Kris Medlen – The Fantasy Sports Coach

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 6

A fireballer and a slugger at a premium position. Those are the kinds of must adds I’ll be breaking down this week. In the Week 6 edition of the Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire, I’ll be breaking down the must adds, drops and two-start pitchers of the week.

Must Adds:

Zack Cozart – SS – Cincinnati Reds
22% Owned
OPP: 3 vs PIT, 3 @ PHI

If you’re in 12+ man mixed leagues, Zack Cozart needs to be rostered. The shortstop quietly has a lot of power with his .204 ISO and his 32.2% hard hit ball percentage. He’s batting .344 and his surgically repaired knee looks to be just fine. At one of the harder positions to fill in fantasy baseball, Zack Cozart could help a lot of owners out.

Nathan Eovaldi – RHP – New York Yankees
16% Owned
OPP: May 12 vs KC

It seems as if Nathan Eovaldi has finally found a payoff pitch to go along with his heater. All it took was Eovaldi to increase his velocity on his slider by 3MPH (85 to 88) and his K/9 is now 8.84, the highest of his career. His walk rate is just the icing on top, a career low 1.91 BB/9. Almost a full walk lower than last years mark of 2.86.

Drops:

Michael Saunders – OF – Toronto Blue Jays
23% Owned
OPP: 3 @ SF, 3 @ TEX

Now that Kevin Pillar has seemingly found his stroke in the leadoff position, Michael Saunders becomes expendable in all fantasy formats. Being moved down the lineup removes a plate appearance a game which hurts his fantasy stock in a big way. To make matters worse, manager John Gibbons has shown that he’s not afraid to rest the injury prone Canadian.

Aaron Blair – RHP – Atlanta Braves
8% Owned
OPP: May 12 vs PHI

Aaron Blair is one of the many prospects that were called up across the league in late April, early May. If you’re a Blair owner, unfortunately you picked the worst possible prospect. Across three starts (16.1 IP), Blair has racked up a very underwhelming 5 K’s. If names like Sean Manaea, Jose Berrios and Jesse Hahn are on the wire, take a shot at them before Blair.

Two Start Pitchers:

This week for two start pitchers, I’ll be doing it a little differently. No names really jump out to me but a pair of matchups do. With proper streaming, you’ll be able to take advantage of two starts against a certain team.

Chris Young vs Atlanta (May 14th) – 8% Owned
Kris Medlen vs Atlanta (May 15th) – 6% Owned

Chris Young and Kris Medlen are two guys who will likely not be owned in your leagues. When the 13th comes around, pick up Young. When the 14th rolls up, drop Young and pick up Medlen. Medlen has a 7.25 K/9 while Young has an 8.8 K/9. Atlanta is the worst team in baseball this year and they don’t hit the long ball at all. Streaming the duo should rack you up a pair of wins and about 15 strikeouts.

Thanks for reading! If you have any MLB season long or DFS questions, feel free to contact me via Twitter @BESTofMATT

Cardinal Rules – Injury Report

You might think this post is about trying to make sure you have as many St. Louis Cardinals on your fantasy baseball roster as possible, but it’s not. (That is a good way to win though.)

There are a few cardinal rules you need to abide by before heading to your draft or auction in fantasy baseball. First make sure you know the scoring system of the league you are about to try and win. Unless winning isn’t your thing, then just show up and draft based on any old ranking system. At least you will really like your team with that method, even if it ends up in second to last.

My second cardinal rule is to make sure you have up to date injury information. Do not go to the draft and assume Thursday’s injury report will be good for Sunday’s draft. A lot of things can happen in two days time. For example, the Atlanta Braves starting pitching rotation was decimated in a 48 hour window with elbow injuries to Kris Medlin and Brandon Beachy. Imagine how bad your rotation would look right after the draft if you had no idea they both had appointments with Dr. James Andrews.

The reason I’m posting this today is because I got bit by the lack of information bug this weekend. I took over a keeper league team that was built primarily around it’s position players and knew I needed to concentrate on starting pitching to make a dent in this particular points league. I had a very busy weekend planned and knew i wasn’t going to be able to do as much research on Saturday or Sunday morning as I would have liked, but I felt fairly confident.

I had seen a blip of a story on Patrick Corbin leaving his Spring Training start because of pain in his elbow. The particular post I saw only mentioned forearm tightness that seemed to be effecting his slider and that it was something to monitor, but didn’t seem like a huge issue. If it had been a draft during the week I would have been looking up every Diamond Backs beat writer’s Twitter timeline and trying to see if this meant he should be dropped down my rankings. Unfortunately the draft was on Sunday and the injury was on Saturday while I was out all day with my wife and kids. Only so much research can be done on your phone while your wife reads the menu.

Long story short I had an extra third round pick from a predraft trade and I used that on Corbin. Obviously in retrospect it was a huge mistake, but that mistake was compounded by me not drafting enough healthy pitching that didn’t have question marks around it. Sonny Gray as my ace doesn’t feel as comfortable without Corbin there as my second starter. Clay Buchholz as my third starter was worth a gamble if Corbin was healthy, but with Corbin out Buchholz makes my rotation very vulnerable.

Long story short I wrote this post as friendly reminder/warning that injuries do happen while your cooking steak on a stone and consuming mass quantities of sangria. Wake up just a little early or go to bed just a bit later and pour over the day’s injuries. Don’t take one story or article as the undisputed truth on the severity of an injury.