In the world of fantasy, when players hit the rewind button and show flashes of brilliance from days gone by, the buy-in factor is sometimes slower than most waiver acquisitions. Well, enter B.J., Melvin, or Bossman Jr. Upton. Whichever name you want to use for him, he is quickly becoming a must own player and is pushing to be the SAGNOF waiver wire pick-up of the year. Currently, I think Eduardo Nunez is in that spot, wait, did I just say that and mean it? When all is said and done though, I think Melvin is the most likely to sustain his value and is on a 23HR/35SB pace. Had we known that in preseason, it would have put him in 2nd round draft range. But alas, he wasn’t, and is still only owned in 43% of all ESPN leagues. His on-pace numbers are basically production wise to what we got from Charlie Blackmon last year. Blackmon, was of course, a top-30 player entering the season. The only problem holding Upton back is that he has been bad for a few years, in his favor though, is that he has been bad for a few years. What I mean by that is that I don’t think he has much value to anyone but the Padres. He will play every day for an offense that is near the bottom in all categories, and doesn’t appear to be a sell candidate for them at the deadline. So add away my friends, and happy SAGNOF’n this week. Here are some updates to the pitchers that are easiest to steal against and some waiver wire type blurbs for steal/save streaming…
| Name | OBPa | SB Opp’s | SB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noah Syndergaard | .257 | 115 | 23 |
| Ubaldo Jimenez | .405 | 141 | 14 |
| Anibal Sanchez | .367 | 109 | 13 |
| Jimmy Nelson | .342 | 138 | 12 |
| Jake Arrieta | .256 | 134 | 11 |
| Colin Rea | .340 | 126 | 11 |
| Tanner Roark | .310 | 134 | 11 |
| James Shields | .405 | 145 | 11 |
| Michael Pineda | .332 | 122 | 11 |
Travis Jankowski – Anyone who can ski and steal at the same time is right by me. Is a bit of a LH/RH enigma, so pay attention to the vs. LH splits as he is awful. His 5 steals in his last 35 plate appearances are not though. Looks like a perfect plug and play as he is facing Ubaldo and Pineda this week.
Michael Bourn – Somehow through OF attrition, in the land of sand and snakes, he is still getting regular at-bats. 3 steals in last 5 games, giving him 5 on the year. A long home stretch doesn’t hurt either. To me he is more of a short schedule day gamble then a gamble.
Max Kepler – Is he becoming the Red Baron of the basepaths? He is a big boy so watching him steal is actual kinda fun, it’s like watching an abnormally large handed individual try and text. Two steals in the last 7 games, as the full-on youth project should allow him to stay in the lineup everyday. I kinda wish he gained extra eligibility at CI spot, but that is me being greedy.
Derek Norris – The running Fathers and their crazy catchers getting in the mix… Any catcher that steals twice in a week is good enough for me and Grey loves add/drop questions for catchers so let’s flood that market.
Kevin Siegrist – Last week I put Oh in this spot. I hate repeating myself. So no Oh, only Kev-o. The Cards have bolted from Rosey for the time being. Oh, Siegrist and Broxton are the adds in that order for me. I think it’s a mental thing for Rosenthal and a 15 day DL trip to clear his head is in order, but closers fall faster that 9.8 meters per sec.
Brandon Kintzler – Thank god everyone gets ice cream after a loss in baseball. The Twins are trying there hardest, but I think the need Buttermaker to get Amanda Wurlitzer up to pitch everyday instead of trotting out Rudy Stein. The Twins only have 22 save opps all season, blowing 11. Yikes hooray for roster space.
