The All Star Break is a weird thing… everyone loves some time off, but it can really mess with your momentum. That often seems to be the case in real-life baseball, and a handful of players have looked a little dazed and confused now that action has resumed. Mitch Keller and Lucas Giolito, for instance, returned from the break looking like they forgot which year they were pitching in and thought it was 2021 or 2022, providing their fantasy owners with ratio-crushing outings. I might not do more than watch baseball and look at numbers, but I’m feeling some of the same inertia. I have a few teams where I know I need to make a trade or two, and several where I should be scouring the wavier wire looking for a speed or power upgrade, but being in full-fledged summer vacation mode is making it hard to concentrate. The last thing I want, though, is to lose out on a money spot come October because of a few simple moves I didn’t make in July, so I’m going to try to re-group this weekend and encourage you to do the same if you’re in a similar situation. There’s a ton in baseball we can’t control, but no reason not to make the most of the things we can… and with that, let’s move on to some deep league names and news.
Looking over the stats for the last week, I’m realizing there have been several under-the-radar call-ups and/or playing time situation changes while things like Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s debut have dominated the fantasy baseball headlines. So this week instead of a handful of player profiles, we’ll do more of an overall check-in on some of these situations, focusing solely on the outfield this week, to see what’s been going on with players owned in 15% of CBS leagues or less that may be worth noticing for those of us in deeper leagues.
NL
For no particular reason, we’ll start in Milwaukee, where the outfield situation is a bit of a mess but possibly worth a closer look for those who’ll take what they can get when it comes to at bats. The right-handed, 1% owned Tyrone Taylor came off the IL about a week ago, and while he’s done nothing of interest other than steal 5 bases in his 85 at bats this year, he’s been playing against lefties enough to be a blip on the deep league radar for now. Joey Wiemer has all of one homer and one steal for the month of July, but one would assume his defense will keep him in the lineup most days (though we all know what happens when we assume). Meanwhile, the switch-hitting, 1% owned Blake Perkins and the lefty 1% owned Raimel Tapia are still in the picture; Perkins seemed to be fading down the depth chart but after a big game on Wednesday (starting against a left-hander), who knows. He hasn’t been hitting for average but has been drawing walks and has sneaky-good speed and a little pop. Tapia still seems to be getting the bulk of starts against righties, though, and so far this year he’s been exactly the guy we’ve come to know (though there may be room for average improvement this year), with 3 homers and 8 steals in 134 total MLB at bats this year. That’s not unplayable in the deepest of leagues, especially when you throw in his 24 runs scored and 13 RBI. Like I said, this is a messy situation, but one that may need to be mined for those of us in the deepest end of the fantasy pool.
More NL outfield quick hits: one never wants to predict what the Rockies will do, but Michael Toglia (3% owned) may get a more extended run of playing time depending on how healthy Kris Bryant and Randall Grichuk, who are both dealing with presumable minor tweaks as I write this, are. I’ve also seen Grichuk’s name in trade rumors already, so even though Toglia has not looked like he has anything to bring to the major league table so far, I’m not quite ready to completely give up on him long-term in NL-only. While we’re talking about the Rockies outfield, I will admit I was surprised to see that Brenton Doyle (7% owned) is up to not only 6 homers, but 14 steals in his 63 games/186 ABs. He may be worth a look in shallower leagues if you are actively looking for speed. In Washington, Alex Call (3% owned) is surprisingly high on the overall 5×5 player rater for the last couple of weeks, hitting .242 (but a .352 OBP) with 3 homers and 3 steals. I’ll also note that Mike Tauchman isn’t too far behind Call on that list; even with Cody Bellinger back, Tauchman has still been playing (and leading off) at least semi-regularly. Even though he hasn’t been running, he’s getting a ton of hits and walks (.310 average/.394 OBP over the last two weeks, and has 2 homers and 10 RBI in that time).
Moving over to Philly, 22-year old Johan Rojas (5% owned) is still up with the big club with Christian Pache hurt… Rojas is on the bad side of an OF platoon at best, but he’s another guy I don’t want to forget about entirely. And checking in with the Giants, 1%-owned Austin Slater has only half the at bats (14) than Luis Matos does (28) over the last two weeks as I write this, but he’s been doing enough with them (.286 average, .375 OBP, and 2 homers) to suggest that 1% number should be at least a tick higher while he’s relatively hot. In Arizona, another shallower-league, post-hype prospect note for those that haven’t been playing close attention: Alek Thomas (14% owned) has been playing a fair amount and is hitting .308 with 2 homers over the last two weeks, though he doesn’t have a single walk during that time. (Not to be outdone, 3% owned Dominic Canzone, who only had 11 at bats on the year, hit a 3-run HR while DHing Thursday as I wrote this… off of Spencer Strider, no less.)
AL
Let’s start in Oakland with what has been one of the more jumbled OF situations all year, now even more jumbled with both Esteury Ruiz and Ramon Laureano (not to mention Ryan Noda) currently IL’d. The most interesting thing going on here in my opinion is the pops of potential we’re finally seeing from the 7% owned JJ Bleday. He’s only hitting .250 over the last two weeks and has struck out 13 times in 36 at bats during that time so he’s not exactly on an all star pace right now, but his OBP is .357 and he hit homers in back to back games on Tuesday and Wednesday. Just something to note for those of us who completely wiped him off our radars ages ago, regardless of league size. Tony Kemp (8% owned) has a 7-game hitting streak and has been making tons of contact, which shows you just how horrible he’d been given that he’s still up to just a .210 average. He’s finally made it to double-digit steals on the year though, and I find myself turning to him every once in a while in even a shallow RCL in hopes of catching some SB lightning in a bottle for a day or two when he’s leading off. We also suddenly have the left-handed, 28-year-old, 0% owned Cody Thomas in the picture. He doesn’t even appear on many OAK depth charts, but he appears on my personal super-deep league depth chart simply by starting having a good game on Wednesday (2 hits including a homer), which brought him up to a grand total of 14 at bats on the year.
In Kansas City, 1% owned (and 30 year old) Dairon Blanco has not been very good as he’s struck out 17 times in 54 at bats, but he did have a big 4-hit, 3 RBI game on Tuesday. Of most interest to us fantasy folk, he now has 7 steals; if he keeps getting playing time I could see his ownership growing just as a speed grab for those in slightly shallower leagues who are flat-out desperate. This outfield continues to be disappointing across the board, but we should at least note that Kyle Isbel (1% owned) is playing pretty regularly (if not inspiringly) against right-handers, and the 8% owned Drew Waters, who we’ve talked about recently, continues to have his occasional moments.
Moving to Boston, I’m also going to give Rob Refsnyder (also 1% owned) a quick shout out; there’s obviously nothing particularly interesting about him from a fantasy perspective, but he’s still getting starts against lefties for the Red Sox if you’re looking for counting stats anywhere you can get them (and he’s up to 7 steals on the year, at least). And it’s also time for our semi-regular ultra deep league Franchy Cordero alert; he’s back with the Yankees for the moment and returned with a huge game against the Angels on Monday (3 hits including a homer). Looking at the Angels, we’ll close with a (4% owned) Trey Cabbage shout out. He’s moved up on their OF depth chart with Jo Adell hurt, and he had his first three major league hits last weekend after mashing (23 homers) in triple A this year. He may not be a game-changer, but if he keeps seeing at bats against righties, he may have some deep-league promise over the coming weeks.
