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First base and third base have been a struggle thus far in the fantasy season. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Jose Ramirez are doing their part to represent the elite at the CI position, but few others are helping out. According to the ESPN player rater (which isn't all that great of a tool, but easily captures 5x5 value), only seven of the top 30 hitters in the league are eligible at either 1B or 3B. There are 13 MI-eligible players in the same data set.
CI is supposed to be where the big boppers play. Teams throw bad defenders at first or slow defenders at third. These guys are in the lineup to hit! It hasn't been happening yet this season thanks to injuries, underachievement, and some bad luck. Look no further than the New York Yankees for an encapsulation of how CI is going thus far. Luke Voit (oblique) has missed most of the season due to injury. Meanwhile, DJ LeMahieu has been in there every day and just hasn't hit. I don't know which is worse for a fantasy lineup, but both require finding help on the waiver wire.
For our purposes in this column, we are looking at Yahoo!'s rostered percentages, as well as its positional eligibility. We are searching for useful players rostered in fewer than 40 percent of Yahoo! leagues. With that being said, below are my first base and third base waiver wire pickups to consider for Week 12 - June 14 through June 20.
Alex Kirilloff, Minnesota Twins
36% Rostered
The former top prospect has gained first base eligibility in Yahoo! leagues. He has also recently been dumped in 10 percent of all leagues, meaning he has also become eligible for this column. We don't have a huge sample yet for Kirilloff this season because of injury. The early returns are promising though, as one would expect from a young hitter with such high promise. Kirilloff has a 50.6 percent hard-hit rate and a survivable K-rate. His xSLG and xwOBA are both sky high, at .603 and .395, respectively. He is also starting to hit in more favorable spots in the Minnesota lineup. This past week saw him bat second, third, and fourth multiple times.
The Twins have been an unmitigated disaster, but that doesn't really impact Kirilloff's fantasy ceiling all that much. Two of the top four RBI men at 1B play for losing teams. At third base, it's two of the top six that play for losing teams. Kirilloff is going to get his opportunities for counting stats, and if early returns are any indication, his rate stats are going to start sky rocketing upwards to better reflect the quality of contact he is making. If there's one reason to lessen excitement, it's his terrible 4.9 percent walk rate. Yet that was never his forte in the minors either. It was his 60-60 hit and power tools on the scouting reports.
C.J. Cron, Colorado Rockies
35% Rostered
Cron has been in a tailspin for quite a while now. After hitting .274 in April and May, Cron is batting just .156 in June. His other numbers have suffered from similar slides. Yet it has only been 34 plate appearances this month. I am not ready to bail. In other words, I'd be looking to add him if he was dumped onto waivers in my league.
Cron is still exhibiting an elite high-end exit velocity and superior 11.4 percent walk rate. He is not barreling up as many balls as one would want, but particularly in OBP leagues, this is a batted-ball profile we can live with. Cron remains a lynchpin in the middle of the Colorado lineup. Trevor Story is back off the IL, batting ahead of him. Considering Josh Fuentes is Cron's only real competition for playing time, and the former has one of the very worst batted-ball profiles of anyone in the Majors, Cron managers should feel confident in him coming out on top in the long run.
Miguel Andujar, New York Yankees
33% Rostered
Andujar is a weird case indeed. We remember him as an impressive bat that burst onto the scene and then fell completely out of favor. His favor has returned, mostly out of complete necessity. Thanks to injuries, the Yankees are running out of outfield options (though he is 3B-eligible for our purposes). And with consistent playing time has come production. Andujar has five home runs and 14 runs scored in just 28 games. He is producing despite hitting near the bottom of the New York lineup. More relevantly, he is producing by somehow being a patient hitter who never walks.
Andujar has a 2 percent walk rate. In exactly 100 at-bats, he walked twice. And yet, his other numbers don't tell the tale of a wild hacker. He has a league-average K-rate and better than league-average whiff rate. (We don't have exact percentile figures from Baseball Savant because he has too few plate appearances to qualify.) His zone contact rate is 88.1 percent, which has helped lead to a 9.3 percent barrel rate and 45.3 percent hard-hit rate. If anything, his home run total is low thanks to a very low launch angle thus far. Andujar is helping to remind us of his breakout 2018 season. Oh, by the way, his current xBA, xSLG, and xwOBA are all higher than those same stats were in '18. Hopefully he can find a reason to make Aaron Boone keep him in the lineup for quite a while longer.
Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
16% Rostered
Another cornerman back off the IL, Votto returned to the Reds lineup this past Tuesday. Unlike some of his positional peers, he has looked good since returning; like he hasn't missed a beat. And, if you will recall, the 2021 version of Votto was something quite unexpected. His walk rate is the lowest it has been since 2008! His K-rate is the highest it has ever been (though still above-average league-wide).
Votto, instead, turned himself into a power bat. He ranks in the top 20 percent of the league in pretty much every power category: exit velocity, hard-hit percentage, xSLG, and barrel rate. Thanks to a .232 BABIP, his actual numbers have been down, but they won't stay that way for long.
Daniel Vogelbach, Milwaukee Brewers
2% Rostered
Many assumed Vogelbach would lose his playing time once Keston Hiura returned from Triple-A. Hiura proved himself to be unplayable yet again, leaving the Brewers to turn back to Vogelbach on a somewhat regular basis. And he has delivered. It is all thanks to a great batting eye and big-time power.
Vogelbach ranks in the 95th percentile in walk rate and chase rate. He is also among the top 25 percent in hard-hit rate and average exit velocity. Waits for his pitch and does damage when he gets it; or he takes first base. That is a pretty strong recipe for success. Batting second in the Milwaukee lineup is a great spot for such a repertoire as well.
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