Scott Oberg (RP, COL) - Week 9 Waiver Wire Pickups

Brady Grove profiles Colorado Rockies reliever Scott Oberg as a potential waiver wire acquisition of value for fantasy baseball leagues in Week 9 of the 2019 MLB campaign.

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ANALYSIS: With Wade Davis hitting the IL recently with an oblique injury, it was announced that Scott Oberg would take over closer duties for the Colorado Rockies. While there is varying weight to such declarations, Oberg seems like a logical choice with his 1.69 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 21.1 IP so far this year. Oberg certainly has some concerning peripherals, namely his 5.5 H/9 on a .193 BABIP, 4.6 BB/9, and just 6.3 K/9 that all in all build to give him a non-supportive FIP of 4.45. Luckily, with a few adjustments possibly brought on by his increased frequency of deployment for his 85.5 MPH slider, he looks to have the potential to sustain his excellent performance.

Though his GB/FB ratio is down, it is still finely tailored to life in Coors Field at 1.75, while he has improved his allowed-contact on batted balls a great deal with a 32.2% hard contact rate and stifling 22% soft contact rate. So while he is walking a few too many batters and forcing a lot of outs via contact, the kind of contact that he has been forcing is relatively harmless and could easily net a high level of reward in the anchor slot for the Rockies.

While there is competition for high-leverage innings in the form of Bryan Shaw, Carlos Estevez, and Jake McGee, Oberg has four holds on the year and has consistently performed better than the other members of the Colorado bullpen except for maybe Davis. With the chance to take advantage of a guy with a wide-open window of opportunity at the back-end of the bullpen, Scott Oberg is a an asset of grace at this point in late May.