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 has been out of commission for awhile with a strained right shoulder and hasn't made a major league start since June, he did several things during that stretch of starts to inspire confidence in the time he has left this season, throwing for a 1.89 ERA and 0.895 WHIP in 19.0 IP across three starts, also striking out 18, walking just three, and allowing zero home runs.

During that month of June, Lopez produced season-best figures for strikeout rate (25%) and walk rate (4.2%), and even though his hard contact rate rose to 39.2% and his GB/FB ratio sunk to a season-low 1.28, he was still able to force a suppressing 45.1% grounders and 19.6% soft contact on batted balls. Pablo Lopez might not throw the gassiest of gas at 93.5 MPH for a fastball he deploys at 56% frequency, but he tosses a really interesting mix with his curveball (79.8 MPH at 20.9% frequency) and changeup (85.6 MPH at 23.2% frequency), and with such control of the strike zone and up-to-date limitation of the long ball, he is a high-upside acquisition upon his upcoming August return.