RADIO
Here we are again, staring down the barrel of another fantasy baseball stretch run. Unlike last year, it only feels like the season just started. Then again, if you've been less than successful at navigating the minefields of injuries, COVID cases, and the league's half-cocked crackdown on foreign substances, it may seem to you that this season has been a slog. Time dilation is a remarkable thing.
Most of the players who will be written up in this feature won't be the next breakout star. Some may only be useful for a brief period. A few might not provide any value at all. It's the nature of the beast; if these players were slam dunks, they wouldn't be widely available for free. We're looking for plausible upside with naught but opportunity cost. By considering a wide swath of factors including but not limited to evidence of a change in approach, favorable upcoming schedules, and plain ol' potential, the goal is simply to find as much marginal value as possible.
As a reminder, we'll be looking at pickups for shallow leagues (30-49% rostered) and deeper formats (10-29%), as well as highlighting players in the single-digits who deserve a spot on your watch list at the very least. These are your second base and shortstop waiver wire pickups for Week 21 - August 16 through August 22.
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Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Amed Rosario, SS/OF, Cleveland Guardians (43% rostered)
There are always a handful of names each year that make regular appearances in this space, and Rosario is one of them in 2021. He's available in four of every seven leagues despite being a top-100 player in 5x5 during the last 30 days. In that time he's hit .318 with 24 R+BI and four stolen bases.
Luis Urias, 2B/3B/SS, Milwaukee Brewers (35% rostered)
Though Urias was a popular add earlier this year, a couple of extended slumps have led to him being unrostered in nearly two-thirds of leagues. That's a lot of managers leaving money on the table, though, as the Brewers infielder has been one of the hottest hitters in the game in August. Entering Saturday, he'd slashed a ludicrous .440/.462/.960 with three homers and 16 R+BI since the calendar flipped.
Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Josh Rojas, 2B/SS/OF, Arizona Diamondbacks (31% rostered)
Rojas has shown no ill effects from the dislocated finger he suffered last month. Since returning from a brief stint on the injured list last week, he's hit .412 with a pair of runs scored and three RBI. On the season he owns a .275 batting average, 10 home runs and seven stolen bases, along with 82 R+BI in 98 games.
Jed Lowrie, 2B, Oakland Athletics (23% rostered)
Lowrie's had an up and down 2021 but looks to be on the upswing at the moment. Including last's night three-hit performance, he has a pair of homers, eight RBI, and six runs scored in his last seven contests. After bouncing around in the batting order a bit, the veteran appears to have settled in the cleanup spot for the A's, which bodes well for his continued above-average run production.
Brendan Rodgers, 2B/SS, Colorado Rockies (21% rostered)
Rodgers missed most of last week with a hand contusion, but three hits in two games since returning to action suggest that's nothing to fret over. The rookie has been a rare bright spot in another dismal Rockies campaign and has hit .338 with four homers and 22 R+BI in the last month despite the aforementioned missed time.
Miguel Rojas, SS, Miami Marlins (18% rostered)
It's Rojases all the way down, folks. The veteran Marlin's hitting .333 with a homer, three stolen bases, and 12 runs scored in the last 14 days. That's enough to crack the top 25 overall in standard formats, yet he's free to add in four of five leagues.
The Watch List
Tyler Wade, 2B/3B/SS/OF, New York Yankees (8% rostered)
The Yankees have been ravaged by a COVID outbreak, giving Wade a chance to play every day. What's he done with it? Only swiped six bags in his last four games. Who knows how much more run he'll get, but he's clearly going to run when he does play. Plus he's eligible at four positions. That'll work.
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