Rotoworld’s brand-new Pickups of the Day column is designed to help fantasy managers uncover a handful of widely-available targets over the course of the season. It could be a breakout candidate, a prospect stash, an injury replacement, a pitcher with a favorable matchup or week, a player who is due some better luck, or any other number of scenarios. If there’s value to be found on the waiver wire, we will find it and bring it your way.
In today’s column, we’re going to take a look at an underrated outfielder who has been swinging an extremely hot bat and another interesting streaming option for Thursday’s slate of MLB action.
PICKUPS OF THE DAY
Joey Wiemer, OF, Brewers
Available in 92 percent of Yahoo leagues
Joey Wiemer arrived in the big leagues with plenty of buzz this season, but that fervor dissipated due to his early-season struggles at the plate. In fact, if you just look at his overall line for the year it’s easy to see why he keeps getting ignored for fantasy purposes. He’s slashing just .231/.299/.429 with eight homers, 23 RBI, nine stolen bases and a 52/18 K/BB ratio over 182 at-bats. The power and speed production looks terrific, though the triple-slash definitely needs some work.
But, if we narrow that lens just a bit , we see a different picture emerge. Over the last few weeks, Wiemer has been among the hottest hitters in all of baseball. In his last 15 games, he’s slashing a monstrous .313/.389/.667 with four homers, 10 RBI and four stolen bases. That includes a ridiculous two-homer, five RBI game in a rout over the Orioles on Wednesday night.
Is it likely that the 24-year-old outfielder is going to continue at his recent pace? No, probably not. Remember though, this is a guy that surpassed 20 homers and 30 stolen bases in each of his last two minor league seasons – so the power/speed combination is legit and if he can just bump up the batting average to a respectable level he has plenty of mixed league viability. Combine that with the fact that he’s been locked in as the Brewers’ everyday center fielder, and to me it looks like a no-brainer pick up. Ride the hot streak and enjoy the results, and once again you may wind up with a nice season-long contributor at virtually no cost.
Kyle Bradish, SP, Orioles
Available in 82 percent of Yahoo leagues
Perhaps it’s time we start to take Kyle Bradish a bit more seriously. The 26-year-old right-hander has shown flashes of greatness over the past two seasons at the big league level, he just hasn’t quite seemed to put it all together. Or has he?
While we obviously can’t cherry-pick which starts we want to count, Bradish’s overall season line is being dragged down by one disastrous outing against the Red Sox in April where he surrendered seven runs over 2 1/3 innings of work. Since then, he has actually been a very solid option overall.
Over his last five starts specifically, he has registered a 2.86 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and a 23/6 K/BB ratio 28 1/3 innings. Also, despite their offensive outburst on Wednesday night, he draws a good matchup against the Brewers in Milwaukee on Thursday. The strikeout numbers aren’t exactly what we’re looking for as a rotation fixture in mixed leagues, but Bradish should be able to deliver solid ratios with a decent shot at securing a victory on Thursday, and we can’t ask for much more than that from our streaming options.
