RADIO
As we rumble into Week 3 of the baseball season, it's important to remember it's still very early. It may not feel good to be 0-2 or to see your squad in the bottom half of the roto standings, but there are five months of baseball after this week. The ground can be made up in a hurry and it's important not to make knee-jerk roster decisions before any Major Leaguer has even 80 plate appearances.
That being said, there are always players moving up and down in fantasy, on top of injuries that happen every season. If you're in need of a middle infielder, the names below could help.
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 fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 3 - April 25 through May 2.
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Gio Urshela, SS/3B, Minnesota Twins (38% rostered)
It's been a mixed bag for Urshela so far in his first season with the Twins. On one hand, his power production is way down as he's got just one homer and is slugging .325. On the other, he's got a pristine 1:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is making contact on 88 percent of pitches in the strike zone. Furthermore, his ground ball percentage is down five percent from last year which has resulted in more line drives and fly balls. Urshela slugged over .400 in each of the last three seasons and as the weather warms up in Minnesota, more of those balls in the air should go for homers. Now is a great buy-low window on Urshela.
Brendan Rodgers, 2B/SS, Colorado Rockies (52% rostered)
Woof, has anyone gotten off to a colder start than Rodgers? The 25-year-old is batting an icy .087 with just three runs and one RBI and is yet to homer or steal a base. As a result, Rodgers' roster rate is down 12 percent in the last week in Yahoo leagues. As bad as he's been, no one can hit under .100 forever. As other fantasy managers drop Rodgers, I'd encourage picking him up as he still has plenty of time to right the ship. He's got a solid 8.5 percent walk rate, which is encouraging as he's still taking walks despite his struggles, and his .140 BABIP should normalize. As long as the Rockies continue to trot him out every day, I'm interested in Rodgers' potential, especially when playing at home in Coors Field.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
J.P. Crawford, SS, Seattle Mariners (22% rostered)
There's nothing sexy about Crawford as he's been the starting SS for Seattle for three years now and has never put up double-digit homers. That being said, he's playing well so far this year with a .333/.456/.511 slash line through 14 games. He currently ranks third among all shortstops with a .430 wOBA while batting fifth for an improved Mariners lineup. Plenty of fantasy managers would take that production over whatever shortstop they've been starting and Crawford should be rostered in more leagues than he is.
Nicky Lopez, 2B/SS, Kansas City Royals (18% rostered)
Lopez is a category specialist who can help those already sinking in batting average. He won't provide power, but Lopez is batting .316 thanks to a microscopic 5.4 percent strikeout rate. He is yet to steal a base this season but swapped 22 last year so he should start running at some point too. Lopez should be rostered in categories leagues deeper than 12 teams.
The Waiver Wire Watch List
Tony Kemp, 2B/OF, Oakland Athletics (5% rostered)
Kemp was in this section last week and his roster rate only went up one percent, which may have been me picking him up in a couple of leagues. Kemp won't put up elite numbers, but he's got seven runs and two steals through 14 games. He's batted leadoff all but once for Oakland and should continue to get on base a ton thanks to a career 11 percent walk rate. He should be rostered in deeper leagues and those that reward OBP.
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