Rolling In The Deep: Pavin The Way Forward

Salutations everyone, and best wishes that the baseball injury gods are treating you relatively well. If your teams look anything like mine do, though, they are pretty banged up. I don’t like to feel like I’m giving up a few weeks into the season, but if you’ve lost a couple of your starters and two or three of your key offensive players, it’s hard to feel like you have a shot to be competitive even in mixed leagues, so don’t get me started on how frustrating it can be in a deep league or draft and hold format.

But, we move on. One thing that I’ve noticed already this year is that both real life and fantasy depth is being tested to the point where I’m looking towards some of the same players in my standard leagues that I’ve had to turn to in my deep leagues… the Kyren Parises of the world, if you will. I think Paris was 4% owned when I talked about him in my last post: what a difference a week makes, as he’s now up to 67%. Granted, he’s also had a career week that he may never see the likes of again, but it shows us how suddenly a fringe deep leaguer can have at least temporary mixed league value. As for me, I was smart enough to grab him with some FAAB cash last weekend in two of my NFBC 12-team leagues… but not smart enough to get him into my active lineup this week in either league. Big sigh. Anyhow, regardless of just how deep your league is, let’s look at some possible reinforcements as we once again use a threshold of 20% owned or less in CBS leagues, going from most owned to least owned.

NL

Andrew Heaney. This spot was going to go to Tajuan Walker, but after a pretty decent start against the Braves Wednesday, his ownership was up too high (22%) for the thresholds of this post. Heaney, meanwhile, is at 20% owned after beginning the year with two starts for the Pirates that have produced numbers that are downright stellar: a 1.50 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, and 12 Ks vs. just 2 walks. Things won’t continue to be quite this rosy for Heaney, but he’s done enough to put himself on the deepish league/streamer radar for now.

Pavin Smith. I was surprised he was only 11% owned, because even though he’s likely to be a platoon guy all year (on the strong side, at least) I think he’s worth monitoring as a player who could have better-than-deep-league value when all is said and done. If nothing else, he’s someone who could be a nice deep-ish league asset or a great streamer if you can get him in your lineup at the right time in shallower leagues.

Austin Hays/Noelvi Marte. I’m combining these two Reds into one blurb for now and will leave it to them to prove that one or both of them deserved a solo shout out. Hays is finishing up a rehab assignment and should be back to fairly regular duty in the Cincinnati outfield soon. Marte was recalled when Matt McLain was IL’d; it remains to be seen if he’ll play much or be able to carry over his hot minor league start to the majors if he does, but there’s at least a chance of some post-hype prospect upside here.

Tim Tawa/Garret Hampson. Tawa qualifies at 1B and 2B in most leagues and Hampson at 2B and OF, so they both have that dual eligibility going for them at least. They are also both playing some, though not daily, as the Diamondbacks piece together their lineup after losing Ketel Marte for what sounds like it could be a month or more. (Pardon me as I take a pause to be sad about what a massive blow Marte’s injury is to several of my teams). Tawa’s 26 and may just be organizational depth at this point, but he showed some pop in the minors and can run. We’ll see what he does in the majors after a fiery hot start in triple A. Hampson (who is 5% owned vs. Tawa’s 13%) should continue to be the guy we’ve gotten to know him as lately: a very light hitting utility type who might occasionally steal a bag if you’re absolutely desperate for speed or an injury fill-in in a very deep league.

Oscar Gonzalez. The guy many of us were kind of into as a sleeper a few years ago (oh well!) when he was a Cleveland prospect is now 27 and outfield depth for the Padres. He’s up for a bit, with Jackson Merrill down (though it doesn’t sound like Merrill should miss more than the minimum in terms of his IL stint)… so far, so good after he went 2 for 5 with an RBI in his first game.

AL

Ben Lively. Lively has started three games for Cleveland and I guess his performance would best be described as serviceable, as he’s averaging just under five innings per start (actually less than serviceable) with completely mid stats across the board (especially given that one of those starts was against the White Sox). This feels like it could get pretty ugly, but deep league desperation for starting pitching is real. And Lively is a pitcher who has been starting for a major league baseball team, which earns him this uninspired write up.

Easton Lucas. Two pitchers in a row! He’s made two starts for the Blue Jays and has basically looked like Cy Young so far, with two wins to boot. I’m just gonna go right to a Grey quote from the other day on Lucas: “I don’t trust it, but I’d likely stream him until he actually is bad.”

Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers hasn’t been great for the Astros, but he’s playing enough — and playing just decently enough — that he should probably be owned in AL-only and other very deep leagues as we see how the season develops. Another post-hype prospect who may at least prove to be a (relatively) productive player at the end of a very deep league roster.

Brooks Baldwin. Baldwin has not only played in ten games for the White Sox, he’s already played second, short, third, and outfield. A classic utility man for a very poor team who might get just enough counting stats to become a utility man for your fantasy team, which hopefully is better than the White Sox.

Justyn-Henry Malloy. Malloy has played eight games at DH for Detroit, but qualifies at OF in most leagues. Has he played well? No, he hasn’t, but he should continue to see regular playing time with the Tigers quite banged up, so welcome to our weekly “at bats are at bats in super deep leagues” player blurb.