Curt Casali (C, CIN) - Week 23 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two-Catcher Leagues

OWNED IN: 2% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Curt Casali helped earn himself 51 AB over the month of August with time replacing Joey Votto at first base and flourished in that role for the Reds with two homers and a slash of .333/.375/.510. Even though he was striking out at his highest clip of the year during August (25%), he also continued to manage to pad his OBP with a 7.1% walk rate. Even though he was only able to hit batted balls for 28.9% fly balls in August, he was also only able to produce 39.5% grounders, leaving the remaining 31.6% of August batted balls as line drives. Also in batted balls, Casali produced a 52.6% pull rate during August and even though he managed just 31.6% hard contact in the month, he kept his soft contact rate low enough at 15.8% to still result in a solid ISO for the month of .176.

Curt Casali has applied 42.9% hard contact and just 9.5% soft contact to line drives which helps explain and support the sustainable nature of his success at the plate over his time in August with a BABIP of .417. Even though Joey Votto has since returned from the DL, Casali has done enough over the last month to warrant further utilization by the Cincinnati organization, and though he may not excel in the power department, the damage done by his disciplined bat lately is worthy of consideration by fantasy baseball managers in two-catcher leagues.