AN Contributor Phil Naessens answers a listeners question about Drew Pomeranz and suggests three waiver wire pickups for Week Eight of the 2014 Fantasy Baseball Season
We're heading into week number eight of the Fantasy Baseball season and while injuries to Jose Fernandez, Martin Perez, Matt Wieters, Carlos Beltran, Ben Zobrist, Dillon Gee and Colby Rasmus are interesting you can find replacement options for these bums if you so desire to do so by visiting here for my weekly Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire and Sleepers column.
A listener wanted to know what I thought of Drew Pomeranz and his Fantasy Value going forward.
Pomeranz has been a sight to behold thus far this season. Watching this kid pump average fastball after average fastball in the strike zone and throwing his average curve ball for groundout after groundout makes me marvel at the wisdom of Billy Beane. What a pickup this kid has been thus far this season and if this continues, coupled with Dan Straily's minor league meltdown this past Tuesday makes me believe Pomeranz is here to stay in the long term.
His Fantasy Value right now is still sort of up in the air. The sample size is very small and would make me hesitant to pick him up as a long term solution to the growing problem Tommy John surgery has left Fantasy Owners. That being said I would certainly entertain the thought of picking him up as a streamer or value pick in a daily Fantasy Baseball game on Tuesday against the Rays. His counterpart that day is another young guy named Jake Odorizzi who's had up and down success thus far in 2014. The Rays as an offense have a 22% strikeout rate against lefties and a .247 batting average so Drew might fare pretty well against the Rays.
Here are three Fantasy Baseball options I've been looking at this week.
Derek Norris C Athletics: While the mountain man style isn't exactly my cup of tea his slash line of .359/.449/.554/1.003 has had me at hello! He's playing every day and is widely available in every league I can find. If this continues he'll be off the board so maybe grabbing him this week might not be a bad thing. (Stats)
Josh Beckett SP Dodgers: Beckett continues to impress me and for the life of me I can't figure out why he's still available in more than 50% of Fantasy Leagues. Maybe Fantasy Owners don't like Chicken and Beer? I do and what's more important to me is he will be a good source of strikeouts and maybe even a win against the Mets on Tuesday. (Stats)
Casey McGehee 1B Marlins: He won't hit many bombs for you but the guy has a knack for driving in runs and while his slash line of .292/.358/.385/.743 isn't that impressive he won't hurt you. He's still owned in less than 50% of Fantasy leagues so he is available and if you need RBI why not let Casey swing the bat on your roster this week? (Stats)
On this weeks edition of Fantasy Baseball WeeklyViva El Birdos Managing Editor Eric Johnson joins me to offer several replacement options for injured Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez, closers on the hot seat and much more Fantasy Baseball talk. You can listen below or download the show by visiting my site here.
Good luck this week Fantasy Baseball Owner!