Every Friday folks are easing off the gas pedal at work, eyeballing possible pickups to improve their fantasy baseball teams. Sports World News is here to help. Every Friday, check in with us to see the best waiver wire pickups your opponents likely haven't caught on to yet. These players will be owned in under 50 percent of leagues.
Adam Dunn, DH/1B Chicago White Sox
You might have made a face at this suggestion because of Dunn's perennially atrocious batting average. That's fair, but remember last year doesn't count now. So far this year Dunn's hitting home runs like he normally does, but doing it with a .262 batting average. His BABIP is up over .340, so his production is due to regress, but if he can hit his customary 35-plus bombs and bat around .240 isn't that a nice asset?
Trade him later for pitching, saves, whatever you need down the road. Perhaps you can plug him in for the time being if you've been using Carlos Santana at first base. Maybe you just like home runs. Either way, he's been awesome in the past, and could just have a lucky BABIP season. He's worth a flier as a free pickup.
Josh Rutledge, 2B, Colorado Rockies
Rutledge is a high-on-base, high-batting average player whose track record in the minors screams solid. Is he an exciting option at second base for you? No. But he is excellent bench filler as a fill-in, or useful as a utility option to boost your average if you've drafted heavily for power. Throw in the fact that half his games are at Coors Field, in a lineup that tends to score runs by the boatload, and you have a cheap and useful fantasy option.
Oh yeah, since getting called up on Wednesday he's 5-for-11. Go get him!
Lucas Duda, 1B, New York Mets
I get it...Duda's not that great. It doesn't matter. He has enough power that playing in CitiField shouldn't rob him of a ton of home runs, and he's pretty much got that job locked up for the time being. While he won't belt as many homers as Dunn, he also doesn't have to worry about being benched against NL teams. Duda is basically Diet Dunn with a little less upside.
Trevor Bauer, SP, Cleveland Indians
Bauer is more of a stash option, since he's not currently in the big leagues, but in his first taste of MLB action in 2014 he went six innings and struck out eight batters while surrendering two runs (one earned). He was an extremely high prospect and showed unreal strikeout potential in the Diamondbacks' system before he was traded.
Control issues have dogged him though, and cropped up in a nasty way in 2013 at the MLB level, but his velocity's up and the Ks will probably make up for the walks by increasing his strand rate. Pitchers are dropping like flies these days, so find room for this fella when you lose one of yours.
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