little chance that Gennett makes his way to the top of the order given his weak on base skills. He has posted above average BABIP marks during his minor league career, so combine that with his decent strikeout rates and it should result in a batting average that could generate some slight positive value. He has limited power, and what power he does possess has been in free fall, as his ISO has literally dropped at every single stop. Of course, he already has two homers for the Brewers, but there is little chance he maintains anywhere near that pace.

He has some speed, but is by no means a burner. He also hasn’t been a great base stealer, typically failing to exceed a 70% success rate on the base paths. A full-season pace might yield a .270 average with 5-10 homers and 10 steals. It’s as unsexy as it gets, but does produce some sneaky value in deep leagues.

Corey Dickerson | OF COL | CBS 2% Owned

Carlos Gonzalez’s finger injury has finally landed him on the disabled list and the biggest beneficiary is Corey Dickerson. As a left-hander, he will continue to sit against southpaws, but should play every game against righties. The 24-year-old was ranked by Marc Hulet in the preseason as the Rockies’ 12th best prospect. Dickerson has shown excellent power throughout his minor league career, having never posted an ISO below .229. He has even made pretty good contact, which is impressive for a guy with his power resume. He has also shown some speed potential, but he has been a pretty awful basestealer for most of his career, so I wouldn’t bet on more than a handful of steals.

With Coors Field boosting his production and that kind of power potential, he’s a strong short-term add for as long as CarGo remains out. Of course, the platoon situation is annoying, so he makes for a better add in daily transaction leagues with reasonably sized benches.