10-Team Leagues

Hyun-Jin Ryu , LAD SP (65% ownership), FAAB Bid - $14-15 - There aren’t going to be many better options on your waiver wires, especially at pitcher, than Ryu. He’s only pitched a few games this season because of injury, but he’s been so good when healthy. He has a 2.27 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP. Ryu is currently working on a 10.44 K/9 which would actually be a career-high mark if he could keep it up. He’s a no-brainer for the remainder of the year.

Luis Castillo , CIN SP (60% ownership), FAAB Bid - $12-13 - It seems we’re finally getting the Castillo everyone thought we’d get coming into this season and it isn’t some sort of fluke. Since July 14th, Castillo has posted a 2.83 ERA and his opponents are hitting just .229 on the year. Over that span he also has a 25.6-percent K-rate, so he’s really contributing across the board. This is a guy I want on my team for the remainder of the year.

Marwin González , HOU 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF (60% ownership), FAAB Bid - $11 - Every team could use a guy like Gonzalez down the stretch of the season, especially since he’s playing well. Since the All-Star break, Gonzalez has slashed .293/.387/.543 with a .250 ISO and .393 wOBA. He’s doing it all and can literally play every position except for catcher. Who doesn’t want someone like this on their team for the remainder of the season? Someone who doesn’t want to win. That’s who.

 

12-Team Leagues

Brett Anderson , OAK SP (16% ownership), FAAB Bid - $10 - I wasn’t sure how long this success would last, but Anderson continues to prove me wrong and he deserves this write up. On Tuesday night he twirled seven shutout innings against the Rangers while striking out six. As a matter of fact, over his last 26.2 innings, he’s allowed a measly two earned runs. The strikeout numbers could obviously be higher, but he’s pitching lights out and should be owned almost everywhere as an SP3/SP4 type arm.

Michael Kopech , CWS SP (54% ownership), FAAB Bid - $8-9 - Kopech made his Major League debut on Tuesday but it was unfortunately cut short due to rain. He threw two innings while striking out four batters. That, however, is significant, because we’re going to see a lot of strikeouts. He features a 100 MPH fastball which helped him strikeout 170 batters over 128.1 innings. We’re obviously unsure how successful he’ll be going forward, but with the type of swing and miss stuff he has, it’s hard to not to at least take a shot on him for the remainder of the year.

Melky Cabrera , CLE OF (6% ownership), FAAB Bid - $7-8 - Say what you want about his age, where he was before signing with Cleveland, but he’s been great for the Indians. Just over his last nine games he’s hit five homers and driven in 13 runs. The opportunity for continued production will be there as well with Cleveland continuing to run him out in the heart of it’s order. Hopping on board with the “Milk Man” could be a good idea for the remainder of the year.

 

15-Team Leagues

Felix Pena , LAA SP, RP (3% ownership), FAAB Bid - $7 - Since the Angels have stretched Pena out to be a starter, he’s really given them a reason not to remove him from the rotation. He’s coming off a game in which yeah, he allowed four runs over six innings, but he struck out a career-high 12 batters. That gives him 23 over his last three starts which ranks him sixth in the league over the past two weeks. If he can continue to miss bats at this rate, there is no doubt he’s worth owning in deeper formats like this.

Kendrys Morales , TOR 1B (16% ownership), FAAB Bid - $6-7 - Morales is another guy who is absolutely on fire of late and can be of use in deeper leagues. He’s homered in three straight games and four times over that span. He now has 17 on the year and could easily get to 25 by year’s end, which plays in all formats. Other than home runs and runs batted in, Morales won’t provide us with much, which is why he’s limited to 15-team league formats for me.

David Fletcher , LAA 2B, 3B, SS (2% ownership), FAAB Bid - $2 - We’re not going to get the power here, but Fletcher has been really good at the dish regardless. He’d currently riding a seven game hitting streak with six runs scored and six runs batted in as well. He has three multi-hit games in a row and five over his last seven. He can slotted in in three infield spots and is contributing in multiple categories. He should be owned in all AL-only formats.