Greetings friends, and happy first official day of summer! Last week our deep league roundup had sort of an under-the-radar utility guy theme to it, and this week we’re looking more at a “post-post-hype prospect/older veterans who you didn’t know were still actively playing in the majors” vibe. I’m going to be traveling this week and writing this a bit earlier than usual, so we’ll see how much changes by the time it gets magically beamed to Razzball Nation. I’ve already changed things up once since Tuesday, omitting my blurb about the White Sox Jonathan Cannon. I virtually scribbled down some notes about him (mostly that his minor league numbers and his underlying metrics didn’t look mixed-league worthy, but might be worth a deep league shot). Since then he went out and pitched one of the better games of the entire MLB season, coming one out away from a complete game shutout against the Astros. I’m still not sure I’d roster him in anything close to a standard league, but his fantasy ownership has risen so much so quickly this week that he’s already left the ownership realm of that I normally use as a deep league qualifier. That’s one of the great things about our crazy little fantasy game though; things are constantly changing. Even in the deepest leagues, you never know when the most barren of free agent pools will suddenly produce a new name who might be able to give you a much-needed boost. The pickings continue to be slim for most of us, but let’s get to our weekly look at a few names that might be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.
NL
Mike Siani. I was watching a few minutes of the Cardinals’ game earlier this week, and the nicest thing the announcers could think of to say about Siani was that he has more sacrifice hits than any Cardinals’ position player since Jon Jay in 2013. (If you’ve never understood the phrase “damned by faint praise” but would like to, here’s your chance). More interesting to me than that rather paltry bit of statical praise is the fact that Siani has been playing more for the Cardinals, and may even be on the good side of an outfield platoon right now. Even though he’s been hitting out of the 9-hole, he’s been fairly productive of late and his overall numbers are all better than I realized (yes, low bar, again!), other than his icky .210 average. Perhaps the thing that stands out the most are his 9 stolen bases, 2 of which he nabbed on Wednesday. The speed alone probably warrants a look if you need steals and he’s available in an extra deep league.
Hunter Goodman. I picked up and then dropped Goodman in my deepest NL-only league last month because I thought his horrific average/OBP were hurting me more than helping me. He’s playing just enough and producing just enough, though, that I’m wondering if I should have held him a bit longer. At some point in this league this season, we’ll be at the point where I’ll likely need every single run scored and RBI I can get. Goodman is an under-the-Mendoza-line hitter for now and that may continue indefinitely, but he also has 5 homers and 15 RBI in 25 games/77 at bats. That’s not nothing in the deep NL-only world.
Jacob Stallings. It’s back to back Rockies hitters, as I was a little surprised Stallings is only 5% owned given that I’m playing him in a mixed 15-team league. (Yes, this is probably more a reflection of how dire my catching situation is, and not how good Stallings is or will be, but we digress). Stallings may not be able to keep up his current numbers, particularly his high average, but if he comes close he’d be a lot better than much of the catcher dreck out there. He’s hitting over .300 and has 4 homers and 18 RBI, and he checks in as the #12 catcher when it comes to 5×5 roto value over the last month or so.
Randall Grichuk. Grichuk isn’t playing a ton for the D-Backs, but he’s racked up 15 RBI and is hitting over .300, so there’s the tiniest bit of value there in the deepest leagues. Honestly, I’d be surprised if many mixed league owners were even aware he was currently on an active MLB roster, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a moderately useful last-man-in-your-active-lineup type in the deepest leagues.
AL
Brandon Drury. To yet again quote my friend, Grey, this time from this past Tuesday, “Drury is such a non-issue I honestly didn’t know he was even on the IL.” While Drury was playing horribly for the Angels before he went down with a hamstring injury and probably won’t be good now, the non-issues of the normal fantasy baseball world become the issues we in the deep league world sometimes have to pay attention to. So this is less of a plug for Drury and more of a PSA that he’s off the IL, he qualifies at first and second in most leagues and will be playing on occasion if not regularly for a Major League Baseball team.
Nate Pearson. Chad Green looks to be the closer for now in Toronto with Jordan Romano and Yimi Garcia both down, but in extra deep leagues it feels like time to check in on Pearson as well. For those of you too young to remember, he was a pretty legit prospect back in the day and even though his numbers haven’t been great he’s been holding his own lately in the Blue Jays bullpen. Toronto is a sub-.500 team and the 27-year old Pearson may be worth some deep keeper league monitoring just in case this is the year he puts things together and finds himself moving up the relief pitching depth chart.
Mickey Moniak. I’m forced to hold on to Jo Adell for dear life in my ultra-deep AL-only keeper league in the hopes that he actually hits a homer or steals a base in the middle of what looks like it will be a sub-.200 batting season (and even worse I wouldn’t be at all shocked if he doesn’t last the year on the major league roster, or maybe even the weekend for that matter). If Moniak wasn’t already on a team in that league, though, I’d probably pick him up since he’s been penciled in to the lineup pretty regularly lately, and I think it’s a coin flip at this point which one of the two ends up being more valuable (and yes, that’s a low bar) by season’s end.
Lawrence Butler. He’s back up as a member of the A’s outfield, after opening the year with them and then getting sent down for a month or so. Pretty sure he’s going to be the same guy he’s always been, a very low average hitter with a lot of power that he really hasn’t ever unlocked. He’ll steal from time to time as well, so if you can stomach the swing and miss he’s a a who could theoretically compile a batch of counting stats for you if he can manage to a mini hot streak or two at the plate.
