Hello friends! It’s the weird time of the year where we’re just out of the All Star Break and feel like the season’s about half over, but then we do the math and realize it’s actually almost two-thirds complete. That may be a good thing or a bad thing for you depending on where you’re sitting in your league standings, but for the teams that are gonna need some help from here on out, we’ll try to look on the bright side. Just over a third of a season can be plenty of time to make up some ground, and with both the real-life MLB trade deadline and also a fantasy trade deadline looming for many of us, there should be plenty of movement when it comes to players and depth charts.
In deep leagues, of course, other than bidding on crossover players in mono leagues, all the roster movement in the world may not lead to anything resembling a bountiful free agent pool. But after taking a little break from our deep league searches the last couple weeks to do some more general fantasy baseball soul searching, this week we’ll return to the standard deep league grind. Let’s take a look at a handful of players who have been performing (relatively) well or had some theoretical positive value change over the last couple of weeks, but are still owned in just 15% or less of Fantrax leagues. We have several familiar faces here this week, along with a few new ones.
NL
Tim Tawa. Tawa is just 13% owned, but somehow manages to check in as the 11th most valuable fantasy hitter in 5×5 value over the last two weeks. Over that time, he’s hitting .343 with 3 homers, a steal, and a ridiculous 10 RBI. A lot of that production came in junk time in one or two lopsided games, but it’s worth noting that Tawa has a very healthy 35 at-bats in that span. He qualifies at the rather delightful fantasy combination of first, second, and outfield in many leagues. If he can stay hot enough to continue getting penciled into the Diamondbacks lineup more often than not, he may find himself valuable in even slightly shallower waters.
Luis Rengifo. I thought Rengifo made a great end-of-roster play heading into the fantasy season, but turns out I thought wrong. After a disastrous and short-lived tenure with the Brewers, which culminated in his mid-June DFA, Rengifo has found a new home in San Diego. He only has 17 ABs over the last couple weeks, but he’s hitting a ridiculous .471 with a homer and 5 RBI. He qualifies at second and third in most leagues, and he’s a switch hitter who has also appeared at first, outfield, and DH this season. His versatility alone could keep him deep league relevant as he continues to settle in as a Padre.
Jim Jarvis. Can’t exactly say I know much about Jarvis, except that he’s been impressive out of nowhere for the Braves lately. Over the last two weeks, he’s hitting .304 in 23 at-bats. I should probably mention that he doesn’t have either a homer or a steal, but we digress. We all knew Dom Smith would eventually cool down, and now that he has, the lineup has shifted around some to make room for newer faces like Jarvis, who’s now played 17 games at short for Atlanta. His ownership has crept up in a relative hurry and now stands at 11%, so definitely worth a deep-league check in just in case he finds a way to continue to carve out playing time for himself this season and/or beyond. (Note: After I wrote this blurb on Thursday, Dom hit a 3-run homer and Jarvis went 0-3… so starting to think Jarvis is gonna have to pick it back up in a hurry to keep his roster spot when Acuna comes off the IL).
Luis Torrens. If you happen to be desperate for a deep-league catcher who won’t hurt you, I thought I’d give Torrens a shout out since he’s 4 for his last 9 as I type this, and more importantly, playing more than I realized. Speaking of desperate, the Mets have actually played him at first for a couple games recently, and he’s even DH’d once or twice. He’s also pitched, but you probably already know that if that happens to be a category in your fantasy league.
AL
Victor Mesa Jr. Mesa Jr. just barely makes the cutoff for our ownership threshold at 15% owned, and I had no idea how hot he’s been lately. He’s had just 22 official at-bats over the last two weeks but has been making the most of them, hitting .364 with 4 homers and 2 stolen bases. It’s a rather startling reflection of just how much the other Rays hitters aren’t hitting when you see that even with those 4 homers, Mesa has scored just the 4 runs and driven in only 6. In Tampa Bay, even the most scorching hot streak doesn’t always lead to everyday playing time, but if Mesa Jr. is available in your medium-deep league, he’s worth a looksee for now. While we’re at it, I’ll throw out the reminder that he’s still only 24, and — at least on Thursday — is hitting cleanup.
Hao-Yu Lee. Lee qualifies at second and third in most leagues, and has been getting a decent amount of playing time in the Tigers infield. He hasn’t exactly been tearing the cover off the ball, but in his 19 at-bats over the last couple weeks he’s hitting .263 with a homer (his fifth of the season) and 5 RBI. He’s played a game at short in addition to his time at 2B and 3B, so if nothing else he seems to have settled in to a serviceable utility guy in real life for the time being. Unfortunately, that’s often the kind of player we may need to consider for fantasy in deeper leagues.
Lucas Spence. The 4% owned Spence doesn’t come up too high on the player rater over the last two weeks, but he does have the most AL hitter at-bats (20) over that period of time. He’s getting a chance to play center in a banged-up Houston outfield, so while there’s probably not much, if anything, to see here from a fantasy perspective, sometimes we deep leaguers need to consider opportunity over little things like skills and performance. Spence is a lefty who had 6 homers and 44 RBI, not to mention 13 steals in 236 ABs in the minors this year. We’ll see if he can carry any of that production over to the show if and when he has continued opportunities in the starting lineup.
Petey Halpin. I often like to include the hitter in each league who’s been the most productive over the last two weeks but is still less than 5% owned. Halpin earns that distinction this week for the AL, and it’s not even close, so he becomes our lede as well. He’s rostered on just 4% of Fantrax teams but has hit .333 with 2 homers and 3 steals over the last two weeks, in just 24 at-bats. Granted, this is all probably a blip on the radar that we won’t see again, especially since Halpin may not even be a major leaguer for long with Angel Martínez soon to return from the IL. Still, he may be worth a deep league look or stash while we see how playing time in the Guardians outfield continues to shake out over the final months of the season.
Rengifo mentioned! [does a highly choreographed handshake with self]
Ha!!