The waiver wire also tends to get more and more dicey as the season wears on, but this season a lot of solid options are emerging. Don’t forget either; you may play in leagues where some of your opponents have given up and are no longer checking the wire, let alone their teams. This is something you should have been taking advantage of already, but if you haven’t, something you need to be doing going forward.

 

10-team leagues

Brandon Belt, SF 1B, OF (66% ownership), FAAB Bid - $23 –After a pedestrian few months of the year, Belt has begun to turn it on in July. He’s hitting .333 this month alone with six doubles and a homer. His OPS for July sits at .973 while his wOBA is .411. He’s been simply destroying the ball, making hard contact 40-percent of the time, too. Belt’s multi-position eligibility is an added bonus as well. He’s currently on pace for nearly 30 homers and 90 runs scored.

Ryan Madson, WAS RP (56% ownership), FAAB Bid - $22 – So this is a tricky position to be in because the Nationals ALSO acquired Sean Doolittle, but Madson is the odds on favorite to take over the position going forward. Madson has 86 career saves compared to Doolittle’s 36, so experience may play a factor. Doolittle’s reliability is also always a question mark because he spends more time on the DL than he does off of it. His .186 batting average against this year isn’t too shabby either.

Alex Cobb, TB SP (67% ownership), FAAB Bid - $19 –Cobb has been up and down all season, but July has been very kind to him. He’s been wiping out the opposition this month, holding them to a .177/.238/.321 slash over 21.2 innings. Cobb isn’t striking anybody out, but he has lowered his horrendous June hard contact rate of 39-percent down to 30 in July. He’s only inducing grounders 45-percent of the time compared to his 54-percent career mark, but it’s trending in the right direction this month as we’ve seen it rise back up to 47-percent. If Cobb continues to pitch this well, he’ll be a very formidable SP3 going forward.

 

12-team leagues

Odubel Herrera, PHI (49% ownership), FAAB Bid - $ 16–Since the first of June, Herrera has been a completely different player than he was in the early stages of the season. He’s played in 38 games since that day and he’s hit for a gaudy .311 AVG with 16 doubles and five homers to boot. One of Herrera’s most appealing qualities is his ability to hit righties AND lefties. He’s actually hitting the ball better against southpaws as he’s posted a 37.7-percent hard contact rate on the year.

Paul DeJong, STL 2B, SS, 3B (49% ownership), FAAB Bid - $15 – This isn’t a fluke any longer, this dude can flat out rake. DeJong has shown elite power from the middle infield position, posting a .583 SLG, which would rank him seventhin the entire National League if he were officially qualified. He does strikeout a bunch, but that is what today’s game has become, so we can definitely live with that. He’s three-position eligibility is an awesome nuance in the pickup as well.

Brent Suter, MIL SP, RP (23% ownership), FAAB Bid - $10 –Suter has been a very nice surprise for the Brewers since joining their rotation, a place he seems likely to stick for the time being. He posted a 3.48 ERA as a reliever and has improved on that mark sitting on a 2.91 ERA as a starting pitcher. Suter also has pretty decent swing and miss stuff as he has posted a 22.1% K-rate over the first half of the season. He’s a solid SP4 going forward for the remainder of the season.

 

15-team leagues

Nick Williams, PHI OF (2% ownership), FAAB Bid - $6 – Prior to the 2017 season, Baseball Prospectus ranked Williams 51st on their top-100 list. Williams has shown what got him ranked so high since being called up as he’s hit .292 with two homers and eight RBI in his first 14 games played. Williams is hitting in the middle of the Phillies order and will seemingly do so going forward. He is a deep-league add only right now based on his decent power and speed. He’s a definite major factor in all NL-only formats.

Parker Bridwell, LAA SP, RP (3% ownership), FAAB Bid - $4 –It’s pretty surprising to see the success Bridwell has had this season based on the numbers he’s allowed, but he’s only allowed more than 3 runs in one of his six starts, which is a pretty solid sample size. His 6.13 K/9 mark is less than stellar, but his 40.5-percent ground ball rate is pretty good. He’s nothing to get overly excited about, but if you’re desperate in an AL-only format, he’s a solid fit.

Steve Pearce, TOR 1B, 2B, OF (5% ownership), FAAB Bid - $1 –Pearce has been extremely solid since May after an abysmal month of April in which he batted .167. Pearce is a notorious lefty masher but this year he’s been excellent versus right-handed pitching, slashing .301/.348/.456. In deeper formats where the waiver-wire is a dark gloomy place, Pearce may be a small ray of sunshine.

 

*ownership percentages courtesy of Yahoo

** FAAB bids based on $100 budget