Hey There! Welcome back and hope everyone is having a great week. School is back in session for a lot of kids and football is starting up soon so the fall season will be upon us before we know it. This is a great time to make those under-the-radar pickups since half of the league is turning their attention to other things especially if they are buried in the standings. You can gain a ton of points and move up, and in keeper leagues, there are plenty of sneaky moves you can make as well to help yourself in later seasons. Today I’m going to highlight a few players to keep your eye on and pickup if you can that will help you make that late-season push. Let’s get to it.
Josh Rojas 3B Diamondbacks Rojas is an extremely useful multi-position eligible player that can do a little bit of everything well. Rojas doesn’t get the attention on a fantasy level due to his lack of power and barreling up the ball is not something Rojas is known for but he doesn’t chase the ball and has great plate discipline. If you are lacking in the avg department Rojas is hitting over .300 both in the months of July and August and is hitting .280 overall this season. Another category of need for a lot of owners is Stolen bases. Rojas has stolen 11 out of his last 16 bases in July and August so the green light is there for him and he has taken advantage of it. Rojas has not been caught stealing this season and I see no reason to think he will be slowing down his production there anytime soon.
Harold Castro 1B Tigers It’s all about playing time for Castro and it looks like he is the regular 1B with Torkelson in the minors currently. Castro is hitting cleanup for the woeful Tigers and has put together a nice little July and August hitting .288/286. Castro will have opportunities to drive in some runs along with him being a nice avg play as well. Castro also is in the 92nd percentile of xBA which is a good sign there are more hits and getting on base to come.
Darick Hall 1B Phillies You’re adding Hall to your lineup for one reason only. The long ball. Hall has upped his average to .264 on the year which is more than respectable for him to be in your lineup. Hall does take some days off here and there which can be annoying but if you need HR’s right now there are not many other places I would want to go with what’s currently available. He usually hits between 4th and 7th in the lineup which provides RBI opportunities for a projected playoff team which is always a good thing to keep up the motivation. Hall does most of his damage at home hitting .299 with 8 of his 9 HR hit at home. Hall has a 1.008 OPS in the month of August with 4 HR so some good opportunities await with a nice schedule coming up for the Phillies there should be some good production ahead for him.
Vinnie Pasquantino 1B Royals Might be too late as someone has undoubtedly heard of Vinny by now if they’re watching any amount of baseball. Vinny has broken out in the month of August hitting .373 with 5 HR and a 1.166 OPS. Vinny has 5 HR out of his last 8 games and was named the AL player of the week last week. Pasquantino started out his ML season slow hitting only .182 in his 1st 66 plate appearances. I think his early season struggles had to do with a small sample size and just getting acclimated to big league pitching. Vinny has turned it around and the game seems to have slowed down for him allowing him to gain that confidence and start to hit the ball very hard and making loud contact which seems to be replicable. Vinny also has another part of his game that we need to talk about and that’s his ability to draw walks and limit strikeouts. Vinny is 2nd in BB% at 10% behind MJ Melendez and is tied for the lowest K% with Nicky Lopez on the Royals. Hopefully, you were able to grab him earlier when he was slumping a bit when he first arrived as he’s the real deal.
Joey Meneses 1B Nationals The career minor leaguer who toiled in the minors for 11 seasons finally got his shot to show what he can do for the Nationals as playing time opened up for Meneses with the trade that sent Soto and Bell to the Padres. Meneses has done nothing short of spectacular hitting .356 with an OPS of 1.085 since being brought up. In 12 games played he has hits in 11 of them and the only game he did not earn a hit was against Degrom. Meneses doesn’t even have his own bats yet and his bag is filled with other players’ bats which doesn’t seem to be affecting him at all. Meneses was praised the other day by Davey Martinez the Nationals manager for his great two strike approach and driving the ball when he is ahead in the count. I like Meneses makeup and think he could be a solid corner IF.
Emmanuel Rivera 3B Diamondbacks Rivera has done outstanding at the plate since coming over to the Dbacks from the Royals. Rivera has hits in 8 out of his last 9 games for the Diamondbacks and has hit 4 HR while in a Diamondbacks uniform which has only been a handful of games. In 63 games with the Royals Rivera had only 6 HR to put it in perspective how great Rivera has been lately. Rivera is intriguing as he can hit to all fields with power is savvy at the plate and understands the strike zone. Watching Rivera he doesn’t chase balls much nor does he swing and miss a whole lot. He seems to have that quiet confidence as a hitter which is important as a young hitter and seems to be very mature. I think the Diamondbacks have a really good player on their hands and a useful fantasy player as well in a CI spot as long as the playing time is available.
Thanks for reading! Hope that gave you some players to take a look at if you need a little boost anywhere on your teams for the stretch run. I’ll be back next week for some more looks!
