Mid-May greetings, deep league friends! I hope the fantasy baseball gods are treating you and your teams well as we navigate yet another week of injuries and demotions. As we all know, in the deep league world there is often little to no waiver wire relief to fill the holes when we lose a Jose Miranda to the minors or a Kyle Wright to the IL. As always, though, that won’t stop us from checking in to try to find a player or two that may be available and have at least a shot in the dark of helping out a depleted roster. This week we’ll keep it in the NL and take a look at some players whose ownership has risen the most in CBS leagues in the last week but is still low enough to remain in the deep-league conversation.
10-20% owned
Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna has one of the largest ownership jumps this week, going from 12 to 20% owned as he somehow has both remained on the Braves roster and continued to see pretty regular at bats (he now has 85 in 25 games this year). His average is still a horrific .151 (.263 OBP) and no one wants to root for the guy, but I figure if you can use his power as a force for good to help you win a fantasy baseball league, why not. That power is about the only positive attribute he offers, but it has made a commanding appearance lately as Ozuna has 6 homers on the year now, including 4 already this month.
Luis Garcia. Garcia may not be flashy, but if nothing else he’s separated himself from the four other Luis Garcias as the one that might make sense to add to a deep-ish fantasy team. He’ll never be a guy to target to help in any one category, but he should continue to not hurt you in any either, accumulating counting stats here and there as he plays pretty much every day for the Nationals.
Mark Leiter Jr. Leiter has the single biggest ownership rise this week of players in our 20% or under threshold, going from 4 to 19% owned, which isn’t a surprise if you’ve been following the Cubs’ bullpen situation. It’s been pretty messy, with some very inconsistent pitching from both at-one-point-presumed-co-closers Michael Fulmer and Brad Boxberger. Brandon Hughes and Cody Heuer may be returning from injury soon, so keep an eye on the situation if you’re searching for saves (I just stashed Heuer in a league or two), but in the meantime, Leiter has been solid. That’s actually an understatement; he has a WHIP under 1 and a beautiful 25 Ks in 16 innings and has a save, which has been enough to get him pinging on the fantasy radar. It may amount to nothing, but he might be worth a flier if he’s available in a league where you could use some bullpen help.
5-10% owned
Hunter Harvey. Sticking with the fireman theme, I’ve grabbed a few extra shares of Harvey recently. Not only has Kyle Finnegan looked a little shaky closing in Washington, but Harvey has been pitching very well in his own right, allowing runs in just 3 of his 15 appearances on the season. And if Finnegan loses his ninth inning gig (or if he rebounds and gets traded), Harvey could find a path to saves.
Patrick Corbin. Corbin has been surprisingly mediocre lately and has a two-start week next week (two home games against the Mets and Tigers). He’s had quality starts in three of his last four games and had 6 Ks in two of them. I lingered on his player page for about 5 minutes in my NL-only league where I could really, really use some pitching, contemplating whether or not to put a bid in for this weekend’s waivers run. Ultimately I chose not to, but if you want to roll these dice I won’t stop you.
Jesus Sanchez. I was in on Sanchez last year, which didn’t work out, and I drafted his fellow Marlins outfielder Bryan de la Cruz in a few leagues this year, which hasn’t worked out so well either. Now I’m wondering if I should have rostered Sanchez this year in his age 25 season, as he’s had a very solid if not spectacular beginning to 2023. In 24 games he’s hitting .294 (.368 OBP) with 9 runs scored, 3 homers, 10 RBI, and 3 steals. It doesn’t exactly put him on track for a monster season, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he picked up the pace this summer, and helping a little in all five categories like he’s done so far makes him a potentially valuable piece of a deep-league team.
Brenton Doyle. As we all know, there’s usually not room for a 24-year-old in the Colorado outfield, and right now is no exception as the Rockies have the veteran quartet of Blackmon, Bryant, Grichuk, and Profar filling out their OF/DH spots on most days. This somehow hasn’t stopped Doyle from getting a decent number of at bats (he has 37 in 14 games so far), and while he’s hitting only .216 he does have a homer and (most interestingly) 5 stolen bases. I’m not expecting him to be anything close to a fixture in their lineup any time soon (or ever, for that matter), but he might be worth an NL-only look for the time being.
Less than 5% owned
Dominic Fletcher. Speaking of crowded outfields, I wasn’t expecting Fletcher to have appeared in 9 games this month for the Diamondbacks, and yet here we are. Fletcher was the beneficiary of a call-up from triple A and some playing time when Corbin Carroll hurt his knee, but even with Carroll back healthy Fletcher may be worth watching, whether he gets to stick with the big club for a while or even if he gets sent back down for now. It’s just 27 at bats, but he’s hitting .370 with a .414 OBP, and if Alek Thomas’s struggles continue, Fletcher could force a shake-up of the depth chart at some point.
Tucupita Marcano. Marcano is currently up with the Pirates and just hit his first homer Wednesday, and he qualifies at OF, 2B, and SS in many leagues. The Pirates are mixing and matching quite a bit between the outfield and middle infield spots, so even though Marcano probably won’t play every day it’s worth watching how the playing time continues to shake out. He hasn’t been particularly impressive so far in his big league cups of coffee, but he’s still only 23 and still has time to establish himself as a big leaguer with nice speed and a little pop.
Owen Miller. If you don’t have Brice Turang rostered, you may not have noticed that he’s been scuffling after an impressive early start to the season, and losing playing time to Miller. Miller came into the season qualifying at 1B and 2B, and has now also played 5 games at third and 4 in the outfield this year. He doesn’t have a homer yet but is hitting .293 and has 3 steals. Sometimes a 26-year-old utility guy who qualifies at multiple positions and is getting semi-regular playing time is a useful addition to a deep-league team.
