I have a friend who accidentally left Joe Ryan on his bench yesterday in one of his leagues. The league in question uses complete games as a weekly stat category. Joe Ryan threw a complete game shutout. Don’t be like me my friend.
Waiver-Wire Targets:
Baltimore Orioles OF Austin Hays — The American League leader in batting average is owned in just 36 percent of ESPN leagues. He surged to the top of the leaderboard with a string of five straight multi-hit games and has 15 hits in his last eight games overall. While Hays only has eight home runs on the season, he does have 21 doubles, good for a tie for fourth in the AL, and trails only Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, and Luis Robert in slugging percentage. Hays is healthy and he is hitting.
St. Louis Cardinals 3B/OF Jordan Walker — Walker was optioned to Triple-A near the end of April despite a respectable start, production-wise, to his big-league career. Since his recall on June 2, he’s slashing .339/.418/.593 with four home runs, showing off some of the prowess that earned him such a high prospect pedigree entering the season. He is currently riding a 13-game hitting streak, besting his 12-gamer which started the year. Walker is surely owned in your dynasty/keeper formats but is rostered in just 41 percent of ESPN leagues.
Boston Red Sox RHP Brayan Bello — Bello was a popular sleeper pick entering the season and faltered a bit out of the gate but has been much sharper recently. He has put together three consecutive quality starts and has not allowed more than three earned runs in a start since his season debut. He is walking a few more hitters than you’d like to see but has struck out nearly a batter per nine innings and holds a 1.03 WHIP in his last five starts. The baseball world has taken notice thanks to back-to-back dominant starts on “Sunday Night Baseball,” and your fantasy league should be taking notice, too.
Los Angeles Angels LHP Reid Detmers — Detmers’ last two starts have been against the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers. He has allowed a total of nine baserunners and one run across 13 innings, striking out 16. These are welcome results for someone who has struggled to work deep into games this season. This presents some confidence in continued success. His 4.02 ERA on the season and 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings make him a great back-end fantasy rotation piece. His next start should come against the Chicago White Sox in Anaheim, where he has a 3.79 ERA this year.
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