Pablo Lopez (SP, MIA) - Week 19 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 13% of leagues ANALYSIS: Pablo Lopez is just 23 years old, and has already given the Miami Marlins plenty of reason to believe in his future (just a few days after dealing 26-year-old rotation mate Trevor Richards to the Rays at the deadline). Though the Cabimas, Venezuela native […]

J.D. Davis (3B/1B/OF, NYM) - Week 19 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 4% of leagues ANALYSIS: Through all of the chatter that routinely surrounds the New York Mets, it could be easy to overlook the superlative work that Cal State Fullerton alum J.D. Davis has put in at the plate for 2019. With ten home runs and an OPS of […]

Danny Jansen (C, TOR) - Week 19 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 32% of leagues ANALYSIS: Danny Jansen has long been a prized possession within the Toronto Blue Jays farm system, and though he would appear to be disappointing on the surface for 2019 with a .634 OPS in 270 AB, his nine home runs on the year paired with […]

Under-the-Radar Starting Pitchers on the Move

Up until the final hours of the 2019 MLB trade deadline, it was almost looking like every major league GM had made some sort of weird, simultaneous mistake where they forgot to mark the days off on the calendar and thought that it was only July 30th. When the deals started rolling in, they came […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 18

It figures: we spend all year discussing a plethora of trade deadline possibilities and make allusions to chaotic deadlines of years passed, and we are experiencing one of the slowest deadlines in recent memory. Maybe this year a crazy result of the deadline will be that every team, more or less, ended up with the […]

Danny Duffy (SP, KC) - Week 18 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 9% of leagues ANALYSIS: Danny Duffy's numbers in total for the 2019 season may read a little humdrum at a 4.32 ERA and 1.36 WHIP in 89.2 IP across 16 starts for the bottom-dwelling Kansas City Royals, but they have mostly been marred by a poor start to […]

Vince Velasquez (SP/RP, PHI) - Week 18 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 8% of leagues ANALYSIS: There is still the chance that the Philadelphia Phillies make a move for a starting pitcher (probably a back-end rotation member), but if they decide to roll the dice with their current cast of characters in an attempt for the postseason, Vince Velasquez stands […]

Cal Quantrill (SP/RP, SD) - Week 18 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 6% of leagues ANALYSIS: He has jumped back a bit between rotation and bullpen action, but 24-year-old highly regarded arm Cal Quantrill has been absolutely shut-down for the San Diego Padres in recent outings. The former Stanford Cardinal has turned in a respectable body of work through his […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 17

The urgency is definitely picking up around baseball, and it tends to every year once the fun and fanfare of the All-Star break are in the rear-view mirror. You could smell the pungent aroma in the air over the past week. A few trades were completed, a few key players went down with injuries of […]

Aaron Bummer (RP, CHW) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 6% of leagues ANALYSIS: There's a very realistic chance that the Chicago White Sox will find a way to trade their closer Alex Colome by the upcoming deadline, and if that happens, the ninth inning reigns will likely be handed down to thriving 25-year-old southpaw Aaron Bummer. Melancholic […]

Daniel Mengden (SP/RP, OAK) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 9% of leagues ANALYSIS: Daniel Mengden is still surprisingly young at 26, and we can all get behind a fantastic mustache, but the Texas A&M alumni has sported more than well-groomed facial hair on the mound in recent work. Through 47.0 IP for another season as an Oakland […]

Chase Anderson (SP, MIL) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 15% of leagues ANALYSIS: Chase Anderson has always flown under the radar, but despite one sub-par month of June for 2019 in which he had a 5.92 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in five starts, he is quietly en route to one of the finest campaigns of his career. […]

Daniel Hudson (RP, TOR) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 8% of leagues ANALYSIS: Daniel Hudson has long been a reliable fixture in major league bullpens around the league, but he has never amassed more than five saves in a single season (a feat he accomplished in 2016 with the Arizona Diamondbacks). Now, with a fantastic body of […]

Nate Lowe (1B, TB) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 32% of leagues ANALYSIS: In dealing with some recent injury issues, the Tampa Bay Rays have called on hulking, highly rated first base prospect Nate Lowe, with fantastic results. The 24-year-old former Mississippi State Bulldog has a time-tested track record of power-hitting at the professional level, and had […]

Chance Sisco (C, BAL) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two-Catcher Leagues OWNED IN: 12% of leagues ANALYSIS: We're not referencing the "Thong Song", we're talking about Sisco of the Chance variety, and he is a former highly-touted prospect having an excellent season in the majors for the bottom-dwelling Baltimore Orioles. The 24-year-old backstop has torn up the opposition this season at Triple-A […]

Brett Gardner (OF, NYY) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 29% of leagues ANALYSIS: Of all of the amazingly talented and highly sought-after pieces that grace the New York Yankees batting order, very few people probably expected 35-year-old Brett Gardner to be as valuable as he has been at the plate in 2019. In 310 AB, the veteran […]

Manuel Margot (OF, SD) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 12% of leagues ANALYSIS: San Diego has plenty of young, burgeoning stars, and it's easy to forget the impressive play of Manuel Margot since he's been going to work at the plate and on the base-paths for the Padres for years. The 24-year-old former highly-touted prospect has hit […]

Phillip Ervin (OF, CIN) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 1% of leagues ANALYSIS: Today is Phillip Ervin's 27th birthday, and he gave himself an early cause for celebration on Saturday by tying a Cincinnati Reds franchise record with six hits (in six AB) in a 17-9 win over the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field. In 56 AB […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 16

After what seemed like an eternity without regular season play, we have finally returned to business as usual from a memorable All-Star break that saw Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Peter Alonso capture the attention of millions around the world and the American League come out on top for the seventh year in a row (and […]

Todd Frazier (3B, NYM) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 6% of leagues ANALYSIS: Todd Frazier has long been a streaky hitter both from month-to-month and year-to-year, and thanks to some top-tier work last month, he is back on track to turn in a solid year for the New York Mets. His line for the season currently reads […]

Oscar Mercado (OF, CLE) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 28% of leagues ANALYSIS: Oscar Mercado has hit a bit of a snag in his rookie campaign with the Cleveland Indians, and the deceleration may cause a few hesitant owners (or potential owners) to hit the brakes on his utilization as we enter the ceremonial second half of […]

Carson Kelly (C, ARI) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two-Catcher Leagues OWNED IN: 7% of leagues ANALYSIS: I'm not just gassing Carson Kelly up because today is his 25th birthday: he has performed so well at the plate lately for the Arizona Diamondbacks that many of the scouts that once named him a top-50 prospect in all of baseball are starting to […]

Christian Walker (1B, ARI) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 30% of leagues ANALYSIS: Before the 2019 season, 28-year old Christian Walker had taken 88 AB across four separate seasons in the MLB, mostly culminating in disappointment. Fast forward 308 AB into this season and the former South Carolina Gamecock has crushed 18 home runs, stolen five bases […]

A.J. Reed (1B, CHW) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 1% of leagues ANALYSIS: The Chicago White Sox have struggled to manufacture offense out of the DH slot this season, and with Yonder Alonso's tenure with the team already over (and his tenure with a new one has already begun), the club has opted to roll the dice […]

Alex Wood (SP/RP, CIN) - Week 16 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 23% of leagues ANALYSIS: Alex Wood has had a rough road back to the mound after being sidelined with back issues, not having yet made his debut for the Cincinnati Reds after being the prized plunder of their off-season trade with the Dodgers. Though his recent rehab start […]

2B and SS Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 15

Just like that, we have reached the 2019 MLB All-Star Break. After virtually every day since the start of late-March has been jam-packed with baseball, ranging in time from the early morning in another country to late night on the west coast, we're going to once again have to wrap our brains around going a […]

Dylan Cease (SP, CHW) - Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 33% of leagues ANALYSIS: Between the Chicago White Sox pitchers who are injured and those who have struggled immensely in 2019, the club thought it was about time for highly-touted 23-year old Dylan Cease to make his major league debut. While that July 3rd outing didn't paint him […]

Danny Salazar (SP, CLE) - Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 13% of leagues ANALYSIS: It is a little surreal to think that we haven't seen Danny Salazar on the major league mound since the 2017 season, and we are already three years removed from his lone All-Star campaign. He has been in a setback saturated recovery process from […]

Scott Oberg (RP, COL) - Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 29% of leagues ANALYSIS: Wade Davis has lately been struggling tremendously, prompting talks to arise that he may soon he removed from the closer role for the Colorado Rockies. If the Rockies are trying to win, they should probably opt to deploy Scott Oberg in the highest leverage […]

Merrill Kelly (SP, ARI) - Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues OWNED IN: 35% of leagues ANALYSIS: It has been a particularly interesting path to the MLB for 30-year old rookie Merrill Kelly since leaving Arizona State (including a pretty successful stint in South Korea), but he has been an extremely pleasant surprise for the Diamondbacks this season with a 4.03 ERA […]