Rolling In The Deep: Anyone Worth Gitten(s) This Week?

Greetings, friends!  I had the honor and pleasure of joining Grey and Geoff on the world-famous Razzball podcast this week, so let me start by thanking both of them for the opportunity to hang out and chat. I had a ton of fun talking fantasy baseball, and it was crazy to stop and realize just what a large percentage of our lives Grey and I have been playing in our OG home league together. Speaking of talking baseball, let’s do what we do here: as always, a few players who might pique the interest of those of us in AL-only, NL-only, or other particularly deep leagues.

AL

Chris Gittens.  We chat a bit about Gittens, a first baseman called up by the Yankees over the weekend, on the above-mentioned podcast (I’d recommend checking it out!). The quick take: there’s probably not much to see here unless you’re in a deep league and desperate for power, and in that case someone has probably already grabbed Gittens simply because as a Yankee, he was born into his MLB career overexposed.

Jake Fraley.  Since I’m just reading about Jared Kelenic’s demotion as I write this, it seems appropriate to mention Fraley.  Kelenic may be the future of the Seattle outfield, but that doesn’t help those of us who are just looking, and looking now, for some at bats in an AL-only league.  Fraley was already getting a nice run of playing time coming into this week, and even though he’s hitting only .207 with them so far, he does have 2 homers and 2 steals in 29 total at bats on the season.

Bradley Zimmer.  I was surprised to see a fairly significant FAAB bid for Zimmer in one of my 15-team mixed leagues over the weekend, but I suppose it’s that time of year when folks who are feeling the need for speed are wont to make some pretty wacky decisions.  Speed is about all one would expect Zimmer to bring to the fantasy party; he stole his third base Saturday, which isn’t too bad once you realize that he’s only had 14 at bats (during 5 of which he got hits) since getting called up to the majors in Cleveland.

Nick Gordon.  Gordon was recently recalled by the Twins, and qualifies at second and short in most leagues.  He was having a solid season in triple A and had a huge (MLB) game Friday with three hits including his first home run.  He may not have a regular position to play as long as Jorge Polanco and Andrelton Simmons stay healthy, but one would think if he keeps hitting, the at bats will continue to materialize — and why wouldn’t the Twins want to see how he looks at the major league level at this point?  There may be a post-hype prospect thing happening here that’s at least worth checking out.

NL

Steven Duggar. I had to grab Duggar for one of my injury-plagued NL-only teams a few weeks ago and didn’t have hope that he’d even hit enough to earn a mention here at RITD.  Turns out I was wrong, though, as he’s ended up being a decent ultra deep-league fill in (I guess a few others have noticed, as his ownership has gone from 1% to 8% since I’ve owned him).  His at bats may be sporadic at times depending on how he’s running and the health of the rest of the Giants’ outfield, but if you catch him at the right time as I did, he can give you a little boost across the board:  in the two weeks I’ve had him in my active lineup, he’s hitting .361 with 2 homers, 6 RBI, 7 runs scored, and a steal.

Kyle Crick.  Crick is back to full health and back to setting up closer Richard Rodriguez for the Pirates, which would in theory make him a handcuff of interest in deeper leagues, as it’s hard to imagine that Rodriguez will remain in Pittsburgh beyond the trade deadline.  It’s also not hard to imagine Crick getting moved as well, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.  He’s another guy that we chatted about on the podcast, so if you’ve listened to it you already know that I’m skeptical there will be an easy payoff here, but I’m also desperate enough for saves in at least one league that I’ll probably find myself owning Crick sooner rather than later.

Jason Vosler.  Let’s stay with the Giants but turn to a player who is 0% owned, should you be in the market for that kind of thing; Vosler has been up and down from triple A several times already this year.  He qualifies only at third in most leagues but has been serving as a true utility man when he’s been up with the big club, appearing at first (3 games), second (1 game), third (5 games), and the outfield (2 games, one in right and one in left).  Overall he’s just 5 for 28 on the year, and he’s a 27 year old with uninspiring, ‘organizational depth’ type minor league numbers.  But, he put a couple nice games together over the weekend, which included his second homer of the year, and should continue to get occasional chances for those that are in leagues deep enough to be mining every at bat out there (especially anyone who has an injury-prone Giant or two on his fantasy team).

Vladimir Gutierrez.  Gutierrez is a higher-owned played than most of these other names (12% in CBS leagues); he’s started two games for the Reds now and things are going a little better than I thought they might.  Let’s get the ugliest numbers out of the way first; Gutierrez has just 6 strikeouts in his 10 innings pitched, and much more disturbingly already has 5 walks, and his career minor league numbers are unimpressive, to put it politely.  On a positive note, he’s also only allowed 5 hits in those 10 innings, and after a rocky beginning to his last start, he settled down nicely.  Let’s just say I have more than one league where I really could use a starting pitcher or two, so even in slightly shallower leagues I’m keeping an eye on him as a potential streamer if nothing else.