August 8, 2016

Kyle Bishop's first base (1B) and third base (3B) fantasy baseball waiver wire adds. Pickups and corner infield sleepers for Week 19 of the 2016 MLB season.

As we touched on last week, versatility is a particularly valuable trait for the fantasy stretch run. With that in mind, four of the five players we’ll cover today are eligible at multiple positions. All of them, of course, can provide value to you in your quest to bring home a championship.

For even more options, remember to check out RotoBaller’s weekly waiver wire rankings, compiled by none other than yours truly.

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Week 19 Corner Infield Waiver Wire Targets

Howie Kendrick, 1B/2B/3B/OF, Los Angeles Dodgers (37 percent owned)

At the conclusion of play on June 27, Kendrick had an awful .242/.296/.324 line and just eight multi-hit games to his credit. Since then, he’s slashed a much more Kendrick-like .297/.371/.453. There’s not a ton of category juice to be found here – six homers and seven stolen bases on the year, with none of the latter coming during this recent hot stretch. What you will get, however, is positional flexibility and a batting average boost.

Yangervis Solarte, 1B/2B/3B, San Diego Padres (32 percent)

One of the effects of writing a column like this for two seasons is developing an appreciation for certain overlooked players. Solarte may have made more appearances in this space than anyone else. He has improved pretty much across the board in each of his three seasons in the big leagues, adding power to his profile without sacrificing his excellent contact skills. Solarte missed a good chunk of the first half with injury, which has likely contributed to his depressed ownership rate.

Pedro Alvarez, 1B/3B, Baltimore Orioles (27 percent)

While he’s no longer an everyday player, Alvarez is actually on pace for career bests in many areas. Of course, that’s in large part due to the fact that Buck Showalter sits him against lefties, but we’ll take production where we can get it. And even though he’s being platooned, Alvarez has nine homers in the last month, which is more than any other corner infielder besides Mike Napoli. Owners in search of cheap pop for the stretch run would be hard-pressed to find a better option than Alvarez.

Joe Mauer, 1B, Minnesota Twins (23 percent)

Mauer isn’t the star he used to be, and he’s much less valuable in both real life and fantasy as a first baseman than he was as a catcher. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a useful piece, especially with how well he’s been hitting lately. The Twins have been doing a passable impression of an offensive juggernaut lately, and Mauer’s gotten in on the act. He’s a top 50 hitter in the Yahoo game over the last month despite his usual modest pop, batting .321 with 32 R+RBI.

Adonis Garcia, 3B/OF, Atlanta Braves (8 percent)

Perhaps no player has been more quietly excellent in the last month than Garcia, who’s hitting .360/.402/.600 with four home runs and 31 R+RBI during that time. Even on the worst and low-scoring team in baseball, hitting in the middle of the order carries some measure of value. That’s particularly true when the player in question is swinging a hot bat, which is certainly the case here.

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