Rolling In The Deep: This Season Is Starting To Hurt(er)

Hello deep league friends, and anyone else out there who is still invested in fantasy baseball as we prepare to figuratively turn our calendar pages to September. Well, I will literally be turning my calendar page to September, as I love me an old school, large gridded piece of paper where I can jot down activities and appointments. I’m already anxious to do more re-capping of 2024 and planning ahead to 2025, but will attempt to remain patient as we complete the final weeks of 2024. So for now, let’s take our weekly look at some players whose ownership has risen of late but are still basically out of the conversation for those in standard leagues. Though, we will also take a quick dip into the medium this week, including one 30%-owned type (according to CBS Sports leagues) that may be of interest to those in deep-ish — if not truly deep — leagues.

AL

Parker Meadows. Meadows checks in as our AL medium-deep player, as he’s jumped up to 29% owned (from 23%) in the last week. Meadows has had an up and down year, getting some deep league sleeper love preseason, then being demoted and struggling in triple A for a while, then making it to the big leagues only to go down with a hamstring injury. All of a sudden, though, he’s not only healthy and playing regularly, he’s been playing very well, as over the last month Meadows is hitting .329 (.362 OBP) with two homers and five steals. I’m interested in a few leagues both for the final stretch of the year, as well as potentially as a late target heading into 2025.

Brant Hurter. Hurter profiles as our latest “nowhere to go but down” type, but how can we not check in on him here after the incredibly successful start he’s had to his big league career for the Tigers. He’s pitched just 22.2 innings but currently has a 3.57 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP, and 21 Ks. After several bulk relief appearances, he picked up a win in his first major league start, which was a good if not great outing against an admittedly weak offensive team in the Angels. Hurter’s minor league career ERA is a tick over 4, and his WHIP is 1.24, so regression has to be expected. It could come in a hurry but the opportunity alone keeps him on our deep league radar.

Trevor Larnach. I was moderately interested to see that Larnach’s ownership has increased of late (albeit just from 7% to 9%), since honestly he really hasn’t been on my radar even in my deeper leagues at all this year. Overall his numbers in 89 games for the Twins this year are better than I thought, most specifically his 14 homers and 45 RBI. Over the last three weeks, he’s hitting .315 with 3 homers and 10 RBI, numbers that are solid enough to help explain that ownership increase.

Manuel Rodriguez. Yes, it’s yet another Rays reliever to talk about, as with Pete Fairbanks down it’s just like the olden days in terms of the Tampa Bay closer carousel being at full spin. Rodriguez has picked up two saves in the last week and a half, and overall his numbers are great, with a 2.28 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and a strikeout an inning (not to mention 3 wins). If he can keep it up, he could be a nice deep-league add over the final month.

NL

Geraldo Perdomo. Perdomo ownership is up to 28% from 19% this week, making him our NL medium-deep player of the week. Perdomo is not going to fool anyone into thinking he’ll be a fantasy stud, but he’s been just solid enough to be a stabilizing force in an injury-ravaged fantasy lineup. He’s sporting a .280 average and a .346 OBP, and has a sneaky-helpful 43 runs scored in the 69 games he’s appeared in. He’s healthy, he’s playing just about every day in a solid offense, and I must say I was beyond surprised when I realized that he is still only 24.

Porter Hodge. We talked about Hodge not too long ago, but we’re doing it again as even with a 6% spike in ownership, he still checks in at just 15% owned in CBS leagues. Great stretches with wins and saves come and go for relievers, and since I firmly believe in the Razzballian principle of not investing too much in a closer either in a standard mixed league or in a deeper mono keeper league, this is continuing to feel like an interesting buy low opportunity. Even without the handful of saves (not to mention wins) he’s picked up lately, Hodge has been valuable in a very deep league based on his other stats, where he’s still checking in with a WHIP of well under one and a solid K rate, with 43 in his 34 innings. Yes, Jorge Lopez is still in the picture, but it’s also worth noting that Hodge is only 23. I’ll not only be keeping an eye on him as this season concludes, he may be on my watch list for standard leagues going in to next year (even if the Cubs do something dumb like add an established but not very good closer over the off season).

Patrick Corbin. Don’t look now, but I’ve noticed that in several of my leagues, the 6%-owned-in-CBS Corbin appears as one of the most valuable free agents if I sort by performance over the last couple of weeks. Earlier this week, he somehow managed to completely shut down the Yankees, going six scoreless and striking out six, which gave him wins in back-to-back games for the first time this season. This certainly feels like just a couple random blips of sunshine on a normally very ugly radar picture, but perhaps he’ll be able to keep up the momentum into September.

Ivan Herrera (7% owned)/Pedro Pages (1% owned). Both Herrera and Pages have non-offensive numbers this year in limited playing time, so we’ll see how things go for each of them with more steady at bats as they split time catching for the Cardinals with Willson Contreras down again. In a case of fantasy baseball imitating real life, I’ve already grabbed Herrera to fill in for Contreras in a 15-team mixed league, and I also recently added Pages in a 2-C NL-only league where I was down a catcher.