It can be tricky playing fantasy baseball and having to play off clues and subtle moves MLB teams make for their star-studded young players. When Eugenio Suarez fractured his thumb earlier this week the fantasy community came far and wide with their takes on if the Cincinnati Reds would call up the second overall pick from 2016 Nick Senzel. Senzel could be up this weekend or the end of the month, and sadly some are even saying maybe not until June. Some have said Suarez’s injury wont change anything for the Reds and that they can play out the rest of the season without him (even if his bat is major league ready). This still is all speculation and if you’re in a keeper league, I hope you grabbed him immediately after Suarez went down. When situations like this occur just a few times a year, you can’t wait for the beat writers or reporters to say what they are expecting to happen, you have to risk wasting that waiver wire pick before the actual word gets out. To succeed in fantasy baseball and in all keeper/dynasty leagues, speculation is all you should need to make a move…
A few days after Suarez hits the DL we find out that Senzel moved primarily to third base from second base where he had originally been playing this season in the minors. Clearly this is a good sign for Senzel and makes me believe he will hopefully be up sooner rather than later. In one of my keeper leagues after Suarez went down with the thumb injury, Senzel went for 15% of his budget bidding against nobody the next morning. In my other keeper league he went for 45% of the waiver budget going against over half the league which was made after the news broke that Senzel is playing third base in the minors. If you expect a team to make a move its worth it to pick up a player that might be useless in a few days in hopes that the team decides to go in that direction. If you end up waiting to long somebody else in your league is going to beat you to the punch. I think you should always go and get your guys if you believe in him no matter what waiver spot you have or how much budget you have to spend there is no reason to play scared or cheap with your FAAB budget.
The much anticipated Ronald Acuna should be making his MLB debut now that the Atlanta Braves get an extra year of that cheap rookie contract. Hopefully your in a league where Acuna is already owned, or else find a new league that is actually trying to be competitive. It’s clear that he will be up next week or even sooner. Acuna is getting all the hype that it’s blocking out other players who can produce just as good, if not better fantasy numbers for this season. Also for keeper leagues, most of these guys weren’t drafted so you could be getting a better keeper position picking up one of these guys a few days before getting the call up. Most of the players I mention here will probably be owned, but hopefully one or two of them is still available to grab off the waiver wire. All of this is based on pure speculation that they will get the call up, so your basically playing the fantasy baseball version of chance and giving up a bench spot until they become active. It’s doubtful that all of these guys will get the call up, but if you do get the right one, that could be your pocket ace for the season.
- Nick Senzel – I already said a lot about what I like about Senzel above, and if he’s available in your league you need to pick him go up. I don’t think he will be up this weekend, but I think he’ll be up by the end of next week and has the best chance to in the majors over anybody mentioned here besides Acuna.
-
Gleyber Torres – Torres has been a shortstop throughout his young career in the minors and now made the move to only playing second and third base because of how great the Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius is playing in the majors. Just like Senzel, this is a great sign that Torres will be up sooner than later. I don’t think he will be up this weekend, but I do think the Yankees are going to want his bat in the line up by the end of the month. Yankees have some question marks at second and third base, so if he does get the call up he would get the playing time switching of positions. I would keep an eye on what the Yankees are up to in the near future and grab him before they actually decide to make the move. Torres could easily be the best of the bunch.
-
Willie Calhoun – After Elvis Andrus went down late Wednesday night, the Rangers finally might be forced to bring Calhoun up as Texas adds another starter to the DL. Calhoun will not be taking Andrus’ spot at SS if the call up occurs, but with DeShields, Odor, and Andrus shelved for a while, it would make sense to move around the infield and stick Calhoun at second base. This is still a rumor since I haven’t seen anything from from the Rangers on Calhoun, but it’s worth taking a shot for the young man with huge power and who rarely strikes out.
