Last week, we looked exclusively at American League players, so for this week’s installment, we’ll keep things entirely in the NL. As usual, there may not be a ton of talent hanging around most deep league waiver wires at this point in the season, but no reason not to keep digging for hidden production (or at least help with a few counting stats), so let’s take a look at some names that might be on the radar for those of us in NL-only or other particularly deep leagues.
Darin Ruf (6% owned in CBS leagues). This isn’t the first time I’m mentioning him in 2021, and he’s now at .275 on the year with a .393 OBP (81 games/171 at bats), with 13 homers, and 2 steals for good measure. I get that he doesn’t play enough to be a legit option in standard leagues, but he qualifies at 1B and OF, and the Giants are showing no signs of slowing down as an offensive powerhouse (no, that’s not a sentence I thought I’d be typing in August of 2021). As far as I’m concerned Ruf should be getting at least a little more fantasy love (not in a creepy way) until he proves he doesn’t deserve it.
Lewis Brinson (5% owned). You know we’re in a deep-league post when two members of the Marlins outfield are mentioned, and the first of those is our old pal Brinson. He’s tempted us deep leaguers before, and at this point, I don’t want to be the one who completely misses the boat if and when he ever breaks out. An actual breakout may be too much to ask for, but no one can deny that he’s been having a nice little run: since July 31st, he’s 11 for 32 while playing almost every day. He only has one homer (and no steals) during that time, but I’m actually playing him in a 15-team mixed league this week where my outfield is absolutely decimated by injuries, in case that power/speed combo that he often showed off in the minors finally manages to surface at the major league level.
Hoy Jun Park (3% owned). The Pirates recalled Park from triple A at the beginning of August and he’s already started eight games, three at short and five in the outfield. While we haven’t seen offensive fireworks from him, he hasn’t looked overmatched either in this very small sample size, going 8-26, plus 2 walks (with 6 Ks). His triple A line this year was excellent: .292 average with a beautiful .439 OBP, and he had eleven stolen bases to go with eleven home runs. He should play regularly to close out 2021.
Bryan DeLaCruz (2% owned). De La Cruz was traded from the Astros to the Marlins in the Yimi Garcia deal and has been playing right field regularly for Miami after making his MLB debut at the end of July. He’s not exactly off to an otherworldly start, as he has nine hits and a walk in 37 ABs, with eleven strikeouts and no homers or steals. He’s still a guy getting regular at bats on a major league team, though, so theoretically he could actually generate fantasy stats at some point. He didn’t display tons of either power or speed in the minors but I’ve seen him tagged with the “professional hitter” label, so we’ll see if he can make any kind of an impact in Miami over the home stretch of the season.
Josh Van Meter (1% owned). See what I did there? — we’re now down to the 1%-er in my little 6-5-4-3-2-1 countdown. Van Meter’s recent back issues have cut into the playing time he’s been getting with the Diamondbacks, but he’s apparently healthy now and should get most starts at second base against righties. There may not be a lot to get excited about given that he’s a career .209 hitter, but he’s a guy who will (very) occasionally pop a homer or (slightly more likely) steal a base if you have nothing better going on at a deep-league corner or middle spot (he qualifies at 2B and 3B in most leagues).
