“Three sheets to the wind” means drunk, referencing a sailing term I believe, so don’t ask me what it has to do with fantasy baseball. I guess you could say I wished I was drunk this weekend when perusing the stats my fantasy relief pitchers left me… Hector Neris, 6 earned runs? Really? Just another snapshot of how difficult the deep league journey can be… of course I would never have had Neris in an active lineup in a “normal” league at this point, but was forced to play him in my deepest NL only league this week because I had basically no alternative until I could grab someone in our weekly FAAB bidding Sunday. Anyhow, let’s stop focusing on the negative and look forward: time for this week’s list of players that might be of interest to those of us in AL-only, NL-only, and other particularly deep leagues.
AL
Gavin Sheets. When I started writing this post, our lede was a mere 6% owned in CBS leagues, but I see he has now tripled that and is up to 18%, which of course means he is likely long gone in AL-only formats. Sheets is a 25 year old who has 342 minor league games under his belt, in which he’s hitting .281 overall, with a .357 OBP, 33 home runs, and 5 steals. He’s listed as a first baseman, but is getting his current opportunity with the White Sox in the outfield, given their glut of injuries there. In his first 22 major league at bats, he has two homers and a .682 slugging percentage, a pace one would not expect to continue given that his career minor league SLG is .416. The fact that he’s hit the ground running, though, should give both the player and the team confidence in his ability to fill in at major league level, and he could be a nice stopgap at the very least even in slightly shallower fantasy leagues.
Jose Suarez. We’ll get into deeper waters slowly but surely this week, as we now move to a 12% owned player in Suarez. He’s been great all season in the Angels’ bullpen (1.98 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 26 Ks in 27.1 innings) and now is being given the opportunity to take over the spot of Dylan Bundy, who — if you missed it — literally and figuratively threw up on the mound last week. The reliever to starter transition is not always a smooth one, but we’ll see if Suarez is up to the task. He should have a relatively long leash to prove he belongs in the rotation since the Angels have a dearth of options when it comes to starting pitching.
Wily Peralta. Since we’re chatting about a dearth of options when it comes to starting pitching, it’s time to mention the fact that my starters are so weak in one AL-only league that I recently picked up the 7% owned Peralta, and will probably have to start him in my active lineup this week. Scary, but we deep leaguers have to do what we have to do. This could blow up in my face spectacularly, but on paper it doesn’t really look that stupid because Peralta has been pitching very well for Detroit. Okay, by very well I mean he’s thrown a mere 14 innings with a meager 8 strikeouts, but his ERA and WHIP look pretty good at 3.21/1.07. He’s made three starts now and has gone five innings in two of them, so it appears he’s getting sufficiently stretched out, and should — for better or worse — have a spot in the banged-up Tigers’ rotation for now.
Tim Locastro. Locastro is 2% owned, so we’re finally in true deep league territory here, and was traded from the Diamondbacks to the Yankees last week. The team change isn’t going to suddenly crank up his playing time a ton, but even as a bench player Locastro could serve a purpose in the deepest leagues for those hunting for AL-only speed. He’s still one of the fastest players in baseball, so if. few stolen bases might make a difference to you, Locastro has a decent chance of providing them.
NL
Jace Peterson. He’s 12% owned, so probably not still hanging around in deep NL-only leagues. But if he’s available and you need a hitter, it’s worth mentioning that he A) has been playing a lot for the Brewers lately, B) qualifies at 1B, 2B, and OF in most leagues (and has also played a game at 3B), and C) he’s been playing relatively well. In 90 at bats, he now has an OBP of .389, and has chipped in with 3 homers, 19 RBI, 18 runs, and 4 steals.
Thairo Estrada. It barely made a blip on the MLB radar when the Giants acquired Estrada from the Yankees earlier this year, just as Estrada barely made a blip on the fantasy stats radar in the 61 games he played for New York in 2019 and 2020. He’s already made more of an impact with the Giants in a single game over the weekend in which he had a homer and 5 RBI. I’m not expecting another game like that any time soon, but I did pick him up in a deep NL-only league in hopes of getting some at bats from him in the immediate future given the Giants’ injury situation (Tommy LaStella, Eva Longoria, and Brandon Belt are all sidelined at the moment, and Mauricio Dubon remains in the minors). Estrada has played three games at 2B and one at 3B this year, so we’ll see if he can continue to make an impact while he has the chance and establish himself as a useful utility man in San Francisco.
Elias Diaz. Diaz caught the attention of some deep leaguers, myself included, to open the season, simply by being a player at the weakest position in fantasy who plays in the most hitter-friendly ballpark in MLB. The first half of his season was an extreme disappointment by even the deepest league standards, though… at least until last week. Diaz has been on a tear, hitting four homers in four games, and raising his average over that time from .161 to .203. His CBS ownership has quintupled from 1% to 5%, so we’ll see if he can keep the momentum going and keep playing/hitting enough to draw some attention in slightly shallower leagues.
Heath Hembree. As I mention occasionally, I’ve tried to avoid the Reds’ bullpen at all costs in fantasy for a while now, and if there was ever a time to avoid the Reds’ bullpen, 2021 has been the year. Seven pitchers have recorded at least one save for Cincinnati so far this year, and the four players that have more than one of them are all either on the IL, have an ERA above 5, or both. Hembree is in the ERA above 5 camp, which obviously isn’t encouraging. His WHIP, however, is just 1.05, and he now has three saves on the year, two of which came in back to back games last Friday and Saturday. Most interestingly, he also has 45 strikeouts in 26.2 innings, and given all of the blowups I’ve been getting from my middle relievers lately, I figured it was worth taking a chance on Hembree in a couple of leagues.
Hey Laura,
Love your stuff! What do you think of Toronto trading Rowdy Tellez to the Brewers for Trevor Richards? I picked up Richards for one of my 20 team H2H leagues( also had Tellez as an NA on the same team).
Hoping both can have some value with the league change.
Thanks again,RICK
Thanks Rick! I actually picked Richards up in the Perts RCL this morning since I had an extra reliever spot to fill anyway; I like that grab a lot in a 20 teamer! His K rate is good enough that I don’t mind plugging him into a deep league lineup based on that alone; if he pitches in high leverage situations and can stumble into saves or a few vulture wins, all the better. Tellez is a pretty on-the-nose replacement for Vogelbach, and should serve the same role Vogelbach did (and Vogelbach has 171 at bats on the year to Tellez’s 139) — so even without the DH, I think the move to Milwaukee could be a slight net gain in value for him.
Thoughts on Leury Garcia….I traded Chris Taylo and Dan Winkler for Loasiga and Garcia…desperate for pitching. 18 team roto 5×5! Thank u!!
Dynasty I forgot to mention that….
Not a Leury fan–with Sheets and Goodwin on board, plus Eaton back and Engel back soon, plus Vaughn needing a place, Garcia should not get many starts in OF–and would be shocked if White Sox didnt pick up a 2b before deadline–he may get some at bats in next couple of weeks, but i would not plan on much after Aug 1, barring unknown injuries–
Hey Jimmy, I don’t think there’s much to get excited about when it comes to Garcia, but I also think you could do worse to fill out a deep roster. Even though he doesn’t have a regular position, he’s already played 2B/SS/3B/OF this year and I think he’ll continue to bounce all over the place and see a decent amount of playing time in the second half even if the White Sox make some upgrades, because if nothing else he’ll be filling in to give the regulars time off as we get deeper into the long, hot summer. And as long as you’re not expecting a big power or speed surge, he could provide a little sneaky value in terms of providing a few runs and RBI here and there, which might really make a difference over the course of a few months in an 18-team format. All in all you definitely got the player with the most upside, by far, in Loaisiga, so I like the deal for you a lot.
Lasagna is good. Missing him in my al only, I’m competing against among others the team that got him this year. I have a good staff but he would have been a nice value at the salary I had him for. Someone paid up when he was nominated this year, they’re not regretting it.
Hey Dustin, yeah, I’m also now wishing I’d gone the extra buck for him in my AL-only keeper league — I could have really used him this year, plus it would be nice to know I had him locked up at a decent price for next year!
Word, Laura; and when I say “pay up” regarding the 2021 guy who got him, I don’t mean that he won’t be easily protected next year, either. Kicking myself a bit but you can’t protect everyone and I had a ton of value pitchers going in. Suffering From Success haha
Laura, I appreciate your work. I hope you jump on another podcast with Grey very soon. Your last one was great. I could hear in your voices that you and Grey were enjoying yourselves. Like you wanted to be there. Nothing forced. Even King Ralph sounded like he had an extra step in his walk.
Question, based on your AL-only comment. I’m having major problems with my pitching too. My hitting is top 1-3 in almost every category. My pitching is in the 5-9 range of categories. 12 teamer. I’m in the 4-5 range in standings
What’s the gameplan for your team? How are your looking to fix the bad pitching on your team? Trade? Wait for something on the waiver? Some other option?
Much appreciated Laura,
Jolt
Hey Jolt, thanks so much for the kind words; yeah, the podcast was really fun — I’ll probably hit Grey up after the ASB about doing another one because chatting about fantasy baseball is basically one of my favorite things to do, period : ) As for my team, you pose a very, very good question! One of my big problems is that my aces are (were!) Glasnow and Maeda. So damn near everything will have to go right for me to contend, but I guess my plan is: A) hope beyond hope that we see more of the Maeda we saw in his last outing. B) I’ve purposely been holding back FAAB $ knowing that if any promising starters come over from the NL before the trade deadline I’ll have to empty the bank and hope I get results from whomever I can pick up. C) Let other teams wheel and deal now, and hope that when the dust settles I have a minor leaguer or two (this is a keeper league) that can net me a decent starter, and D) In the meantime, try to get as lucky as possible in terms of ERA, WHIP, Ks, and hopefully a few vulture wins from middle relievers. E) I think I may have used all of my waiver good luck on the gem Wily Peralta pitched last night, but I will keep an eye on the waiver wire even though it’s usually picked completely clean, just in case I can pull another rabbit out of my hat like that one. We’ll see how it all goes… good luck with your team and keep me posted on your pitching progress!