Rolling In The Deep: Hoping For Positive Vidal Signs

It’s been another brutal week friends, at least for any fantasy baseball type who has (had?) Willson Contreras rostered, or for any sentient human being who just doesn’t enjoy seeing other humans in excruciating physical and emotional pain, and watched the reply of Contreras’ injury. His 6-8 week recovery timetable sounds awfully optimistic, and even if it’s on point, this one feels like a death blow to a couple of my already disappointing teams. Alas, time to re-group and look forward, so here we are to do just that, at least for those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues. This week we’ll keep it to players who are less than 10% owned in CBS leagues and may be of interest to any of us who feel like we’ve run out of legit options to replace some of the holes on our rosters that have been created by five weeks of injuries and disappointment.

NL

Vidal Brujan. The former Rays top prospect/projected elite base stealer never was able to make a fantasy splash, but he currently has a seat to himself more often than not in the ugly game of musical chairs the Miami Marlins are playing this season. Brujan qualifies at 2B, SS, and 3B in some leagues, and has also played three games in the outfield. That’s about the end of the positives — wait! I found another one; he has more walks (6) than strikeouts (5) — as he’s currently hitting .260 without a homer in a horrible lineup. Playing time is playing time, though.

Santiago Espinal. All of that offseason depth in the Reds’ infield evaporated, just in some different ways than many thought it would. With Encarnacion-Strand having been hit on the wrist and out for at least a couple months, Espinal has moved up one more notch on the old depth chart. (We should also take note that the Reds are doing a little experiment where they’ve had Mike Ford at DH both Wednesday and Thursday, so we’ll see how long that lasts). Espinal qualifies at 2B and 3B, which is nice, but not as nice is the fact that he’s really not so good at hitting. Since he’s a .264 career hitter and is currently hitting just .163 on the season, the math tells me that he’s got a chance to go on a run of not-horrible hitting with more steady ABs, and let’s not overlook the fact that he’s already stolen 4 bases. Even when they aren’t playing that well the Reds are gonna run, so there’s that.

Kody Clemens. Clemens got a handful of at bats filling in for Bryce Harper when he was on paternity leave and was recalled again earlier this week when Trea Turner hit the IL. He’s been about as productive in his 11 at bats (4 hits, 2 homers, 7 RBI) than some of the more disappointing hitters have been all year, so while he has nowhere to go but down, in a way, he should be on the deep league radar at this point. He’s not going to get regular at bats unless Harper has another imminent paternity leave coming, which would be super suss, as the kids used to say, but Clemens’ current next-man-up status is of interest to the deep NL-only crowd looking for any at bat we can get and/or future playing time.

Edmundo Sosa. Like Clemens, Sosa is a 2% owned infielder for the Phillies, though his PT has gone up more substantially as the Phils cover for Turner. Sosa feels like a classic ‘better for real baseball than fantasy’ guy, who can give you a professional at bat, play solid defense, but isn’t going to hit many homers or steal many bases. The fact that Whit Merrifield is also on this team, a fact that was easy to forget given how infrequently he played let alone contributed up until recently, complicates that situation when it comes to at bats, which explains why that ownership number is still as low as it is. Sosa should play just enough to help in some deep league formats, though, and in a lineup as solid as Philadelphia’s is when it’s going right, the counting stats should trickle in from time to time.

AL

Brett Harris. What an odd first 7 MLB games it’s been for Harris, who was recalled by the A’s a week ago. Harris is a third baseman, which the A’s don’t really need right now, so the timing was strange for one thing. Harris has been playing some, though, and as of Thursday morning had 24 at bats. Here’s where it gets weird: in those 24 ABs, Harris has just 4 hits, which is awful. Three of those hits, though? Homers. (Not awful!) And, he’s struck out 5 times (not great). But… he’s walked (6 times) more than he’s struck out. (Pretty great). Since this is as tiny a sample size as can be, it really doesn’t mean anything, of course, I just thought it was a particularly interesting one. And for anyone completely unfamiliar with Harris, his minor league numbers reflect a solid across-the-board hitter with a particularly good eye: in 978 at bats, he’s hitting .281 with a .380 OBP, with 32 homers and 25 steals. So… it’s hard to predict how much playing time Harris will get going forward, and how he’ll fare when he does, but he should be owned in AL-only leagues while we find out.

Ben Rortvedt. Rortvedt is the back up catcher in Tampa Bay and has quietly been just productive enough to make sense as a deep-ish league option who won’t hurt you but may throw some stats your way from time to time. Folks are slowly but surely noticing, as his CBS ownership has gone up from 3% to 5% this week. That may sound like just a 2 percent increase, which it is, but it’s also a 66.6% increase, which sounds much more substantial. If you don’t enjoy math as much as I do, at least know that I’m even looking at him with my weekly free agent bids this weekend as a Contreras replacement in one of my 15-team leagues. (Turns out all of the good catchers are already taken. Boo!)

Paul DeJong. Well, it’s that time of year already… seems like the second week of May is particularly early for our annual “in case you were unaware, Paul DeJong is not only still playing Major League Baseball, he’s been quite productive of late” alert. Four hits and two homers in two games earlier this week for the White Sox have buoyed his season stats to 5 homers and 10 RBI, and while we all have to be careful with our pro-rating, that pro-rates out to 22 homers for the season. DeJong has not exactly proven himself to be a consistent offensive performer over the years, but the potential power may be worth thinking about if your deep league fantasy teams are in the middle of a prolonged power outage.

Andy Ibanez. The bad news is that he’s unlikely to have another game this year like he did on Tuesday (4 for 4 with 2 homers) and won’t play every day. The good news is that he’s only owned in 2% of CBS leagues, qualifies at 2B and OF, and may be a guy who helps more than you’d expect if you have a league deep enough to just plug him into your lineup and hope for the best for the rest of the year.

That’s another week in the books; thanks for reading and hope you’re keeping those deep league teams afloat!