Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Week 10

With the first full week of June coming, here are five guys to seek out on the waiver wire in your fantasy baseball league.

5. Whit Merrifield, 2B, Kansas City Royals

Merrifield has an 18-game hitting streak going, with a .387 batting average, a 1.062 OPS, three home runs, nine RBI, four stolen bases and 10 runs scored over that span. He probably deserves a better spot in the Royals’ lineup, as he has hit no higher than sixth during his current streak and eighth 14 times.

Merrifield should come back to Earth a bit, but he simply has to be put in a better lineup spot by manager Ned Yost. There’s a multi-category contributor here, and mixed league owners looking for some middle infield help have to take notice.
ESPN Ownership: 17.7%

4. Trevor Bauer, SP, Cleveland Indians

Over his last four starts, Bauer has a 36:4 K/BB ratio while allowing three runs or less all four times. His 6.00 ERA is deceiving, masking a career best 11.5 K/9 rate (73:19 K/BB ratio overall this season) and bad luck reflected by a 3.99 FIP.

Bauer has never quite put it all together in his career, but he is still just 26 years old. Increased use of his curve ball this year (career best 24.6 percent) seems to be spurring more missed bats, and he threw the pitch over 41 percent of the time in his last start against Oakland on his way to a career-high 14 strikeouts.

Bauer will start on Sunday against the Kansas City Royals, in a favorable-looking matchup. Adding him and streaming is a viable option, but Bauer should be added in AL-only and deeper mixed leagues.
ESPN Ownership: 43.3%

3. Brandon Maurer, RP, San Diego Padres

Indications of Maurer’s demise as Padres’ closer seem to be a bit premature, as he’s picked up four saves (on four opportunities) over the last week. A closer look at that recent run shows some less than enticing upside (two strikeouts and one walk over four innings), but a long a Maurer is converting saves he has fantasy value.

Brad Hand is lingering as another option to close games for manager Andy Green, but he’s also a trade target for contending teams and could be on the move soon. Maurer is also theoretically a potential trade asset, but he could just as easily be left standing for the ninth inning.

NL-only league owners should already have Maurer on their radar, and mixed leagues owners should too. There’s some volatility for sure, but that’s nothing new for fantasy owners seeking a boost in saves.
ESPN Ownership: 27.2%

2. Pablo Sandoval, 3B, Boston Red Sox

Sandoval went 3-for-4 in his first game back from the disabled list last week, and he hit a home run on Friday night. Memories of his first two seasons in Boston will surely linger, and push fantasy owners to avid him completely until further notice. But if he’s healthy and stays in proper shape, being a regular in the Red Sox lineup carries automatic fantasy potential.

At his peak with the San Francisco Giants, Sandoval was a multi-category asset for fantasy owner. A solid batting average spurred good RBI and runs scored totals, and there’s no reason he can’t get some of that back again.

Sandoval is worth stashing in mixed leagues, if only to see where he goes this season. If he is injured again, he’s easy to drop back to the waiver wire. If he gets it together and can sustain it all, he could help win a lot of leagues.
ESPN Ownership: 6.4%

1. Lucas Duda, 1B, New York Mets

It’s been a pretty good year for first baseman who derive fantasy value almost solely from power numbers, and Duda has joined the party recently. Over his last 10 games entering Sunday, he has six home runs and 11 RBI with multiple hits six times in that span.

Perhaps based on a 2016 season lost mostly to injury, fantasy owners have forgotten that Duda totaled 57 home runs in 2014 and 2015. The recent hot streak has brought the expected spike in ownership, but there’s still a clear opportunity.

Duda has to be owned in far more mixed leagues. If you’re falling short in home runs, or just need another good first base option, there aren’t any better reinforcements around than Duda right now.

ESPN Ownership: 20.1%

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