RADIO
The final week of the regular season is here. With it, comes fantasy championships. Those playing in head-to-head leagues are looking at their matchup to determine which stats are needed to come out victorious. Managers in roto leagues are approaching the final stretch slightly differently. They are looking to find individual stat edges that can be made up in such a short amount of time. Both situations warrant scouring the waiver wire for the players that can make the difference.
Of course, all the worthy bats have already been given a previous mention in this column. That is to be expected after 26 weeks. That leaves us with only repeats. Each man has strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses can be detrimental; if they weren't, these players wouldn't be so readily available. Pay attention to what a player does poorly and what he does well to determine which is the best fit for this final weekly matchup.
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 27 - September 27 through October 3.
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The Repeats
Nathaniel Lowe never got back up to being rostered in 40 percent of leagues. I get it, but he is someone worth considering this final week. Lowe currently sits at 38 percent rostered and has an .818 OPS in September. That is his best mark since April. The power never really returned after that scalding April start, but Lowe is getting on base better than he has all year. He also has some nice matchups to finish out the season. Texas hosts the Los Angeles Angels to start the week and then hosts Cleveland, while likely avoiding a start from Shane Bieber in the latter series.
For the home-run-only crowd, Patrick Wisdom still sits at 35 percent rostered. He hit two more home runs this week, bringing his season total to 28. Leagues that count both batting average and on-base percentage as individual categories will want to avoid Wisdom unless they literally only need home run tallies, but with a monstrous .522 slugging percentage, he remains a viable option in OPS leagues. Chicago gets a series against Pittsburgh to start this week, which is nice. It isn't ideal to finish against the hottest team in baseball, though St. Louis should have clinched a playoff spot by then anyway.
Jeimer Candelario (35% rostered) and the Detroit Tigers play this week against the Minnesota Twins and a potentially resting and recouping White Sox team that long since clinched the Central. Candelario is not flashy; he's pretty, darn solid though. After a slowish August, he's playing his best baseball of the season in September. Not known for his power bat, he's hit six of his 16 home runs this month, with still a week to play. It's brought his full stat line into four-category production in standard leagues. Nothing is spectacular, but Candelario produces solidly in everything but steals.
With all the roster flux in San Francisco, here is LaMonte Wade Jr. (16%), still playing every day and hitting cleanup. It is the ideal scenario for the young man. It wouldn't be fair or smart to mess with his at-bats when he continues to hit. He's up to an .849 OPS for the season thanks to a smooth September slash line of .323/.408/.500. San Francisco finishes the season with the inept Diamondbacks and the reeling Padres. Wade should continue to see a ton of good chances.
The Phillies are rolling, Brad Miller (11%) keeps hitting, and no one seems to notice. Miller is now up to 20 home runs for the year. His production is forcing Joe Girardi to find at-bats for him, even when he doesn't warrant a start. His .872 OPS in September is the best mark he's put up since August of 2020. It isn't calming or comforting to roster and start Miller in fantasy because of his erratic play, but the reward could be worth the risk. Philadelphia is heading into the biggest series of the MLB season, with three in Atlanta, and then wraps up with a trip to Miami. Not exactly fantasy relevant, but the Braves are just 37-37 at home, the worst mark of any above-.500 team in the league, let alone among playoff contenders.
We expected a slowdown from Yoshi Tsutsugo (10%) after his August. How could he not after 14 games of a 1.246 OPS? Well, he has slowed down, all the way to a September OPS of .908. The Pirates finish things out against the Cubs and Reds. Though the team is out of it, and has been for a while, Tsutsugo is certainly still playing his hardest with eyes on earning a full-time job next year.
Since returning from the IL this week, Andy Ibanez (3%) has been boom-or-bust. In seven games, he has three multi-hit games and four hitless games. However, Texas had slotted him in the middle of the lineup each day before finally giving him an off day Saturday. As mentioned with Nate Lowe, a series against the Angels to start the week is nice, and things could finish okay by missing Bieber in the Cleveland series. Ibanez is an interesting bat for next year. I'd like to see him collect a few more chances to produce some counting stats this final week.
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