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Everyone is suffering from injuries. That goes for fantasy managers, real-life teams, and each position group. Much like we saw in the NHL and NBA seasons, this season-after is doing a number on the health and well-being of our favorite players, beyond even symptoms of COVID-19 for those that test positive. Whether because the normal schedule was thrown off, added stress to this season, or what have you, 2021 is the year of the injury.
All position groups are feeling the wrath, but boy are injuries wrecking havoc on corner infielders. Of the folks we care about for this column, the following players have been placed on the injured list since last week: Colin Moran (groin), Christian Walker (oblique), Hunter Dozier (head), Asdrubal Cabrera (hamstring), and Ty France (wrist). It is already hard enough to find quality waiver adds without losing a quintet of possibilities in the span of one matchup. Of course, we shall nevertheless find diamonds in the rough moving forward.
For our purposes in this column, we are looking at Yahoo!'s rostered percentages, as well as its positional eligibility. We are searching for useful players rostered in fewer than 40 percent of Yahoo! leagues. With that being said, below are my first base and third base waiver wire pickups to consider for Week 8 - May 17 through May 23.
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Andrew Vaughn, Chicago White Sox
34% Rostered
There was a lot of excitement surrounding Vaughn when the season first got under way. Then we realized Tony La Russa was not going to play him everyday. His underwhelming start didn't help. But Vaughn is turning things around, and La Russa is coming around. Vaughn hasn't been benched yet in May and has been periodically moving into the middle of the Chicago lineup. He also has the type of batted-ball profile fantasy managers should covet. Even with a slow start, Vaughn is up into the 94th percentile in hard-hit percentage, 96th percentile in average exit velocity, 75th percentile in barrel rate, and 85th percentile in walk rate.
The swing-and-miss in his game is obviously still a problem. But that is something teams can put up with if the rest of the resume is in order. And even though he has a 35.9 percent whiff rate, he somehow never makes weak contact. I'm not exaggerating for the purpose of making a point. He, literally, has a zero percent weak-contact rate. He has also yet to pop up a ball in play. These are somewhat odd flukes of a small sample, but they speak to Vaughn's bat work. His is a bat that belongs in the lineup, both for Chicago and for fantasy.
Joc Pederson, Chicago Cubs
23% Rostered
On the other side of Chicago, Pederson is having his own come-up. His start to the year was as bad as anyone's. Over the past 30 days, however, Pederson is on fire. His slash line since the middle of April is .396/.464/.500. He did see limited at-bats in that timeframe, but that too is changing. Pederson has played in eight of Chicago's past 10 games and hit leadoff in six of those eight.
The home runs have still been slow to materialize as Pederson has struggled to barrel up the baseball. But he has been locked in this month. It is only a matter of time before his hits turn into more extra-base hits, as he unleashes an average exit velocity and hard-hit rate in the upper quarter of the league (79th and 76th percentile, respectively). It is hard to dig oneself out of the hole that Pederson started himself in, but progress is being made at a rapid pace.
xwOBA according to Baseball Savant
Josh Harrison and Starlin Castro, Washington Nationals
15% Rostered each
Harrison is trending slightly down; Castro slightly up. They meet in the middle this week, each being rostered in 15 percent of leagues. And they find themselves being similar fantasy assets at this point: quality, two-category accumulators with darn good batting averages. Harrison, thanks to hitting in the two hole nearly every day, is the better bet for runs. Castro, slotted in the middle of the order, has been sucking up RBIs. They have each benefited from having elite hitters around them, making the top half of the Washington lineup something to be feared.
Harrison and Castro both avoid swinging and missing, relying on putting the ball in play to create success. Week 8 should continue this trend. The Nationals are set to face off against the Cubs and Orioles. Chicago is one of the weaker pitching staffs in baseball right now. The Cubbies have a 4.64 FIP as a team, fourth-worst in baseball. They give up 4.08 walks per nine and have tallied 0.7 fWAR through 37 games played. Only the Minnesota Twins pitchers have been closer to replacement-level than Chicago's arms.
Baltimore isn't a whole lot better. The two teams are tied for sixth-worst in HR/9, giving up an average of 1.35 per contest. Baltimore compounds that by only striking out 8.54 batters per nine. Look for Harrison, Castro, and the Nationals lineup to take advantage of a comfortable slate in Week 8.
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