2016 Fantasy Baseball: Early Outfield Waiver Wire Options
To avoid small-sample-size theatre I’m looking at Yahoo!’s transaction page to see which players have been added and dropped and how they can impact your fantasy teams.
- Texas called up its No. 1 prospect, 20-year-old Nomar Mazara, to fill in for the injured Shin-Soo Choo, who suffered a calf injury Saturday and is slated to be out for over a month. Mazara went 3-for-4 with a homer in his Sunday debut, hitting in the two-hole, which could mean big things in what should be a good Texas lineup. Rougned Odor had the day off Sunday, and he’s batted second already this season. So Mazara will either slide into the second or seventh spot in the Rangers’ lineup. Baseball Prospectus says Mazara “has as much offensive upside as any prospect in baseball.” Mazara should give you some decent average, pop and contribute in runs or RBI depending on his lineup spot. In deep 12-team leagues and larger Mazara should be rostered as long as you’re not dropping anyone based on an early-season cold streak.
- Colby Rasmus is still available in a ton of leagues across all major fantasy sites. He hit two bombs in Milwaukee over the weekend to build off his 25-homer 2015. Rasmus has hit in the cleanup spot every game so far this season, batting behind Jose Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa. After reading that I wouldn’t blame you if you envisioned an RBI emoji. They should make one of those. Rasmus’ 2015 featured a career-high in homers and isolated slugging, and as his 2016 debut showed he has an outside shot at 30 home runs and all the RBI.
- Atlanta placed Ender Inciarte on the 15-day DL and called up speedster Mallex Smith to join the big-league club Monday. Roster Resource has Smith slated to leadoff for the Braves. Smith has averaged 69 steals a season in the last three years slashing .295/.380/.387, which is a little bit better than Billy Hamilton‘s minor-league numbers. Smith has played even better the last two seasons as he’s moved up the minor-league ladder. I won’t claim to know how Smith will perform, but anyone with his speed at the top of the order should be owned in most leagues.
- In deep leagues Eduardo Escobar may be someone to look at on the waiver wire. Escobar has four doubles already after back-to-back 30-double seasons in 2014 and ’15. He hit a career-high 12 homers last year in only 446 plate appearances and posted a .183 isolated power. Those stats ranked him 12th and third, respectively, at shortstop, where he also qualifies in fantasy leagues. You shouldn’t want to play him in the outfield, but if you need some help at shortstop he can help you power-wise.
- Brock Holt is the most added player in ESPN leagues, going from 12 percent owned to 65 percent owned in a week. He hit two homers this week, but he hit two homers last year – in 509 plate appearances – with an isolated power of .099. His Iso this year is .471, and his career Iso is .100. So tell me which one is real? He does have second base, third base and outfield eligibility, but he doesn’t offer a solid fantasy-friendly skill set like Escobar does. He might be able to net you 10 steals, but I wouldn’t count on much else.