RADIO
It's August, which means fantasy football fever is in the air. To avoid the risk of catching the bug, continue reading below. That's right, this time of year it's easy to lose focus, but we didn't play four months of fantasy baseball just to get distracted by a few NFL training camps. No, no. We've got our eyes on the prize as we enter crunch time on the baseball calendar.
If you need help at 2B or SS, we've got some bats hotter than the weather you should consider picking up for the stretch run. Still with me? Good, let's lock down some baseball championships while others are worried about the pigskin.
As a reminder, we'll be looking at pickups for shallow leagues (30-49% rostered) and deeper formats (10-29%), as well as highlighting prospects in the single digits who may get the call and deserve a spot on your watch list at the very least. These are your second base and shortstop fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 20 – August 7 through August 13.
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Edouard Julien, 2B, Minnesota Twins (39% rostered)
Pop quiz! Who led all second basemen in each of the three triple-slash (batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage) categories during the month of July? Given the fact his name is in bold above, you probably guessed Edouard Julien, and you'd be correct.
The 24-year-old former prospect mashed in July as he posted a whopping .340/.461/.723 slash line as the Twins committed to him long-term as its everyday second baseman. Best of all, his success looks sustainable as his Statcast numbers for the season look excellent. Julien is rocking a 43.8-percent hard-hit rate, an 89.2 MPH average exit velocity, and his nine barrels-per-PA is more than double the league average. How his roster rate is down 10 percent from last week is bewildering.
Maikel Garcia, SS/3B, Kansas City Royals (31% rostered)
Every year, there are a handful of players on bad teams that post big finishes to the season simply because they are getting everyday at-bats. Maikel Garcia fits the bill this season as he's been sneaky-productive as the leadoff man in Kansas City.
On the season, Garcia is batting .284 while being a solid contributor in steals with 15 thefts. He's been even better since becoming the Royals' everyday leadoff hitter back on July 1. In that span, Garcia is batting .305 with a .438 slugging percentage with 11 runs scored and 18 RBI. With his team in full-fledged rebuild mode, Garcia should continue to get everyday playing time while batting ahead of Bobby Witt Jr.That's not a bad setup for fantasy production.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Zack Gelof, 2B, Oakland Athletics (12% rostered)
Zack Gelof was called up on July 14 and immediately began mashing to begin his Major League career. In his first 17 Big League games, Gelof has five homers, five steals, and 20 runs-plus RBI while slugging a whopping .561. The 23-year-old is the third-ranked prospect in the Oakland farm system and he's injected some life into the listless Athletics offense.
Better yet, Gelof's batted-ball metrics are outstanding early on in his career. He's making hard contact at a 48.8 percent rate and his 91.9 average exit velocity would rank among the league leaders if he had enough at-bats to qualify. After tearing up Triple-A and getting off to such a hot start in the Majors, the only explanation for a highly-ranked prospect being this available in fantasy is... I got nothing. Just pick up Gelof.
J.P. Crawford, SS, Seattle Mariners (18% rostered)
Rostering J.P. Crawford in fantasy feels like having 50 flavors of ice cream to choose from, then picking vanilla. But hey, there's a reason vanilla is a classic and recently Crawford has been on fire, so it's like he added sprinkles and a cherry to his usual plain-but-productive style of play.
Crawford led all qualified shortstops with a .340 batting average in July while his .553 slugging percentage ranked second at the position. He also got on base at a .442 clip which led to 16 runs scored batting atop the Seattle lineup. Yes, that is an outlier month for a historically boring fantasy option, but there's no shame in riding the hot hand – even if the heat melts the ice cream.
Other Options to Consider:
- Ezequiel Tovar, SS, Colorado Rockies (34% rostered)
- Geraldo Perdomo, 2B/SS/3B, Arizona Diamondbacks (37% rostered)
Prospect Watch
Curtis Mead, 2B/3B, Tampa Bay Rays (4% rostered)
The Rays officially called up Curtis Mead on Friday as players continue to drop like flies due to injury. The 22-year-old prospect was enjoying a productive season in Triple-A as he was batting .289 with a sturdy .809 OPS in 46 games. Mead did miss a chunk of the season with a wrist injury, but he's healthy now and he played well enough to garner a promotion to the Big League club.
Mead is certainly a talented ballplayer, but the issue is, where does he play? Tampa Bay loves to platoon bats, so Mead may wind up as the right-handed bat in a second-base platoon with Brandon Lowe. He can also get some at-bats at third base, but for now, fantasy manager should take a wait-and-see approach before starting Mead. That being said, he remains an intriguing talent and could provide value in deeper leagues sooner rather than later.
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