RADIO
The baseball season is winding down, and with that, this is the final edition of this article for the year. It has been a fun ride with several hits (and a few misses that I would not prefer to mention), but hopefully, readers were capable of accruing enough talent from a few of these recommendations to lead them to some form of success this season. If anyone was negatively impacted by these pieces, I am truly sorry and will work to improve my process for including names next season if this is still mine to write.
The players mentioned in this final piece are holds through the rest of the season as long as they stay healthy. At the first sign of a cold streak for the buys, feel free to drop them and go for anyone you see on a heater or with an upcoming stretch of games in a friendly environment with good matchups. This late into the year, good players get unexpectedly dropped by competing teams out of season-long frustration and could end up as contributors on your roster for a certain category at worst. Keep an eye out for them and take advantage of the opportunity. Also, drop your injured guys and optimize your roster to maximize the number of hitters/pitchers you can use (unless you're in a keeper/dynasty league and the player is valuable enough).
Anyway, these buys and sells are worth noting for the last two weeks of the year. Thanks for reading and best of luck!
Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups and weekly lineup resources:- Nick Mariano's fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups (Premium)
- Start/Sit recommendations - All Pitcher Matchups for Week Ahead
- Fantasy baseball waiver wire rankings (top 80 players)
- FAAB fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- Starting pitcher fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- Outfield fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- 1B/3B fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- 2B/SS fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- Catcher fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- Hitter streamers - fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- Two-start pitcher streamers - fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups
- Cut List- Players To Consider Dropping
Undervalued Players - Week 25
Sean Murphy - C, OAK
11% owned
Catchers are fickle and frustrating. One week they're on, the next month they're off. You have to roster one and deal with it, unfortunately. Murphy is one of the top catching prospects in baseball and is now placed in one of the hottest hitting lineups in the league. He has hit extraordinarily well since his call up and deserves consideration on teams that just lost Gary Sanchez along with other catcher-needy rosters. Murphy has four home runs, 10 runs, and seven RBI since his call-up and is batting over .400. The lack of walks might hurt in OBP leagues if he goes cold, but that's the risk taken with most catchers in general.
Ivan Nova - SP, CWS
22% owned
This feels dirty to write because Nova is such a junk pitcher nowadays, but his schedule is too good to ignore and in these final weeks, matchups are all that matter. Nova's scheduled to pitch @SEA, @DET, and finish at home against Detroit again. He might struggle in one of these starts, but that's just the risk you have to take when taking advantage of streamers this late into the year. Nova is still available in a ton of leagues and could pick up a win/quality start or two while not absolutely demolishing your ratios.
Nico Hoerner - SS, CHC
11% owned
The Cubs lost Javier Baez for the rest of the regular season last week and called up their top prospect Nico Hoerner. With Addison Russell out for a few games, Hoerner figured to get a stretch of starts then rotate in occasionally. However, his performance this past week has been impressive. Hoerner is not much of a power hitter but can make very good contact and get on base. He has a hit in four of five games thus far, two-multi hit performances, a home run, eight RBI, and just two strikeouts. He has played every game since his call-up and figures to be pushing Ben Zobrist for the second base job down the stretch and into the playoffs. Hoerner is a talented bat with some counting stat upside in a very good Cubs' lineup. He's worth a grab in 12-plus team leagues whee you are desperate for a middle infielder.
Overvalued Players - Week 25
Andrew Heaney - SP, LAA
56% owned
After a brutal outing against the Rays, Heaney can be dropped. The Angels have such a brutal end-of-season schedule that even if a start gets pushed for him, it will end up in another terrible spot. He is currently slated to end the season @NYY and then home vs OAK. If either start gets moved, he will have to face the Astros. It just is not pretty and despite his second-half improvement this season, it is hard to justify starting him down the line unless you're desperate for innings.
