Rolling In The Deep: Who To Add(ison) This Week?

Here we go again, folks, another week of the MLB season is in the books, and it’s time to move on to the next one. I will say, it suddenly doesn’t feel as early as I’d like it to in some of my leagues, as we’ve passed that point where a huge offensive day will suddenly shoot you way up in your league standings. I streamed Javy Baez in a mixed league this week, which turned out to be a great decision after his monster 2-homer game on Tuesday… but I was a little disappointed to see that a few days of solid offense this week didn’t even move the needle for me in the standings. Anyhow, it is still early. In deep leagues, finding an impact player in-season may have a needle in a haystack feel to it, but that won’t keep us from trying. Therefore, here’s our weekly check in on a handful of players that may be of interest for us deep leaguers:

AL

Addison Barger. Barger went from 3 to 6% owned in CBS leagues after I decided to write this blurb about him, and a day later, is now up to 8%, so he’s likely already been snapped up in deeper leagues. I’m not sure I’m as optimistic as all of those folks adding him to their rosters, but I hope they’re right because I had enough deep-league hope for him that I have him rostered on a couple of my early-draft 50 round draft and hold teams. He qualifies at third and in the outfield, so that’s nice, and he’s playing quite a bit for the Blue Jays of late, which is also a good thing. I’ve read in more than one place that Barger has recently made some pronounced swing/plate approach adjustments, so maybe there actually is a little something to see here if you’re looking for a cheap power source.

Matthew Lugo. Lugo has a bizarre line for a 24-year old who’s on a rebuilding team (the Angels in this case) where you think they’d want to get a good look-see at him. He has just 10 at bats in 5 games through Wednesday, but is 3-for-10 and two of those hits are homers. Perhaps the Angels know how unlikely it is for a guy with so much swing and miss in his game to ultimately succeed at the major league level? But then why promote him? Just in case he takes this weirdly-limited opportunity and runs with it, I’m going to keep an eye on him, but I’m not optimistic given his contact issues (may as well point out that in the teeny tiny sample size of 10 plate appearances, he has 4 strikeouts and nary a walk).

Carlos Narvaez. I’d been so focused on my pre-season fondness for Colton Wong (insert Wong joke here if you’d like; I’m either too ladylike or too lazy to do so) and his early season injury that I didn’t even notice Narvaez.  Unlike Wong, Narvaez so far has actually been quite productive in limited duty. He’s hitting .260 with 4 homers in 30 games, and I’m keeping an eye on his playing time. I’m also kinda wishing I’d just drafted Narvaez instead of Wong in several of my leagues, since he’s the Boston catcher who’s actually been worth rostering in deep league lineups so far this year.

Danny Jansen. If you’re really desperate for an AL-only catcher (yes, two catchers in a row) and someone dumped Jansen because they realized that he’s not very good at hitting baseballs these days, I mention him just in case his homer on Tuesday means he’s starting a little hot streak. His average is still in the .170s, so he really has nowhere to go but up on that front, one would hope.

Ernie Clement. Okay, I didn’t realize that this post was going to be so Toronto forward, but here we come to Barger and Jansen’s (former) fellow Blue Jay. He’s kind of like Jansen in that he’s been hitting better lately after a very disappointing start to the season, except that Clement qualifies at 2B/3B/SS in many leagues,  and has been producing more overall and probably has more “upside” (using that term loosely) rest-of-season. Call him a rich man’s Danny Jansen, or perhaps more accurately a slightly less poor man’s Danny Jansen. Clement’s actually hitting .275 on the season, so he hasn’t been horrible; he just hasn’t been delivering a ton of those counting stats that are rather important in the fantasy game. Perhaps the weather heating up and his streaky nature will combine for at least a little more run where he produces a trickle of said stats, if you’re looking for some.

NL

Enrique Hernandez. There’s certain deep league guys that I feel have gotten a shout out every season at some point for years on end, and Hernandez is one of them. He qualifies all over the place (or at least at some combination of first, second, third, and the outfield) in most leagues, and between Dodger injuries/days of to rest, he should continue to play enough to stay on the deep league radar. The average will likely stay sketchy (he’s at .222 now), but he already has six home runs on the season, and there’s no reason to think he can’t keep that pace up throughout the summer.

Alexander Canario. The out-of-options Canario is already on his third team this year, and his strikeout issues alone will likely keep him from being a successful major leaguer. He’s recently seen an increase in playing time in the Pirates outfield, though, with Tommy Pham’s continued struggles, both in terms of baseball prowess and the ability to behave like a grown-up. Canario does already have two homers with his 62 at bats on the season, so it’s not impossible that he could deliver a few stats in the deepest leagues if he can play just well enough to stay on Pittsburgh’s roster.

Matt Gorski. We’ll stay in Pittsburgh for one more blurb to mention Gorski, who’s owned in 1% of CBS leagues but has suddenly been playing quite a bit since the Pirates made a managerial change. He’s 27 and has no real prospect pedigree, but that being said he was off to a great start in the minors this year and now has two homers in 38 at bats in the majors. Might be worth a very deep league check in.

Will Benson/Rece Hinds/Connor Joe. If things had gone according to plan for the Reds this year, none of these guys would be on their major league roster right now, let alone all three of them. With Jake Fraley and T.J. Friedl down, even with Austin Hays back, there should be some outfield at bats to be had in Cincinnati. I’m listing Benson first because he’s a lefty so would theoretically be the strong side of a platoon situation (plus he already has a hit and two RBI 2 hits including a homer and 3 RBI on Thursday as I write this). The Reds have been one of the most inconsistent teams in baseball this season when it comes to offense, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t deep league at bats to mine for here.

That’s it for this week; happy fantasy baseballing!