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Week 7 Waiver Wire Watch List

Jim Turvey's 2017 MLB waiver wire watch list for Week 7 of fantasy baseball. Potential sleepers and adds for 10-team, 12-team, 14-team and AL/NL-only leagues.

Welcome to Week 7 of The Watch List. We have had a few iterations already, but here’s a friendly reminder for those who forgot: Each week we’ll be updating this list full of players who you maybe aren’t quite ready to pick up (depending on league size, of course), but who need to be on your radar regardless.

We’ll look at eight players in-depth each week and keep tabs on players “graduating” into the waiver wire pickups category, as well as players demoted off the list entirely. (Reminder, these are Yahoo ownership and positions.)

Once again, if there are any names who you’d like to see highlighted next week, or even just added to the list as a whole, feel free to at me on Twitter (@FantasyBaseTurv). Let’s get this show on the road.

Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and resources:

 

Players to Watch in 10-team Leagues

Derek Law (SF, RP): 34% owned

With Mark Melancon on the DL, Giants skipper Bruce Bochy has leaned towards Law to close out games for the Giants, and Law is 2-for-2 in the role. Law gave up three hits and two runs in his first save opportunity, but the second chance was more what owners want to see, as he walked just one and locked up the win for San Fran. Melancon played catch on Saturday, and he will almost certainly take the role back when he returns, but for owners thirsty for saves in the meantime, Law should be a solid option while Melancon works his way back. Law’s numbers are too flashy (3.00 ERA, 4.21 xFIP), but he’s not going to kill you in the limited time you have him on your team.

Jose Berrios (MIN, SP): 37% owned

Berrios, the Twins top pitching prospect the last two seasons, is back in the big leagues, and he was impressive in his 2017 MLB debut. Berrios went seven and two-thirds, allowing just one run on two hits and a walk, while striking out four. It was the best start of Berrios’ career at the MLB level, as he came into the game sporting a career 8.02 ERA in the majors. The talent is there for Berrios, though, so don’t be scared off by the small sample size (58.1 innings). Berrios had a 1.13 ERA over 39.2 innings at Triple-A this season, and he has a career 2.51 ERA at Triple-A in 229.2 innings. Berrios will be a popular add this week, he gets Colorado at home, a solid matchup but one that should be a good test.

Domingo Santana (MIL, OF): 24% owned

Santana hit .348 the past week, but didn’t go deep, so his OPS (.748) wasn’t winning you any head-to-head matchups. He did have four runs and a steal, and it’s all good with Santana moving forward.

Nate Karns (KC, SP): 20% owned

A slightly-inflated ERA is holding down Karns’ ownership right now, but given his xFIP (3.17) it may not be long before he’s jumping up the ownership ranks. Karns has 22 strikeouts in his past two outings alone, and he gave up just four runs combined in those starts - it’s somewhat amazing his ownership is still so low. Karns had his success against a pair of solid AL East offenses in Baltimore and Tampa Bay, so it’s not as if he was running up stats against the dregs of the league. Karns has an excellent batted ball profile this season, as he is allowing just a 11.4 percent line drive rate, inducing grounders 55.2 percent of the time, and his soft hit ball rate is over 25 percent (25.5%). Karns draws the Twins next time out.

Jordan Montgomery (NYY, SP): 12% owned

Montgomery got seven strikeouts in six innings against Houston and had just one walk, but he did give up eight hits and four runs in a loss. Still a lot to like as a high-floor young arm.

 

Players to Watch in 12-team Leagues

Austin Hedges (SD, C): 26% owned

We add another catchers to the ranks this week, as the position is beginning to show it has some depth - at least if you’re in deeper leagues where you can afford to dig a bit deeper. Hedgers hit a pair of homers and went 6-for-19 last week, as the Padres’ backstop is up to eight homers on the season. Of course, he is also hitting just .209 with an OBP of .258. There are a lot of power hitters who you can afford to keep despite poor BA/OBP, but Hedges is really low in both. On the one hand, one would have to assume his .205 BABIP is going to have some positive regression moving forward, but it is actually somehow higher than his career BABIP of .194 in 99 career games. His line drive rate (17.1%) is miles better than 2016 (5.6%), so I do believe it’s safe to assume a bit of BA increase from here on out. If/when that increase does come, Hedges will be a nice catcher option in mixed leagues.

Trevor Rosenthal (STL, RP): 37% owned

Rosenthal continues to pitch great (four shutout innings, five strikeouts), but Seung-Hwan Oh is settling in more and more after a rough start meaning Rosenthal is further from the closer’s role. He has value regardless, but obviously way more value as the actual closer.

Tommy Pham (STL, OF): 11% owned

Pham has never been a game-breaker, but he is hot right now. With two homers and two steals in the past week, his stock is going through the roof. That 11 percent ownership isn’t going to last for long.

J.C. Ramirez (LAA, SP/RP): 18% owned

Ramirez got hit around a bit at the beginning of his last start, but he settled in for a seven-inning outing, albeit one in which he gave up five runs against the Tigers.

Zack Wheeler (NYM, SP): 23% owned

Wheeler had a nice one-start week, getting the win (his second) thanks to six innings of one-run ball against the admittedly-muted Giants offense. Wheeler seems close to a potential breakthrough once again.

Tommy Joseph (Phi, 1B): 19% owned

Joseph was one of the biggest disappointments among the trendy, sleeper types for the first month-plus of the season, but he may just be heating up with the weather. In his last four games, Joseph has gone 7-for-14 with six runs, three home runs, and four RBI. Going back just before then, he had back-to-back multi-hit games last Friday and Saturday and has improved his slash line as much as anybody in the past 10 days. Suddenly Joseph’s slash line doesn’t look that much different than his under-the-radar 2016 season, although he is still hitting more ground balls than we would like to see. His ground ball rate is up ten percent overall in 2017, but in May that rate has been closer to his 2016 rate. If he can continue to elevate his swing from here on out, Joseph will once again be popping up on mixed-league radar.

Mike Foltynewicz (Atl, SP): 13% owned

Folty’s write up is a carbon copy of Wheeler’s. Got a win against a pedestrian offense in which he went six innings, allowed six base runners, and struck out four. Sometimes things don’t change much in a week for pitchers.

Jarrod Dyson (Sea, OF): 19% owned

An OPS of .821 with a steal and four runs: pretty average week for Dyson. Sometimes things don’t change that much for hitters in a week either.

 

Players to Watch in 14+ team Leagues

Justin Bour (Mia, 1B): 9% owned

Here’s a guy who keeps moving closer to our preseason hopes, as Bour went deep three times again last week, bringing him to seven for the season. He has seven homers in 25 games (45-homer pace) after failing to go deep his first ten games.

Logan Morrison (TB, 1B): 11% owned

Morrison had just four hits last week, but three were home runs. He’s been secretly great over the past 12 months and has a pretty high floor at this point.

Joe Biagini (TOR, SP): 12% owned

Biagini has made the transition from the bullpen to the rotation looks as easy as any pitcher in recent memory, going a combined nine shutout innings in his two starts for the Blue Jays so far. Both outings have come with limited pitch counts, but he was still able to have plenty of value, as he nabbed one win, allowed just six base runners (no walks) and struck out seven in the two starts combined (nine innings). If Biagini is able to keep his success up in the rotation, the Jays will find a way to keep him there. Biagini has an excellent ground ball rate (58.7 percent) and has always been able to keep his opponents in the ballpark (HR/FB rate of 5.6 percent in his career) thanks in part to a low hard hit ball rate (23.9 percent). There’s a lot to like here for the converted reliever who will draw the Braves on the road this Wednesday. The week after he’ll be a two-start pitcher who will be a must-add if he does well against Atlanta, so think about pulling the trigger right after the Braves start if he is successful and you want him for the following week.

Taylor Motter (SEA, SS/OF): 10% owned

After a couple of weeks with lower plate appearances, Motter was back in the Mariner lineup for 17 at bats last week, and he collected four hits and stole a base.

Colby Rasmus (TB, OF): 3% owned

Rasmus and his glorious beard have hardly missed a beat since returning from his DL stint to start 2017. Rasmus has a .276/.382/.690 slash line in the (admittedly-tiny) ten-game sample of 2017, and the three home runs really jump off the page. Rasmus has been an excellent power source in seasons past, as he has averaged right around 20 homers a season over his eight seasons in baseball. Kevin Cash and the Rays will make sure to put Rasmus in the best situations to succeed, which means he might not be in the lineup each and every night, but in deeper leagues where that isn’t a deal breaker, he should be on your radar. We don’t want to read too much into nine games, but he’s lacing the ball so far with a 44 percent hard hit ball rate, and a 61.1 percent fly ball rate that shows he’s having no problem elevating the ball.

Cameron Rupp (Phi, C): 14% owned

Rupp got only seven at bats in the past week, but he nabbed four hits and had a run and two RBI. I’m not too worried about Andrew Knapp taking at bats from Rupp on a regular basis.

 

Players to Watch in AL or NL-Only Leagues

Jed Lowrie (OAK, 2B): 6% owned

Past week: six hits two of which were home runs. Seriously, where is the love, people?

T.J. Rivera (NYM, 1B/2B/3B): 6% owned

After a loud breakout last week, Rivera settled in nicely with a .304 average and six RuBIns last week. That seems like a typical week for him going forward.

Derek Norris (TB, C): 3% owned

That positive regression from his beastly hard hit and line drive rate isn’t coming in avalanches, but he had another solid week with a .286 average and three runs.

Ezequiel Carrera (Tor, OF): 2% owned

Don’t look now (actually do look now, it’s fantasy baseball, always be looking around), but Carrera is hitting .327 and has three home runs in 2017. The 29-year-old has never been much of a prospect or made much of an impact, so this may just be a fluky hot streak, but that’s why this is the AL-only watch list section - we’re taking chances here. Carrera is indeed sporting the best line drive rate of his career (22.4%), and while his HR/FB rate is also a career-high, that might be a good thing in this case, as that number has trended upward each of the past four seasons, meaning Carrera may just be filling out a bit. If he puts together another week or so like this, he’ll start making his way onto some deeper rosters.

 

Graduated - Ownership Too High

Justin Wilson (Det, RP): 68% owned

Aaron Hicks (NYY, OF): 66% owned

Yonder Alonso (Oak, 1B): 64% owned

Trevor Cahill (SD, SP/RP): 54% owned

Charlie Morton (Hou, SP): 43% owned

Demoted

Mitch Moreland (Bos, 1B): 16% owned

Joaquin Benoit (Phi, RP): 15% owned

Andrew Toles (LAD, OF): 2% owned

 

More Waiver Wire Pickups and Adds




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REAL-TIME FANTASY NEWS

Gradey Dick

Injured on Wednesday
RJ Barrett

to Be Re-Evaluated in One Week
Anthony Davis

on the Cusp of Returning
Gary Payton II

Hurt in Wednesday's Loss
Stephen Curry

Diagnosed With Quadriceps Contusion
Alvin Kamara

Doesn't Practice on Wednesday
Lukas Dostal

Out Wednesday Night
Sean Durzi

Available Against Canadiens
Thomas Chabot

to Remain Out Wednesday
Jared McCann

Expected to Rejoin Kraken Lineup Wednesday
Andre Burakovsky

a Game-Time Decision Wednesday
Zach Edey

Good to Go Versus New Orleans
Mikko Rantanen

Returns to Stars Lineup Wednesday
J.K. Dobbins

Could Return Later This Season
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Available on Wednesday
Mark Stone

Ready to Return Wednesday
Nikola Jović

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Dylan Cease

Agrees With Blue Jays on Seven-Year, $210 Million Deal
Norman Powell

Back in Action Wednesday
Giannis Antetokounmpo

Ruled Out on Wednesday Evening
Andrew Wiggins

Will Suit Up Against Milwaukee
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

a Game-Time Decision on Wednesday
Terry McLaurin

Plans to Play on Sunday Night
Dru Smith

Available Versus Bucks
Miami Heat

Jamie Jaquez Jr. Available for Wednesday's Matchup With Milwaukee
Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Upgraded to Probable Against Bucks
Pat Connaughton

Sidelined on Wednesday
Dylan Harper

Set to Suit Up Wednesday
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Landry Shamet

Sidelined at Least Four Weeks
Anthony Rendon

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Brandon Aiyuk

49ers Won't Open Brandon Aiyuk's Practice Window This Week
Joe Burrow

Bengals Officially Activate Joe Burrow for a Return on Thanksgiving
C.J. Stroud

Practicing Wednesday
Trey Benson

Spotted at Practice on Wednesday
Marvin Harrison Jr.

Back at Practice Wednesday
DeVonta Smith

Missing From Practice Again on Wednesday
Josh Hader

Says his Shoulder is "Back to Normal"
Ketel Marte

Diamondbacks "Actively Listening" on Ketel Marte
Jaxson Dart

to be a Full Participant at Wednesday's Practice
Dalton Kincaid

has "a Chance" to Play in Week 13
Drake London

"Doubtful" to Return from Knee Injury in Week 13
Jayden Daniels

Could Return in Week 14
Aaron Rodgers

Slated to Return in Week 13
Baker Mayfield

Could Play This Week
Josh Jacobs

"Good to Go" in Pivotal NFC North Matchup on Thanksgiving
Steven Adams

Ruled Out Wednesday Against Warriors
George Pickens

Expected to Play Thursday Against the Chiefs
J.J. McCarthy

Not Expected to Play Sunday in Seattle
Dennis Schröder

Dennis Schroder Questionable With Hip Soreness On Wednesday
Josh Norris

Nearing Return
Kevin Lankinen

Not Traveling With Canucks
Zach Werenski

Escapes Serious Injury, May Play Wednesday
Auston Matthews

Could Be an Option Wednesday
Jason Robertson

Scores in Seventh Consecutive Game
Wyatt Johnston

Ends Dry Spell With Four-Point Performance
DeVonta Smith

Listed as DNP on Tuesday
Vinnie Hinostroza

to Miss 4-6 Weeks
Pyotr Kochetkov

Dealing With Undisclosed Injury
Tristan Jarry

Expected to Be Available Wednesday
Evgenii Dadonov

Doubtful for Wednesday
J.T. Miller

Joins Team for Road Trip
Joel Kiviranta

Ready to Return Wednesday
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Expected to Return on Saturday
Jauan Jennings

Won't be Suspended
Omarion Hampton

Chargers Open Omarion Hampton's Practice Window
J.T. Realmuto

Red Sox Showing Interest in J.T. Realmuto
Sonny Gray

Red Sox Acquire Sonny Gray From the Cardinals
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Jeremiah Smith, Makai Lemon, Skyler Bell Named Biletnikoff Award Finalists
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Extends Scoring Streak With Three-Point Effort
Shohei Ohtani

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Warren Schaeffer to Stick Around as Rockies Manager in 2026
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Chris Bell Out for Rivalry Matchup Against Kentucky
Ryan Helsley

Tigers Eyeing Ryan Helsley as a Starter
Dan Hooker

Suffers Second-Round Submission Loss
Marcus Semien

Shipped to the Mets on Sunday
Arman Tsarukyan

Gets Submission Win
Brandon Nimmo

Traded to Texas
Belal Muhammad

Loses Back-to-Back Fights
Belal Muhammad

Ian Machado Garry Outpoints Belal Muhammad
Alonzo Menifield

Suffers First-Round Knockout Loss
Volkan Oezdemir

Gets Back In The Win Column
Jack Hermansson

Gets Knocked Out
Jack Hermansson

Myktybek Orolbai Knocks Out Jack Hermansson
Shamil Gaziev

Suffers First-Round Knockout Loss
Waldo Cortes-Acosta

Shines At UFC Qatar
Tagir Ulanbekov

Suffers Third-Round Submission Loss
Kyoji Horiguchi

Makes Triumphant UFC Return
Adolis García

Rangers Non-Tender Adolis Garcia on Friday
CFB

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Dan Hooker

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Arman Tsarukyan

Looks To Extend His Win Streak
Ian Machado Garry

A Favorite At UFC Qatar
Belal Muhammad

Looks To Bounce Back
Alonzo Menifield

Looks For His Third Consecutive Win
Volkan Oezdemir

Looks To Get Back In The Win Column
Myktybek Orolbai

Looks To Win Back-To-Back Fights
Jack Hermansson

Makes His Welterweight Debut
Kyoji Horiguchi

Returns To The UFC

RANKINGS

QB
RB
WR
TE
K
DEF
RANKINGS
C
1B
2B
3B
SS
OF
SP
RP