Kuzul

When working the fantasy baseball waiver wire, it’s better to strike a week early than wait too long.

Injured players and prospects often get highlighted around these parts before MLB clubs activate them. By then, it’s usually too late, especially for a weekly column where all players must remain available in over half of Yahoo Sports leagues. 

While the aggressiveness has paid off for anybody who stashed Kevin Gausman, it proved premature for Anthony DeSclafani and Eduardo Rodriguez, who have yet to return from the disabled list. 

This week, a trio of middle infielders warrant consideration under this category. They probably won’t provide any return until June, but they won’t sit on the waiver wire for long.

Begin Slideshow

The effort to make baseball fun again took a violent turn on Sunday—one that will hurt fantasy managers nearly as much as Jose Bautista.

As a result of last season’s unforgettably chaotic playoff showdown, tensions between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers ran high before their weekend series. When Bautista slid late into second base, Rougned Odor responded with fists rather than flips.

This wasn’t a typical baseball fight, where everyone crowds around, barks at each other and maybe throws a half-hearted strike away from the target. Odor hit the Blue Jays outfielder square in the face, and MLB is likely to respond with a lengthy suspension.

His investors will miss the budding star, who is hitting .286 with seven home runs and five stolen bases this season. Fortunately, two potential second-base replacements remain available in a majority of Yahoo Sports leagues. 

This week’s list of top waiver-wire adds runs the gamut from a player maturing in the minors to a 37-year-old veteran who looked finished last year. There are also the typical hot hands, returning veterans and overlooked contributors ready to help fantasy squads.

Begin Slideshow

Feeling gloomy about an underachieving fantasy baseball squad buried down the standings? Hopefully Saturday night reminded everyone that miracles do happen.

Bartolo Colon—a 42-year-old pitcher whose at-bats have become public viewing for their comedic value—hit his first career home run. As SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen joyfully shrieked, “The impossible has happened!”

If Bartolo Colon can go yard, what’s stopping a fantasy team from digging out of last place and chasing a championship? Like the veteran’s bat, some clubs simply need time to develop before hitting their stride.

The New York Mets hurler is also helping fantasy owners on the mound, where he has posted a 2.82 ERA while displaying his typical pinpoint command. If not for already discussing the jovial righty weeks ago, he’d frequent this week’s waiver-wire column as someone owned in 34 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues, below the 50 percent prerequisite.

The pitchers listed all throw harder than Colon, and the discussed hitters sure better hit with more efficacy. Then again, Colon has as many homers combined as two shortstops highlighted for other attributes.  

Begin Slideshow

A wise fantasy baseball manager knows not to rock the boat too much in April, but will that patience extend into May?

Enough stats are accumulating to start fretting the ace with the ERA over 5.00 and the star hitter batting below the Mendoza Line. As gamers wait on their established picks to wake up, lesser players are delivering to nobody’s benefit on the waiver wire.

Don’t go dropping a trustworthy mainstay for any of these free agents—all of whom are available in more than half of Yahoo Sports leagues. This list predominantly features speculative adds or guys to temporarily enjoy during a hot streak. Few of them will make a long-term impact in standard mixed leagues, but some certainly boast the potential to break out.

Ready to dump that late-round flier falling flat on his face? Consider filling his roster spot with one of these free agents.

Begin Slideshow

Many of 2015’s quietly strong finishers have stayed hot this April, demanding attention from fantasy baseball managers.

A majority of this week’s top 10 free agents, available in over half of Yahoo Sports leagues, ran roughshod late last season. They also, however, either started poorly or in the minor leagues, burying their late progress as brief blips.

Now that they’re coming out of 2016 blazing, gamers must wonder if they have made distinct improvements to sustain their early success. These guys have all brandished better underlying numbers behind the standard stats. A batting average or ERA doesn’t tell too much in April, but strikeouts and walks can depict tangible change.

Let’s take a look at players to grab upon entering April’s final week. 

Begin Slideshow

Two weeks is too soon to panic. At least that’s what worried fantasy baseball managers tucked down the standings will try to remember before blowtorching their rosters.

It’s human nature to fret when things go poorly. When a lineup that seemed perfect before Opening Day can’t buy a hit, even an experienced player will get antsy. The savvy gamer, however, will ultimately stay calm and instead test his or her peers’ nerves.

Everyone inevitably jumps to faulty conclusions in April, when the sample sizes are smaller than a scaled-down Jose Altuve. We’ll look back and laugh at these premature conclusions, but the benefit of hindsight doesn’t exist yet. What does exist are players batting over .500 and pitchers with an ERA below 1.00.

For now, let’s assume the competition doesn’t consist of complete idiots. If someone is foolish enough to worry about Mike Trout, great. Nobody will fault an opportunistic owner for checking the pulse of whoever rosters the superstar, but it’d take a real novice to panic-trade him.

Let’s also give them enough credit not to offer Jeremy Hazelbaker for an All-Star. While the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder should be owned by now, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll fetch a strong return on the trade market. Also, anyone expecting a Trevor Story sell-high slide should click here first. 

Proactive managers looking to make early moves should target these guys as buy-low and sell-high candidates.

Begin Slideshow

Two weeks into 2016’s MLB season, fantasy baseball managers will struggle to resist adding players with deceivingly gaudy stat lines.

Eduardo Nunez won’t compete for a batting title, and Mat Latos won’t win every start with a sub-1.00 ERA. These sample sizes will quickly change with little notice, and it’s up to fantasy players to sniff out the fluky starts from the telling successes.

Enough time has passed for the surging sleepers to lose their free-agent status. Instead, the veterans are stirring on their lawns while the late bloomers blossom and the former top prospects seek redemption. Early injuries have also created opportunities for a couple of players showing up to the new season fashionably late.

Some of these players are only hot hands to exploit for a short window. Others have the potential to manifest into mixed-league impact players. All of them are available in at least 50 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues as of Sunday night.

Begin Slideshow

One week after MLB‘s first pitch, the 2016 season received a major shake-up to the fantasy landscape.

Most teams aren’t in a hurry to promote prospects, instead delaying their arbitration clocks while giving veterans the first stabs at sticking in a lineup. Over the weekend, however, two injuries opened a window for a pair of young guns.

Before their call-ups, Week 2’s top waiver-wire recommendations featured role players rather than game-changers. A few forgettable guys demonstrated their values with hot starts, and others earned a boost due to clarified roles.

Those players can help, but even jaded fantasy managers perk up when a hot-shot prospect arrives to the big leagues. While astute gamers pounced on Sunday, some late adopters may still need a friendly reminder to act before the opportunity dissipates.

After surviving one week, let’s take a look at several free agents available in more than half of Yahoo Sports leagues as of Sunday night.

Begin Slideshow

Let the overreactions begin.

Fantasy baseball fiends who spent months waiting for Opening Day will let the excitement of MLB‘s return get the best of them. After a grueling process of projecting 2016 stats, they now have a week’s worth of numbers to scrutinize.

Unfortunately, that’s not a significant sample size. Using a few games as evidence of fundamental change could cause costly decisions from eager gamers. Remember when Freddy Galvis left last April batting .355? Or the time Nick Martinez allowed one run over his first four starts? 

Patient player will relax and stay the course; if anything, they will exploit their zealous peers by selling high. Others will prefer to stand pat altogether to avoid making early mistakes. 

Then again, some changes stick. It’s hard not to get giddy about your breakout pick dominating or a hyped prospect debuting in grand fashion. Maybe it’s just one week, but it could be the start of something real.

As 2016’s opening week winds down, let’s take a deep breath and analyze some of the hottest starts to determine if they’re flukes or the new norm.

Begin Slideshow

Welcome to the waiver-wire jungle, where fantasy baseball championships are won and lost. 

Many drafters fall in love with their original rosters, which is a dangerous mindset that could blind them from busts absorbing precious space while superior alternatives lie around free agency. Matt Duffy, Logan Forsythe, David Peralta, Kevin Pillar, Gerardo Parra, Billy Burns, Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers, Carlos Martinez, Jeurys Familia and A.J. Ramos all ascended from undrafted beginnings to starting stalwarts last year.

The true fun begins once the 2016 season commences in full force. Breakout stars will materialize, but most of them are hiding deep down free agency’s abyss. If everyone anticipated big things, they would already frequent someone’s roster.

To avoid any redundancies, this list doesn’t feature any of the 10 guys highlighted on Friday. Eliminating more exciting guys like Vince Velasquez, Juan Nicasio and Tyler White, Week 1’s waiver-wire column instead focuses on players who slipped between the cracks.

With a couple of possible exceptions, the following players aren’t breakout candidates as much as solid producers deserving a chance in deeper mixed leagues. When roles change and surprise stars manifest, the names will get more exciting in ensuing weeks.

Consider these players, owned in under 50 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues, the misfit toys other managers don’t want. Some should prove worth more than everyone thinks.

Begin Slideshow