With time running short on the 2016 season, it behooves us to pay extra attention to short-term trends and the favorability of matchups. At this time of year, the long view can often be a suboptimal approach. This is particularly true if you’re in desperation mode. Any hitter on a hot streak and any pitcher facing a weak offense is a potential boon to your championship hopes.
As always, after checking out this week’s buy and sell recommendations, click on over to our Waiver Wire Rankings Wizard Tool for more late-season advice and insight.
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Week 22 Buy Candidates
Nick Franklin, 1B/2B/SS/OF, Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays have already gotten one breakout season from aformer Mariners middle infield prospect turned Swiss Army knife (Brad Miller), and Franklin is threatening to make it two. In just 124 plate appearances, the 25 year old is hitting .306/.374/.523 with five home runs and six stolen bases. He doesn’t play every day, but he’s collected multiple hits in four of his last five starts. Franklin is owned in just 2 percent of both Yahoo and ESPN leagues.
Ender Inciarte, OF, Atlanta Braves
While Inciarte hasn’t provided the speed owners probably hoped for – his two steals on Wednesday were his only successful attempts during the entire month of August – he’s been racking up hits and runs. Since the break, Inciarte is hitting .363/.419/.475 and crossed the plate 36 times in 45 games. It can be tough to gain points in batting averages this late in the year in roto leagues, but if that’s your area of need, there aren’t many better options on the wire than Inciarte.
Ivan Nova, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – middling AL East pitcher gets traded to Pittsburgh at the deadline and immediately makes an impact. Nova isn’t doing the Clayton Kershaw imitation that J.A. Happ did for the Buccos last year, but he’s found the City of Bridges to his liking so far. In five starts, he’s 4-0 with a 2.87 ERA and 22 strikeouts against just one walk. He also has a pretty friendly schedule over the next couple of weeks, drawing the Reds twice as well as the Phillies.
Week 22 Sell Candidates
Marcell Ozuna, OF, Miami Marlins
Even before suffering what looked like a pretty nasty wrist injury Wednesday night, Ozuna was primed for an appearance here. He hit a putrid .162/.219/.286 in August, and those numbers look even worse if you omit the four-day stretch where Ozuna hit all three of his home runs for the month. We’ll know more about the severity of his injury soon, but regardless of the outcome, Ozuna has been an anchor on fantasy owners for a while now. He’s posted a .677 OPS since the end of May.
Marco Estrada, SP, Toronto Blue Jays
Even with a history of low BABIPs that suggested an ability to induce weak contact, Estrada’s .193 BABIP in the first half seemed ripe for regression. And regress it has, as his second-half mark is a much more mortal .287. Estrada’s K-BB% since the break is nearly three points lower than it was before the break, and he’s allowing even more homers than usual. Those factors have conspired to leave him with pedestrian ratios over the last six weeks (4.50 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) His ROS schedule isn’t going to help matters, either. Next up is a game at Yankee Stadium, and unless the Jays go to a six-man rotation, he’ll close out his season with games against four of the top-10 offenses by weighted on-base average.
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