I don't normally post two waiver-wire columns in such a short span, but I've seen a few guys I'd like to mention sooner rather than later. I decided to look into Blast Data, specifically Blast Swing %. This metric is useful for finding players who are looking to blast the ball, aka being aggressive at the plate and swinging the bat with the force of a blast (82 MPH). . As it turns out, guys who are looking to blast the ball often have other strong peripherals. My focus will be on guys recently called up with strong Blast data, but naturally we have a few other guys popping up.
I also figured I'd make a quick list of guys featured previously that are still widely available, and of course, still playing well. I also want to make a confession, and feel free to roast me. I dropped Stott a month ago, before his insane hot streak. I had Turang and Morel to shuffle in and out of 2B and figured he was expendable. Absolutely brutal and it's hard to even talk about.
ADDED: Danny Jansen, C I was stoned when I wrote this earlier, and literally forgot about Jansen until I turned on the Jays game. He has been incredible, slashing .318 with a dominant 1.023 OPS on the season. It makes sense that he would build on solid .855 and .786 OPSes in 2022 and 2023, but nobody expected this kind of bat. Will he regress? Probably. Either way, he's bashing both LHP and RHP right now in near-equal measure, and with Bo (4/4 today with three doubles) and Vladdy possibly heating up, there could be a ton of counting stats incoming.
Heliot Ramos, OF A lot of the attention seems to be on Luis Matos out in SF, and I mentioned him both last week under "Keep An Eye On" and later in this piece. However, I find Heliot Ramos to be the more intruiging callup of the two. Heliot has very real power and bat speed, and is aiming for the fences with a high Blast Contact and Blast Swing %. In AAA, he was slashing .296 with a .953 OPS and 8 HRs. His Max EV on the year is already 109 MPH and he's only had 41 ABs. On top of that, his bat speed is elite. There is some very real power here and he is worth a flyer if you're in a deeper league. At the very least, start him against LHP, as he hit an insane .412 with a a 1.188 OPS against LHP in AAA. This is the ideal platoon bat.
Dominic Canzone, OF
I wrote about Canzone in my very first hitters column and then he immediately got hurt. Now he's back, and I'd be remiss not to mention him again. This is a player I followed all through last season as he scorched the minors. He hit .354 with a 1.065 OPS at AAA last year but was never able to find consistent playing time, and was thus traded to the Mariners. Much like Heliot Ramos, this is guy you only want to platoon, but against RHP, which is fortunately the most common type. A good comparison would be a more powerful Brandon Marsh. I see a lot of potential here in that Mariners lineup if Julio can get it going.
Nick Gonazeles, 2B, SS Out of all of the guys on my list today, Nick Gonazeles is the one I added. I love his five tool potential and he was hitting extremely well at AAA, slashing .358 with a 1.039 OPS. As you can see below, his peripherals are all strong, including a very nice 81st percentile sprint speed. There's stolen base potential here on top of power potential, and having the ability to leg out tough singles is always appreciated in fantasy. And the best part? He has reverse splits, so he is completely viable against RHP while still being fairly good against LHP when it comes to BA. There's a lot to like here, and with both 2B and SS eligibility, is worth a flyer for those teams struggling with guys like Seager or Bichette just not doing very much at SS.
Trey Cabbage, 1B, OF 14 ABs. A .214 BA. Why is this guy here? Well for one thing, he's absolutely torching the ball to the tune of a .315 xBA and .626 xSLG. At AAA, he slashed .271 with a .925 OPS. There's a very real power profile here to go along with his rather ridiculous 76.3 MPH bat speed and 20.0% blast swing %.
Jonathan Aranda, 2B
Aranda may not have the power potential or bat speed of some of the others listed, but it doesn't mean there's not something here. For his 2023 AAA campaign, Aranda hit .339 with a 1.063 OPS across 434 ABs. At the MLB level, he hasn't proven much, but his peripherals indicate (across a very limited sampled size) that could change. His 92.3 MPH average exit velocity and .297 xBA are encouraging, although we'd certainly like to see a much higher sweet spot %. Still, his plate disicpline has been good thus far, as he never chases outside the zone (90th + percentile) and rarely Ks (80th + percentile). When players clearly have an elite eye at the plate, you can expect the bat to follow. I should have realized that with Stott. Unlike the other players listed, Aranda has the most potnetial to be a well-rounded hitter that winds up on base rather than a slugger. Oh, and he plays for the Rays, the kings of getting the most out of guys like this.
Otto Lopez, 2b, SS (Maybe 3B Eventually)
Promoted from last week's watch list, Otto has been nothing short of excellent at the MLB level, racking up 9 runs, 3 HRs, and 9 RBIs across 50 ABs this season. And like Gonazeles, he has elgibility at both 2B and SS. His bat speed isn't elite, but he still owns an excellent Blast Swing %, meaning he does turn up the bat speed when he sees pitches well. And based on the production, he's seeing a lot of pitches well. Looking at his minor league numbers, he's never really enjoyed this much success with the bat at any level of the minors up until this year. The power and bat quality come as a bit of a surprise, and there could be regression, but he's only 25 and we know that's a prime age for a breakout camapaign.
Luis Matos, OF
Matos is another player graduating from the watch list as he's absolutely dominated over his 30 MLB ABs. 17 RBIs in 30 ABs is kind of ridiculous, and owners should ride this wave until it ends. Will it end? He's not hitting the ball hard and not really barreling it up, yet he's managing to blast it when it matters most. His sweet-spot % is high, which we love to see, but I'm not sure if that's enough to off-set the lack of power. One thing I will say is his .296 BABIP is slightly below league average, meaning he's not getting lucky, and that's encouraging. On top of that, his Whiff and K rate prove that when he swings, he's making contact. If only this guy had a speed profile, he'd be amazing.
Davis Schneider, 2B, OF Schneider should have been on my list, or at the very least my watchlist, but I didn't really believe in the guy. He has a slow bat and doesn't swing for the fences often, yet somehow manages to barrel the ball at a ridiculous 99% percengtile, on top of extremely high sweet-spot and hard-hit percentiles. His .243 xBA is not what you want to see, but the slugging here can't be denied. If say, he doesn't regress, and somehow Vlad and Bo break out of their slumps, there could be a ridiculous amount of production here.
Top Prospect Bat: Jace Jung
I've had Jace Jung in my NA spot for a while now after Jordan Beck came and went, and I believe his call-up is on the horizon. If the name seems familiar, that's because he's the younger brother of rising-star 3B Josh Jung. In 182 AAA ABs, Jung is slashing .277 with a .387 OBP and .907 OPS. He has 8 HRs and 10 2Bs, so the guy is an xbh machine. The Detroit lineup could really use his bat right about now, so don't be surprised if he's called up soon. This kind of AAA domination is exemplary at age 23. And as for splits? He's good against both LHP (.824 OPS) and RHP (.937 OPS). Don't be surprised if he winds up even better than his brother.
Alec Marsh, SP One new pitcher will make my list, as I feel like last week's pitchers still fit the bill. I'm just sad I only now recognized the potential here. This guy has given up 2 runs in his last 4 starts and has had 7 Ks in back to back starts. His peripherals continue to climb towards his piching run value, and not the other way around, which is exactly what you want to see. And that 93.8 fastball velocity? Scratch that. He's been regularly touching 97 MPH in his recent starts. Four of his five pitches currently have positive run values, and his pitches have above-average break. His whiff percentages are looking fantastic on three of his pitches, and the less this guy throws his sinker, the more dominant he'll be. This is must-add.
Players You Should Still Add: Tyler Stephenson, C Tyler Soderstrom, C, 1B Yes, those look oddly identical Jose Soriano: This dude is spicy and threw 7.2 innings right after I mentioned him. Thanks bro. Ryan Weathers: I really hope he does the same thing as Soriano. Patrick Bailey: He got concussed shortly after I hyped him up 2 weeks ago and hasn't had a chance to really play. I'm still extremely high on him, but I hope he doesn't suffer from post-cocnussion syndrome like Rizzo did last year. Masyn Wynn: This guy just hits for a high BA and has SB potential. Hayden Wesneski: I still think he'll find his way back into the rotation. He's extremely talented. You may be asking "Where are the relief pitchers?". That's a good question. Two weeks ago, I included a bunch of them. And most of them are still available and performing well: +Coulombe +Schreiber +Cleavinger -Erceg
-Holderman
+-Enyel (performing well, but no saves or holds) +-Sandlin (same as above) +Hunter Gaddis (playing well again)
+Tyler Rogers
So, do we have any new ones? Sure!: Erik Miller, RP
This statcast is pretty cool. He's super bad at a few things, and super good at a few things. This is a man that doesn't understand being in-between, and I respect it. Being decisively top or bottom is a lifestyle. Make no mistake though, his overall play is definitely top-notch. After a shaky start to the season which left him with a 6.55 ERA as recently as 4/21, he's been nothing but excellent and has now lowered his ERA to a 4.5 with a solid 1.14 WHIP. He has 4 SV+H since May 11th and 16 Ks over his last 13 innings. And with an impressive 88th percentile velo, he's not quite Mason Miller, but I'm going to start calling him Miller Lite.
Kevin Kelly, RP
Kelly recently notcheds his first save of the season, on top of the holds he's accumulated throughoiut the year. The SV+H total up to this point hasn't been particuarly impressive, but it seems like he's gaining the trust of Kevin Cash, and this means some major upside in Holds leagues. And looking at his peripherals, it makes sense that Cash is liking what he sees from Kelly. We see the areas where Kelly lacks: Whiffs and Chase. But if we take a look at his stuff below, we see his sweeper induces a 40% whiff rate as opposed to his primary pitch, a sinker with a 7.5% whiff rate. This tells us he's purposefully pitching to contact and reserving his putaway sweeper for non-contact situations. It's pretty amazing that this guy has the potential to choose between being a high K guy or a groundball pitcher, and his choice of being a slightly above average K pitcher and elite GB pitcher speaks volumes about his talent.
Rafael Montero, RP I understand an age 33 reliever might not be the most exciting add in the world, but we shouldn't discriminate. Montero has been excellent this year despite a poor xBA and xERA. Is he a candidate for regression? Yes. But he's also someone Joe Espada is beginning to trust with higher-leverage work as the Astros bullpen has faltered. Montero has racked up 3 SV+H over the last week as the Astros have played excellent baseball. They have no reason to shy away from him until he gives them reason to, and we have no reason to shy away from a guy getting lots of opportunities on a hot team until he gives us reason to. I also want to point out his sinker is much better this year and has eneabled him to become a ground ball pitcher. Last year, Montero had a run value of -4 on his sinker and a 40th percentile groundball %overall. This year? A run value of 2 on his sinker, and an impressive 71st percentile groundball %. He's a different pitcher and there's reason for optimism.
Shoutout to Jordan Leasure for being nasty but being on the White Sox. Also, Gavin Stone has been good, but I'm not comitted to his K/BB just yet. But if you're desperat for pitching, add him. I'm also keeping an eye on Dylan Moore, who has some intriguing peripherals. I've been having a lot of fun exploring waivers with you guys this year, and am curious how everyone is performing with some of the waiver warriors. My season has been a bit of an anomoly. If the season ended right now, I'd be the roto champ of our league... and I'm also in 7th place and would miss the playoffs. But that's why we love baseball, right?... The bad luck is what keeps us waiting and optimistic! Cheers and a good week to all of you.
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