Preston Tucker has impressed during his rookie campaign.
As the calendar turns to June, more and more waiver wire options are emerging.
Ownership percentages are for ESPN leagues as of Saturday.
Preston Tucker – OF – Houston Astros – 9 percent owned
Tucker enters June as one of the most unexpected stars on one of MLB’s most surprising teams. While he isn’t a terribly hearlded prospect in a stacked Houston farm system, Tucker destroyed Triple-A to begin this season and has impressed during his first 18 games in the majors.
While Tucker did a bit of everything well in the minors, he showed plus raw power that often translated to game power. In 2014, Tucker smashed 24 home runs and 35 doubles between Double-A and Triple-A.
A consistently high walk rate and strikeout rate that only dipped above 20 percent in his Triple-A debut in 2014 have helped Tucker maintain the numbers of a well-rounded hitter. So far, Tucker has carried those skills over to the majors, slashing .328/.400/.552 with two home runs and seven doubles.
Despite those clearly fantasy-relevant numbers, Tucker still hasn’t been embraced by too many owners. A 169 wRC+ pace will clearly fall off at some point, but Tucker has a path to playing time in Houston and has yet to really struggle at any level.
Joe Panik – 2B – San Francisco Giants – 23 percent owned
Panik earned his way into San Francisco lore by being called up in June and helping the Giants to the World Series title. While Panik certainly provided an important boost, his numbers were barely on the edge of being fantasy relevant.
That isn’t the case this season. Through 48 games, Panik has raised his wRC+ by 21 points over his 2014 mark and is slashing .295/.367/.426. The big difference in 2015 is that Panik is at least hitting for a modest amount of power. Panik has collected 15 extra-base hits in 188 plate appearances this season, compared to 13 in 287 a year ago.
A big increase in walk rate and a strikeout rate of under 13 percent is helping Panik maintain a high average and OBP. With a number of fantasy second basemen struggling, seeing if Panik can continue to beat expectations may be worth a shot.
Panik’s matchups need to be watched, as he only receives limited playing time against lefties and typically bats second in San Francisco’s lineup against righties. That could be changing, as Panik has an .863 OPS against left-handers in a small sample size.
Rubby De La Rosa – SP – Arizona Diamondbacks – 34 percent owned
Following a solid debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2011, De La Rosa was unable to put much together as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Now in Arizona, De La Rosa is showing some encouraging signs that he may be able to live up to his former billing as a top prospect.
De La Rosa’s 4.50 ERA isn’t too impressive, but a 4.11 FIP and 3.34 xFIP suggests better times could be ahead. The 26-year-old is putting up a strikeout rate of 23 percent, up over 6 percent from a year ago, with a walk rate of 5.9 percent.
A big key for De La Rosa will be continuing to generate ground balls at a 47 percent rate, around the same number he was at during his successful debut. De La Rosa is getting a lot of grounders out of both his fastball and slider, while mixing in more sinkers than years past.
Home runs have been a bit of a problem and can lead to the occasional disastrous start, but De La Rosa should be able to maintain good strikeout numbers while limiting base runners.
Roenis Elias – SP – Seattle Mariners – 13 percent owned
Despite a very solid rookie season, Elias was the odd man out in Seattle’s promising rotation entering 2015. An injury to Hisashi Iwakuma gave Elias another chance in the majors, and he’s taken advantage so far.
Through seven starts this year, Elias has given up 15 earned runs in 44 innings (3.07 ERA). Elias is maintaining a strikeout rate of around 20 percent, but more importantly his walk rate (8.6%) has been better this season .
Even coming off of his least impressive start last night (4 ER, 4 BBs in 5.1 IP), it’s time to start believing in Elias as a middle-of-the-rotation starter and fantasy streaming candidate moving forward. Elias features a curveball that is devastating when it’s on and an ability to change arm angles to confuse hitters. There’s little need to worry about Elias being booted from the rotation at this point. Iwakuma is still weeks away, and Elias has easily outpitched Taijuan Walker so far.
Nathaniel Reeves is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Nathaniel, check out his archive and follow him @njr3701.
