RADIO
Andrew Ericksen profiles Cincinnati Reds 1B/2B/OF Derek Dietrich as a waiver wire pickup or add target for Week 8 of the 2019 fantasy baseball season. Dietrich has some playing time concerns but he's shown power potential this year.
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ANALYSIS: Life outside Miami sure has been nice so far for the left-handed Derek Dietrich. He’s hitting home runs at a rate unlike any we’ve seen before from him, 11 HR in 96 at-bats, compared with 16 HR in 499 AB last year, his most productive year with the Marlins. Plus, he’s showing much-improved plate discipline with his K% down from 25.4% in 2018 to 19.5% so far this year and his BB% up from 5.3% in 2018 to 8.8% this year.
The big concern with Dietrich is playing time. The Reds have been reluctant to start him against lefties this year, a fair decision after he hit just .227 against lefties last year. Additionally, the Reds just have a bit of a crowded group fighting for AB. Nick Senzel, Jesse Winker and Yasiel Puig are the team’s standard outfield starters and Jose Peraza leads the team in starts at second base. However, Peraza has been atrocious against righties this year, hitting just .198, so Dietrich should be in the lineup for most outings against right-handers.
This week’s slate is bookended by lefties Gio Gonzalez and Jose Quintana, but Dietrich figures to be in the lineup for the three matchups against righties in between. He's a better add for daily lineup leagues, ideally of the deeper variety (12 and 14-team) or NL-only, where you can sub him in and out based on whether he's starting or not. Shallow leagues and weekly-lock leagues, he's fine to leave on the waiver wire for now.
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