Welcome to Pickup of the Day, where every weekday we’ll pick an under-the-radar player whose immediate value is on the rise. The idea here is to identify a starter who can give you some solid innings off the scrap heap, a talented backup who’s been given a chance because of a starter’s injury, an unheralded regular with a favorable matchup, or a potential breakout player who’s starting to put it together. Unlike regular waiver-wire advice, Pickup of the Day is geared more towards interim success, but hopefully we’ll have the intuition to help you snag a waiver-wire gem a few times this season.
Crawford was thrown into a part-time role after missing three months with a torn oblique, but he’s getting most of the looks in left field now that Yasiel Puig is on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Don’t expect many at-bats against southpaws, but the 34-year-old was pretty productive for most of August and is just one year removed from a .300/.339/.429 batting line. He could be useful in deeper mixed formats down the stretch and certainly warrants being owned in more than 17 percent of Yahoo leagues like he is right now.
