Major League Baseball is going through a difficult week and some are suggesting it might not be here much longer this season, but regardless, we are going to proceed with fantasy baseball analysis until we know definitively that the season is canceled. This year more than ever there is performance volatility galore and loads of IL trips. If you are paying attention, you’ll have a huge upper hand in your league. Or perhaps, you, like most others, just don’t have the time in your schedule to keep up with it all considering your kids are at home and your responsibilities are tenfold what you are used to.
That is why I created this article in the first place for fantasy football and then fantasy baseball drafts. There are some who want to pour over information and long-form articles for hours. Others, however, just want quick-hitting answers. I’ve now decided to turn this into a weekly in-season article as well where I’ll give all my takes in an instant without any fluff to sort through. You’ll find my favorite waiver wire pickups in order at each range of ownership, my favorite two-start pitchers for the upcoming week who are available in at least 30% of leagues, the top projected streaming pitchers for each of the next three days, recent injuries/Co-Vid notes and a handful of underlying statistics worth your consideration. Ready? Let’s do this.
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Top Waiver Wire Pickups
Top Five Overall Pickups
- Teoscar Hernandez (OF – TOR) – 36% owned
- Griffin Canning (SP – LAA) – 26%
- Zach Plesac (SP – CLE) – 54%
- Aaron Civale (SP – CLE) – 55%
- Colin Moran (3B – PIT) – 36%
40-60% Ownership
- Zach Plesac (SP – CLE) – 54% owned
- Aaron Civale (SP – CLE) – 55%
- Sandy Alcantara (SP – MIA) – 48%
- Trent Grisham (OF – SD) – 51%
- Garrett Richards (SP – SD) – 45%
- Dustin May (SP/RP – LAD) – 58%
- Steven Matz (SP – NYM) – 52%
- Wil Myers (OF – SD) – 40%
- C.J. Cron (1B – DET) – 59%
- Tyler Chatwood (SP/RP – CHC) – 43%
20-40% Ownership
- Teoscar Hernandez (OF – TOR) – 36% owned
- Griffin Canning (SP – LAA) – 26%
- Colin Moran (3B – PIT) – 36%
- Mitch Keller (SP – PIT) – 36%
- Ian Happ (2B/3B/OF – CHC) – 33%
- Jordan Montgomery (SP – NYY) – 34%
- J.P. Crawford (SS – SEA) – 21%
- Trevor Gott (RP – SF) – 27%
- Brady Singer (SP – KC) – 25%
- Oliver Drake (RP – TB) – 22%
0-20% Ownership
- Cristian Javier (SP – HOU) – 18% owned
- Spencer Turnbull (SP – DET) – 20%
- Chad Green (RP – NYY) – 12%
- Alex Cobb (SP – BAL) – 14%
- Shed Long Jr. (2B/OF – SEA) – 5%
- Randy Dobnak (SP/RP – MIN) – 3%
- Taylor Williams (RP – SEA) – 1%
- Cole Sulser (RP – BAL) – 1%
- Hanser Alberto (2B/3B/SS – BAL) – 13%
- Brian Goodwin (OF – LAA) – 2%
Two-Start Pitchers
Only SPs available in at least 30% of leagues and potentially worthy of using in both matchups are listed
- Rich Hill (MIN) (8/3 vs. PIT, 8/8 @KC)
- Dustin May (LAD) (8/3 @SD, 8/9 vs. SF)
- Zach Plesac (CLE) (8/3 @CIN, 8/8 @CHW)
- Joe Musgrove (PIT) (8/4 @MIN, 8/9 vs. DET)
- Kyle Gibson (TEX) (8/4 @OAK, 8/9 vs. LAA)
Top Streaming Pitchers Next Three Days
- Saturday – Tyler Chatwood (CHC) vs PIT
- Sunday – Josh James (HOU) @ LAA
- Monday – Josh Lindblom (MIL) vs CWS
Injuries and Co-Vid Notes
- Cardinals likely not playing the next week
- Marlins expected to resume play soon
- Lorenzo Cain opted out for the season
- Mike Trout placed on paternity leave
- Juan Soto will make season debut August 4th
- Aroldis Chapman cleared to rejoin team (Co-Vid)
- Masahiro Tanaka returned and will start Saturday
- Nick Markakis will be reinstated
- Nomar Mazara returning soon
- Cole Hamels out for the season
- Justin Verlander likely out for the season
- Corey Kluber likely out for the season
- Yordan Alvarez beginning to hit
- Brendan McKay cleared to begin throwing (Co-Vid)
- Jake Odorizzi throwing bullpen sessions
- Marcus Stroman threw four-inning live BP
- Miles Mikolas out for the season
- Ken Giles expected to begin throwing soon
- Howie Kendrick to take swings this weekend
- A.J. Puk still has no time table for returning
- Alex Wood dealing with shoulder inflammation
Underlying Stats Worth Consideration
- Corey Seager is 3rd in baseball (Eloy and Stanton) in Barrels/PA with 19.4
- C.J. Cron is second in baseball (Stanton) in average FB/LD exit velo (105.1 MPH)
- Teoscar Hernandez is tied for second with 14 hard-hit balls (Corey Seager 19!)
- John Means saw his average fastball velocity soar from 91.7 MPH to 95.2 this season
- Dustin May has the fastest average 4-seamer among all starting pitchers (98.9 MPH)
- Dylan Bundy is throwing significantly more off-speed pitches than ever before
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