Points League Pitchers: Waiver Wire Pickups - Week 27

Nicklaus Gaut's H2H points league waiver wire pickups for Week 27 of the 2021 fantasy baseball season, identifying free agents to add and pitchers to stream.

We'll be doing this roundup of points leagues every week here at RotoBaller, with waiver wire targets and streaming pitchers being evaluated in terms of the different scoring systems of ESPN, Yahoo!, CBS, and Fantrax.

Player values can vary wildly from platform to platform, so we'll make sure to highlight where players are the best and worst fits. We know points league players get neglected and we're here to help.

These waiver-wire adds are for the week of September 27th - October 3rd, looking at players below 50% rostered for ESPN and Yahoo! Stats and rankings are calculated using games through Saturday, September 125th.

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Know Your System

If you've read me even a little, you likely know what I'm going to say...You must account for, as precisely as possible, how a player performs under your particular scoring system. Every point, in every category, counts.

If your league uses standard settings, then great! Turn to page 94 and you can skip ahead to the leaderboards. If you play with custom settings, it'll still be fine. Go back to page 43 and look below at the scoring systems of the four major platforms. I bet there's a chance that you'll find that your league's scoring is very similar to one of the four (well, not Yahoo!'s), even if it's not the platform you actually play on.

For example, my home league started on a now-defunct platform before moving first to ESPN and is now at Fantrax. But our scoring is basically ESPN standard only with two points for stolen bases and a handful of other minor adjustments.

If you look above, you'll likely find a suitable mirror to your own system. While every point counts, as long as they aren't seismic changes you can get away with some "close enough" calls. IE. If everything is the same except for HBP (or something similar), you're probably fine.

Waiver Wire Leaderboards

The charts are updated prior to Saturday's games, on stats and ownerships. All leaderboards are sorted according to the player's APR*, and clicking on a chart will open a new page with a magnified version.

*APR = Average Platform Ranking - the average platform ranking between ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, and Fantrax (standard point settings)

Starting Pitchers

Two Start Weeks

Must Adds

• Alex Cobb, LAA (@ TEX)

Can Adds

• Nick Pivetta, BOS (@ BAL)
• Rich Hill, NYM (vs MIA)
• Jon Gray, COL (@ ARI)
• Bailey Ober, MIN (vs DET)
• Eli Morgan, CLE (@ TEX)
• Michael Pineda, MIN (vs DET)
• Miles Mikolas, STL (vs MIL, vs CHC)
• Wily Peralta, DET (@ CHW)
• Jake Woodford, STL (vs CHC)
• Johnny Cueto, SF (vs ARI)
• Tony Gonsolin, LAD (vs SD)
• Jon Lester, STL (vs CHC)
• Brady Singer, KC (vs CLE)
• Kris Bubic, KC (vs MIN)
• Carlos Hernandez, KC (vs CLE)
• Logan Gilbert, SEA (vs OAK)
• Adrian Houser, MIL (@ STL)

Desperate Adds

• Cole Irvin, OAK (@ SEA, @ HOU)
• Taylor Hearn, TEX (vs LAA, vs CLE)

Notable IL

• Joe Ryan, MIN (Bereavement)
• Touki Toussaint, ATL (Bereavement)
• Zach Eflin, PHI
• Jake Odorizzi, HOU (expected to start vs OAK)
• Johnny Cueto, SF (expected to start vs ARI)
• Matthew Boyd, DET
• Mike Minor, KC
• Tyler Gilbert, ARI
• J.T. Brubaker, PIT
• Dillon Peters, PIT

Relief Pitchers

Keep in mind that with relievers, points scored can be deceiving. Most scoring systems make it pretty difficult for even the best non-closers to score elite points, making them very reliant on unpredictable wins. You simply need the save points to really do damage. AKA, when you see totally random names hit the leaderboard, it's probably because they happened to get a few wins and/or a lot of usage. If a reliever doesn't have an established role, tread carefully.

One note about ownership; because ESPN uses nine open pitching slots, as opposed to dedicated slots for RP/SP, relievers tend to be lighter owned than on other sites.

Notable IL

• Gregory Soto, DET
• Jonathan Loaisiga, NYY
• Rafael Montero, HOU
• Garrett Whitlock, BOS
• David Bednar, PIT

With the trade deadline (and injuries) shaking bullpens up all over the league, we're going to do things a little differently in the second half, going through each team that currently has a relevant (according to our roster% threshold) bullpen situation.

Arizona Diamondbacks

In the Mix: Tyler Clippard (two appearances), J.B. Wendelken (Save on Thursday)

Baltimore Orioles

In the Mix: Cole Sulser (Hold on Monday, Hold on Thursday, Hold on Friday), Dillon Tate (Blown Save on Tuesday, Hold on Friday, Save on Saturday)

Boston Red Sox

In the Mix: Hansel Robles (Hold on Saturday), Matt Barnes (two appearances), Adam Ottovino (one appearance)

Chicago Cubs

In the Mix: Rowan Wick (two appearances), Codi Heuer (Loss/Blown Save on Saturday).

Cincinnati Reds

In the Mix: Mychal Givens (Blown Save on Friday), Win on Saturday).

Colorado Rockies

In the Mix: Carlos Estevez (Blown Save on Thursday)

Detroit Tigers

In the Mix: Michael Fulmer (Save on Tuesday, Save on Saturday)

Kansas City Royals

In the Mix: Scott Barlow (Save on Monday, Save on Friday), Domingo Tapia (Win on Monday, Win/Blown Save on Friday), Loss/Blown Save on Saturday)

Miami Marlins

In the Mix: Dylan Floro (Win on Monday).

Oakland Athletics

In the Mix: Andrew Chafin (Win on Saturday), Sergio Romo (one appearance), Jake Diekman (Loss/Blown Save on Thursday).

Pittsburgh Pirates

In the Mix: Chris Stratton (One appearance).

Seattle Mariners

In the Mix: Drew Steckenrider (Save on Tuesday, Save on Wednesday, Hold on Friday), Paul Sewald (Save on Monday, Hold on Tuesday, Save on Thursday, Save on Friday).

Tampa Bay Rays

In the Mix: Pete Fairbanks (two appearances), Collin McHugh (Hold on Monday, Hold on Saturday), J. T. Chargois (Hold on Monday, Win on Wednesday).

Texas Rangers

In the Mix:  Joe Barlow (Save on Friday).

Washington Nationals

In the Mix: Kyle Finnegan (Save on Thurday), Tanner Rainey (Save on Wednesday, Hold on Thursday).

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