Ah, remember back to February, when all of our fantasy baseball hopes and dreams were alive and well, as we looked forward to what we imagined would be a beautiful season free of major injuries and disappointing performances from our top players? I remember discovering that I’d gotten first pick in one of my 15-team NFBC draft and hold leagues, and I was as giddy as could be, knowing that all I needed was for a certain Braves outfielder to just stay relatively healthy and produce anything close to his 2023 stats, and I could basically sleepwalk to a money finish if not a first place title. Well, that dream has turned into a fantasy nightmare for many of us and our teams; if only we could go back in time and pick an obvious 5-category stud like Jurickson Profar in the first round of our drafts! Here’s to hoping your teams are dodging as many injury bullets as possible as we look to this week’s players who may be of interest in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.
AL
Akil Baddoo. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Baddoo sighting here at RITD but now is once again the time. He’s back with the Tigers after Kerry Carpenter hit the IL, so he should see something between a handful of pitch-hit appearances and the strong side of an outfield platoon. (As I’m turning this in I see he’s starting in left field and batting sixth on Thursday, so it looks like he’ll have a decent shot at some playing time). Baddoo was displaying his customary combo of a little pop (6 homers) and a lot of speed (16 steals) in the minors this year, so maybe we can catch lightning in a bottle for a couple of weeks here and squeeze some counting stats out of him in deeper leagues.
Miguel Andujar. We talked about Andujar earlier this season, but his attempt to regain fantasy relevance with the A’s was interrupted by a knee injury. He’s back again and has already hit his first homer of the year since returning from the IL. He’ll be in the starting lineup more often than not for the time being, and there are worse fliers you could take in deeper leagues if you’re looking for some power.
David Hamilton. The 6% owned Hamilton has of late become the poster child for a player who no one in a standard league needs to even know exists, but who could actually be a difference-maker in a deep AL-only type league. He’s continued to play for the Red Sox more than anyone likely expected him to (7 games at 2B now, and 23 at short) even with Vaughn Grissom finally healthy. Hamilton has been holding his own with a .263 average and has a couple home runs, and is now up to 7 8 steals. Let’s just say that the (very) early returns are not exactly favoring the Red Sox when it comes to the Grissom/Sale trade, and while they certainly would like Grissom to establish himself as a solid regular, he hasn’t come close to doing so yet. And with defensive wizard Ceddanne Rafaela ideally in center field, for the time being, there should be room for Hamilton in the middle infield regardless of Grissom’s progress.
Ryan Bliss. Bliss was recalled by the Mariners to make his major league debut due to Jorge Polanco’s most recent injury. He probably won’t play a ton, and he probably won’t hit very well when he does (though his .382 OBP in the minors this year is a full .135 higher than his less-than-impressive average, which I always find intriguing). Anyhow, to finally get to the interesting part, Bliss has 28 minor league steals this season, so we may have a very deep league SAGNOF situation here if nothing else.
NL
Brett Wisely. Just when we thought Marco Luciano might be given the chance to see if he can run with the Giants’ shortstop job due to Nick Ahmed’s wrist injury, he seems to now be in a time share with Wisely. Wisley profiles as more of a utility guy (and he played 4 positions in his first 8 games!), but he’s off to an (unsustainably) hot start, going 9 for his first 22 with 6 RBI. Manager Bob Melvin praised Wisely, specifically his defense after a game earlier this week, so it looks like he’ll continue to see at bats for now. He should be on the deep league radar for anyone needing a middle infielder.
Jeremiah Estrada/Bryan Hudson/Ryan Thompson/Matt Strahm/Blake Trienen/Alex Vesia/Dylan Lee/Ryan Walker. Okay, this blurb is not specially about any of these guys, but about how now more than ever, sometimes a non-closing reliever may be a better option than a starting pitcher in deeper leagues (and maybe even occasionally in not as deep leagues!) When you crunch the numbers, all of the above pitchers contributed significant positive 5×5 value over the last few weeks, despite the fact that none of them are starters or closers. Starters overall are getting pulled earlier and earlier, so even when they pitch well, it’s been hard to get fantasy value from them as their likelihood of grabbing a win or a bunch of strikeouts continues to diminish. At one point a few weeks ago when he was pitching well, the Mets’ Reed Garrett had 6 wins, which was the same number at the time as every Mets starting pitcher combined had—just saying.
Donovan Solano. This one’s for the handful of folks out there somewhere who are in an NL-only league as deep as the one where I just picked up Solano. The 36 year old isn’t going to play much, but if he does stumble into more playing time with the Padres (or any other team for that matter), he’s always had a helpful average and every once in a while will pick up a counting stat or two. He qualifies at 1B, 2B, and 3B in most leagues from his 134 games with the Twins last year, so I’m playing him in the above-mentioned league where I have no other options… and where even a few RBI or runs often make a difference when we get down to the standings on the final days of the season.
Ramon Laureano. The Guardians’ cast off is the newest member of the Braves outfield; for his sake, we’ll hope his tenure there lasts longer than Joey Wendle’s recent three day gig with Atlanta. He has more strikeouts (32) than games he’s appeared in (31) this year even with only 70 total at bats, and he’ll likely spend at least some time in the minors to get up to speed. There may be nothing to see here in even the deepest leagues, but there’s a chance he’ll be up at some point and get a chance to play against lefties, which means there’s also a chance he could be better than nothing in a deep NL-only league.
