Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Adds: Week 3
It's waiver time. One of the keys to any fantasy success is not only nailing your draft, but scouring that waiver wire for players who can give your team a boost.
The four players below are all owned in fewer than 50% of Yahoo leagues and could give your team a lift as you start off the season. It's never too early to consider some adds and drops for your team.
Derek Holland - San Francisco Giants (SP)
Pitching is getting absolutely blasted across both leagues, so you may be searching for some answers for your staff. Despite pitching for one of the worst teams in baseball, Derek Holland has started 2019 exactly how he left off in 2018 -- in beast mode.
Last season, the southpaw fired 171 1/3 innings and struck out a very nice 169 batters, recording a solid 3.57 ERA and 1.29 WHIP. He had a tough first turn at the beginning of this season, but he fired a gem last week, recording a win over seven innings pitched, allowing just a single earned run with nine strikeouts.
Holland sports a solid 9.8% swinging-strike rate so far this season (league average for qualified starters in 2018 was 10.2%), a shade below his 2018 mark of 10.1%. He's definitely worth a look to help your fantasy rotations.
Trevor Richards - Miami Marlins (SP)
Trevor Richards probably holds an irrational spot in my heart as we both pitched in the same conference (Great Lakes Valley Conference) in Division II baseball. But make no mistake about it -- Richards deserves a look.
he owes his success to an absolutely devastating changeup -- he's averaging a whiff per inning thanks to this outstanding offering. For some background, the righty has generated a 24.0% swinging-strike rate on his change over his brief career, including allowing only a .106 isolated power (ISO) and 32.9% fly-ball rate on it.
Similar to a Kyle Hendricks-type, he won't blow you away with heat, but he showcases some swing-and-miss ability with solid ratios and can be a big help to fantasy pitching staffs.
Josh Phegley - Oakland Athletics (C)
Yahoo Ownership: 28%
If you play in the NFBC -- or a league similar to it -- two-catcher formats are tough. There's just not a lot of solid backstops to go around, and it's somewhat similar to the tight end position in fantasy football.
Josh Phegley is an asset who is starting to make us take notice as he's bopping the cover off of the baseball. He owns three home runs so far on the season, and despite limited playing time, that has him tied for fourth-most at the position in baseball.
With all of the noise around home runs being up so far in 2019, we need to grab power where we can, and Phegley is a smart bet at a thin position.
Freddy Galvis - Toronto Blue Jays (2B/SS)
Formerly known as the light-hitting artist Freddy Galvis, the Toronto Blue Jays middle infielder has come out with a new plate approach and is slugging the heck out of the baseball.
So far this year, Galvis has notched four long balls and a steal. After a 20-homer, 17-steal season for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016, Galvis struggled the last two years with .298 and .294 wOBA's, respectively, which sent him packing to the north.
But Galvis has altered his approach, including a new open stance, which has led to a heavy dosage of fly-balls. The owner of a career 38.6% fly-ball rate, Galvis has popped his way to a 48.7% fly-ball rate so far in 2019. While it's early, the move to the Rogers Centre, which ranked eighth in home run factor last year, certainly doesn't hurt his cause, either.
If you need some help up the middle, peep Galvis.
