This week is getting barren for waiver wire additions. The season is coming to a close, and we’re just looking for anything to ride out for these last few weeks. For this FAAB period, I’m looking closely at two hitters who never received the respect they deserved. These AL East batters are Luke Voit (FAAB: 1-3%) and Rowdy Tellez (FAAB: 1-3%). Depending on how much power you need, these two should both garner up to 3% of your total FAAB remaining, maybe more.
Voit is always near the top of Hard Hit% when he finds the opportunity to create a Major League sample. This year he sits near 51% Hard%, 91.1 MPH EV, and 16.4% Barrel%. All of these numbers are mouthwatering to those who frequent the player pages at Baseball Savant. Tellez is a power hitter that doesn’t strike out a lot. His minor league K% is sub-20%, which is something that is absent from many power-only profiles in today’s game. Tellez could carry a high batting average similar to Luke Voit with a massive amount of hard-hit, barreled balls and suppressed strikeout numbers.
Francisco Mejia, UTIL (unfortunately…), San Diego Padres
(FAAB: 5%)
Mejia still is not listed as a catcher on most sites despite being solely behind the dish since joining the San Diego Padres. There are a lot of people out there that will tell you Mejia does not have enough power to be fantasy relevant. These people are what I like to call “liars.” Not that he is showing immense power in the minors, because he’s not, but we have said this about too many good-hitting prospects to ignore another one due to a lack of MiLB home runs. Mejia is one of the best hitters within the Junior Circuit and should continue to mash once he gets to the league. The MLB home run boost is not necessarily something I fully buy into, but Mejia is too good of a hitter not to produce for power.
(You can take what is written above and apply the same information to his teammate Luis Urias, 2B [FAAB: 5%])
Jaime Barria, SP, Los Angeles Angels
(FAAB: 2-4%)
Barria is looking at two decent starts next week against the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners. It is probably the juiciest two-start matchup available on your wire in a 15-team league. There are also plenty of other reasons to take a look at the Angels young starter. Since he changed his pitch mix to bring his slider, changeup, and fastball to nearly equal usage, he is increasing his Swing-and-Misses along with improving his ERA. Barria is someone I thought was interesting coming into the year due to his heavy sinking fastball, a decent breaker, some really solid command figures, and his general proximity to the bigs. It took him a bit longer than expected to provide value, but this could be a gamechanger in the last couple weeks.
Franmil Reyes, OF, San Diego Padres
(FAAB: 1-3%)
Apparently, you want to go out and pick up any available Padres players this week. Luis Urias, Francisco Mejia, and Franmil Reyes are providing glimpses into what the future may hold for the Fathers out in San Diego. Reyes is lighting the world on fire with 5 HR in the past 2 weeks while hitting .368 during that span. This output is what we were hoping for through the first couple of big league promotions. However, like Jaime Barria, we waited a bit to see the full potential of Franmil Reyes. Now he is producing like crazy to end the season and should be on all fantasy rosters during these last few weeks. Reyes provides the kind of power that could change your fate in a head-to-head weekly playoff matchup, and help you creep up a few extra spots in roto.
(If you need some power, also take a look at Ryan O’Hearn, 1B, Kansas City Royals [FAAB: 1-3%], I really love this kid’s new swing and there is a ton of power potential to unlock.)
