10-Team Leagues

Ross Stripling , LAD SP, RP (67% ownership), FAAB Bid - $14 - I’ve actually mentioned Stripling in a recent waiver wire piece but he’s essentially a must-own player right now. Clayton Kershaw was sent back to the disabled list Friday with another back injury. Not only Kershaw, but Rich Hill , Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu are all dealing with injuries of their own, so Stripling is kind of the last man standing in a sense. Since becoming a starter on 5/6, Stripling owns a 1.24 ERA across 29 innings. Over that span he has an elite 35.4-percent K-rate, 54.4-percent ground ball rate, and is only allowing hard contact 17.4-percent of the time. Must own.

Christian Villanueva , SDP 3B (54% ownership), FAAB Bid - $10-12 - There were a lot of people jumping off of the Villanueva bandwagon after a slow start to May but we head into June and he has 15 home runs and is amongst the league leaders in that category. In his limited Major League sample last year he had a 36.4-percent fly ball rate and he’s increased that all the way to 55.1. He’s also ripping the ball almost every time he makes contact with it posting a 42.3-percent hard hit rate. His power potential alone keeps him viable in all formats.

Ian Kinsler , LAA 2B (41% ownership), FAAB Bid - $9-11 - All aboard, the Ian Kinsler train is leaving the station. It was only a matter of time before Kinsler started to hit as he’s currently riding a five game hitting streak. During this mini streak, he has three multi-hit games, two homers, five runs scored and driven in. Kinsler is now up to four homers and six stolen bases on the year and if he continues to play this well, he’s easily a 20/20 candidate at a position that doesn’t have too many of those guys. He keeps hitting in front of Mike Trout as well, so his run scoring potential alone is through the roof.

 

12-Team Leagues

Ben Zobrist , CHC 2B, OF (17% ownership), FAAB Bid - $7 - Joe Maddon has been using Zobrist on a strict schedule. He plays two games and then sits the third. If he was playing everyday he would be owned in all formats as long as he continued to produce the way he has. He’s raised his average over .300 to .304 and is host to an .856 OPS. Over his last 10 games, he’s done a little of everything for the Cubs. He’s scored 11 runs, hit three homers and four doubles, has driven in eight runs and walked seven times. And on top of that all, he’s multi-position eligible. He’s a great add right now.

Jason Kipnis , CLE 2B, OF (34% ownership), FAAB Bid - $6-8 - It’s a toss up between Kipnis and Ben Zobrist above on who I’d rather own. Kipnis has more upside because he plays every single day, but Zobrist is the one producing. Kipnis has, however, turned up the heat a bit hitting .275 over the last two weeks. Kipnis is a player who’s had an OPS over .800 in two of the last three years and has at least been over .700 for three straight. This season that number is an ugly .576. I think I’d rather own Zobrist for now, but Kipnis for the remainder of the season.

Ryan Yarbrough , TBR SP, RP (10% ownership), FAAB Bid - $7 - Yarbrough is an interesting case and an interesting name for fantasy teams. He’s been the first guy out of the bullpen for the Rays after they deploy their reliever first strategy and he’s done really well. The 26-year old rookie has a really nice K-rate of 23.4-percent on the year and has allowed his opponents to hit a measly .213 on the year. His 3.68 SIERA and 4.15 xFIP give us an idea that this is real and he can sustain this type of success going forward.

 

15-Team Leagues

Nathan Eovaldi , TBR SP (8% ownership), FAAB Bid - $6 - After not pitching since August of 2016, Eovaldi took the mound and threw six no-hit innings for the Rays in his season debut. He struck out four and was very economical throwing just 70 pitches. His pitch count should continue to rise with each game and in a matter of no time he’ll be off any sort of limit. Eovaldi’s fastball looked as good as ever averaging 98.1 MPH, which if the season ended today, would be his fastest average velocity of his career. Until he shows us some consistency, I wouldn’t want to own him in anything more than 15-teamers.

Max Stassi , HOU C (17% ownership), FAAB Bid - $5-6 - Two catchers on one waiver wire article? Weird. But both deserve the recognition, especially Stassi. Brian McCann is dealing with a knee injury and will miss some time, leaving the keys to Stassi behind the dish. Stassi has responded with a .303 AVG over his last 10 games pushing that mark to .293 on the year. Stassi has absolutely massacred left-handed pitching this year hitting a wildly robust .500 against them, so even when McCann does return Stassi will continue getting the starts against LHP. Stassi has flashed a ton of pop this year as evident to his .536 SLG. If he keeps this up the Astros will be hard pressed not to continue to give him the lion's share even McCann returns.

John Ryan Murphy, ARI C (5% ownership), FAAB Bid - $4 - It’s getting to the point where there is no reason he shouldn’t be the starting backstop for the D’Backs. He’s hit a home run in three straight games and has five over his last 10. In his last 10 games he’s also slashing .367/.406/.933. Meanwhile Álex Ávila is hitting .131 on the year, but the D’Backs did just tell Avila he’s going to be benched more often in favor of Murphy. If Murphy continues to play two out of every three games or more, he’ll hold value in even 12-team formats.

*Ownership percentages courtesy of Yahoo

** FAAB bids based on $100 budget