Greetings friends! I’d say we’re right in the thick of the dog days of summer, as well as right in the thick of the dog days of the baseball season. I’m finding my thoughts wandering away from baseball more often than they usually do at this time of year, and I’m wondering if it has something to do with the potential impending lockout. Am I subconsciously trying to break up with fantasy baseball before it breaks up with me? I’m not sure if that’s what’s going on, but with a little over six weeks left in the season, I’m going to once again re-group, re-focus, and try to lock in for the remainder of the year.
Granted, there may not be much to see on the waiver wire even in standard leagues, let alone deep leagues at this point. But you never know when you’ll catch your fellow owners asleep at the wheel and find a pickup that could help for the stretch run, or in the future in a keeper format. We’ll go with a legitimately deep 10% or less rostered in Fantrax threshold this week, as we take a look to try to find some interesting AL-only, NL-only, or other deep league names.
AL
Taylor Walls. Our old deep league pal Walls resurfaces this week, after a hugely productive last 14 days. In 36 at bats, he’s only hitting .222 with a .282 OBP, but has somehow managed two homers, seven RBI, eight runs scored, and three steals. If he’d been able to get a few more knocks in, he’d be at the very top of the fantasy leaderboard for August. Pretty good for a 9% owned player, and who knows, maybe he’s finally fully healthy for the first time in ages and can keep things rolling a while longer. Even though that level of production obviously can’t continue, Walls might be worth a late season look even in slightly shallower leagues, especially if you are chasing speed.
Brett Bateman/Myles Straw. The Itch just told you about Bateman the other day, who’s been patrolling center field for the Blue Jays of late. So, rather than paraphrase what he said, I‘ll send you directly to his excellent write up in case you missed it. The Great Knoche also headlined Bateman in his SAGNOF article: So much Bateman love!
His teammate Straw, I suppose, has the same bad penny-that-keeps-turning-up-in-the-deep-league-chat vibe as Walls does, but that’s pretty much what we deal with here. The trick is to get these types of guys before they have a surprise burst of production, of course, but sometimes jumping on the train near the end of its ride is better than nothing. If George Springer stays healthy Straw’s at bats may get fewer and farther between, but let’s not forget that the Jays are now Daulton Varsho-less. Straw will never help you in average, let alone the power categories, but he may be able to deliver a handful of runs and the occasional steal. He’s in the starting lineup again on Thursday, albeit batting eighth, so the outfield situation in Toronto is one to watch if you’re desperate for deep leagues at bats.
Kody Funderburk. Funderburk is this week’s AL ultra deep league reliever of the week. He’s 4% owned, but checks in as the sixth most valuable pitcher in the AL in 5×5 value over the last two weeks. That’s pitcher, not relief pitcher. As is the norm for our relievers of the week, much of Funderburk’s value comes from the two wins he scored over that period. He also pitched 7.1 scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts. Sure, it may be near impossible to successfully chase wins, and it’s lottery-ticket unlikely to pick the exact right relievers at the right time. But one of the reasons I like to point out how much value a random middle reliever can have is because I do feel that in the deepest formats, it’s worth doing some investigation before setting your lineups. Sometimes checking schedules and matchups, using tools like those available here at Razzball, to figure out when it makes sense to avoid dangerous-looking starters and attempt to temporarily replace them with an under the radar reliever can provide a solid payoff by the end of the week.
NL
Jared Young. Like Taylor Walls, Young is 9% owned in Fantrax leagues, and also like Walls, he’s had a pretty stellar couple of weeks. He’s hitting .300 with a .356 OBP, and while he doesn’t have a homer over that time, he has six RBI and two stolen bases. He’s been hitting at a clip that won’t hurt you all season (.262 average on the year), and while those were only his second and third steals, the Mets as a team have been running more lately, so perhaps that will continue for Young specifically. If you haven’t noticed, the Mets are an even messier hot mess than usual this season, but have been on quite a tear of late as a team with the stress of the trade deadline in the rearview mirror. They also have a banged up/traded away type outfield right now, so Young should get plenty of playing time. He’s 31, so certainly past his prime in baseball years, but given what for him is the rare combination of health and opportunity, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a solidly productive finish to 2026.
Andres Chaparro. Speaking of 9% owned players, here’s another one, and another one who’s been raking recently. Chaparro is playing regularly for the Nationals now that Luis Garcia is a Yankee, and he’s got a .387 OBP over the last two weeks with a homer and an impressive nine RBI. He’s 27 now and is one of those guys who keeps teasing me, thinking he might take a step forward, and this latest burst of production may just be another tease. I do think he should be monitored in even some slightly shallower formats just in case, though, both for potential roster help for the remainder of 2026, and just maybe beyond.
Luis Torrens. Okay, we’re staying in New York here to touch on Torrens for a moment, who is just 5% owned but has outperformed most standard mixed league catchers over the last two weeks. He’s hitting .375, with three homers, eight RBI, and has even chipped in a stolen base. I keep hearing talk about how multiple teams went after Torrens before the deadline, and how he was one of the few pieces the Mets never really seriously considered letting go. While he’s a much, much more valuable real-life piece than a fantasy player, I already have my eye on him as a potential cheap catcher league option for next year as we see how his 2026 continues to play out.
Brett Sullivan. Yep, we’re talking about a second catcher in a row here, as if it weren’t already abundantly clear that times are tough when it comes to most NL free agent player pools. Sullivan is just 2% owned, but makes the list as this week’s most productive NL player who is less than 5% rostered. He has just fifteen at bats for the Rockies over the last two weeks, but he’s gotten hits in five of them, two of which were homers. He’s also driven in seven, so he may be worth a peek in NL-only or daily change leagues as the season plays out, depending on schedule and playing time and matchups and such.
Ryan Rolison. Rolison is to the NL what Funderburk was to the AL over the last two weeks, a little-owned reliever who outperformed most other pitchers in the entire league over that span. This blurb turns out to be a mildly depressing reminder of just how important those aforementioned, impossible-to-chase wins are in 5×5. Rollison also nabbed two over the last couple weeks, without doing too much else (well, he did pitch 5 scoreless with 4 Ks). At 29, he’s not a kid, and while he’s also not exactly a workhorse at this point, he’s clearly become an important part of the Cubs bullpen. So, he may be worth keeping a deep-league eye on rest of season and perhaps beyond.
