Rolling In The Deep: Miles To Go

Happy Fourth of July! It’s Independence Day, summer has truly arrived, and many of you and your families may have World Cup fever as well. All in all, our fantasy baseball teams may be getting pushed further down the priority list at this time of year, and in deeper leagues, there may not be much you can do at this point anyway. But this can still be one of the best times to pay attention to baseball, since new faces may suddenly appear in lineups and on the waiver wire. We’ll do our usual thing again this week, taking a look-see at a handful of names who may not ping the radar in your garden variety mixed league, but could be of interest to those of us in AL only, NL only, and other deep leagues.

(Irrelevant note to Fantrax if anyone is paying attention: can y’all please stop sending me “injured player” alerts when a guy goes on paternity leave? Is it just impossible to let me know when we’re talking about something like a torn hammy, versus a fellow who’s healthy and just headed home for a couple days to meet his new kid?. Thanks so much!!)

AL

Spencer Miles. Grey talked about him the other day, and who wouldn’t be if you watched him pitch against the Mets on Wednesday. He threw another three scoreless innings, with 5 strikeouts, and came away with his fourth win. Maybe he just looked extra amazing compared to Freddy Peralta, who was pitching for the Mets, but Miles’s ERA/WHIP now sit at 2.83/1.037 on the season. He’s a 25 year old that the Blue Jays sniped from the Giants in the Rule 5 draft when he was recovering from TJ, and has been looking like a very wise pickup indeed. Even as a middle reliever, he’s providing some deep league value,  and if he can keep this up to some extent, one would think he’ll be a future rotation piece in Toronto.

Randal Grichuk. This week’s “what’s old is new again” player is Grichuk, who’s just 6% owned but has been playing better than most hitters with ten times that ownership. In just 21 at bats for the White Sox over the last two weeks, he’s hitting .286 with three homers. Grichuk is 34 now, which honestly is younger than I would have guessed. While his best days are obviously behind him, it’s looking like there may be something still left in the tank for now, as he’s clicking with a surprisingly fun-to-watch White Sox team.

James Outman. I had kind of realized Outman was playing more for the Tigers lately without really being tempted to give him a legit look, but at just 5% owned, it might be time to check in in deeper leagues if you’re desperate for an outfielder. He’s only hitting .200 over the last two weeks, but he does have two homers and a steal in 30 at bats over that stretch. I think many of us who rode the beautiful wave of production Outman provided in 2023 want to make sure it’s really time to give up on him completely. It probably is, but with yet another MLB opportunity, there’s a non-zero chance he still has something to contribute.

Nicky Lopez. I’ve been doing a thing each week where I find the most productive player over the last two weeks in each league who is also 5% owned or less in Fantrax, and Lopez is this week’s “winner” for the American League. Most of his value is driven by his batting average, which is .375 in 40 at bats for the Rangers over that time. So even though he’s certainly not going to keep hitting at that pace, it’s an interesting reminder of how much a good run on average can boost a player’s value. Lopez doesn’t have a homer over those two weeks, but he’s scored 5 runs and has 3 RBI and a steal. Plus, he qualifies at second, short, and third in many leagues, so there’s that.

NL

Ty France. I’m sure I’ve talked about France fairly recently, and he’s likely not available in most deeper NL only leagues (he’s 14% owned in Fantrax), but he gets another blurb this week as he’s been making a case to enter the shallower league conversation. He’s hitting .394 with four homers over the last two weeks, and has been sneaky valuable both for his real-life MLB team, as well as fantasy teams, especially given how disappointing some of the other Padres hitters have been this season. There’s not a single player under 50% owned, let alone under 15% owned, with anywhere near that production over that time, so we’ll see if this is just a blip or if France can find his way back into the mixed league conversation this summer.

Derek Hill. Only in very deep leagues would we even be talking about a 4% owned player who’s on the wrong side of an outfield platoon, which describes Hill’s role with the Phillies these days. He’s been quite good after coming over in a very low-key trade with the White Sox, though, hitting .333 in his ten games with Philadelphia.  He had homers in back-to-back games against the Nats about a week ago, and is now up to six on the year to go along with seven steals. As we say in the deep league business, beggars can’t be choosers.

Ivan Johnson. Who is Ivan Johnson? That’s a legit question, because I had truly never seen the guy’s name until glancing at the Reds’ box score from Wednesday. Turns out he was called up earlier this week after a sizzling run in the minors where he had nine homers and eleven steals. Don’t know if he’ll be up long, and not holding my breath that he even gets to play much, but a 1% owned power/speed threat is worth a little investigation just in case. Johnson qualifies at outfield in most leagues but played all over in the minors, so this could be an audition to be a current or future utility guy in Cincinnati, if nothing else.

Jorbit Vivas. Vivas is this week’s NL version of Nicky Lopez, the 5% or less owned player who’s had the most production over the last two weeks. I had him in a deep NL-only lineup earlier this year, and I think he hurt me more than he helped me, so I guess I should have waited, as he had indeed had a decent couple weeks. He’s hit .286 with 2 homers and 5 RBI in just 28 at bats over that time, which beats a lot of players on a lot of my teams. Vivas qualifies at second and third in most leagues, and as anyone who owns Luis Garcia knows, the Nats love love love their platoon mixing and matching and benching, so Vivas should continue to find his way into at least a smattering of semi-regular ABs.