In this space, I’m going to help you identify potential impact additions in fantasy baseball leagues. I’ll make an effort to tailor this column to all league sizes, recommending players that could be available in shallow, deeper, and AL- or NL-only formats.
The time to grind is now. If you are in striking distance in your fantasy league, you must keep your foot on the gas pedal over the final seven weeks of the season. While others may have turned their attention to fantasy football, there are plenty of points to be gained in the standings.
Impact Fantasy Addition: Kerry Carpenter
Carpenter is a player that I was extremely high on coming into draft season this year. He rewarded my faith in him early on in the season, slashing a blistering .283/.342/.572 with eight home runs and 29 RBI through his first 50 games before landing on the injured list on May 27 with a lumbar spine fracture.
He was shelved for more than two months with the injury and was dropped in most fantasy leagues. If you haven’t been paying attention though, Kerry Bonds is back.
Carpenter returned to the Tigers’ lineup on Tuesday in impressive fashion, crushing a pair of homers and driving in three runs in a lopsided victory over the Mariners. He then followed that up by clobbering a game-tying, two-run shot off of Yimi Garcia on Wednesday that led the Tigers to a come-from-behind victory.
He’s not a player who is going to single-handedly win you your fantasy league – and he’s probably not going to play at all against left-handed pitching. What he should be though, is a solid, stable source of power for the final seven weeks of the season, and he should be able to accumulate counting stats hitting in the middle of the Tigers’ lineup.
The sample size is admittedly very small with only 172 plate appearances on the season, but Carpenter currently ranks fourth in all of baseball in barrels per plate appearance at 11.9%. The three players above him are Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, and Shohei Ohtani. He ranks just ahead of the likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Corey Seager, Marcell Ozuna, Bobby Witt Jr., and Oneil Cruz. That’s some pretty good company to keep.
For a player who is currently available on the waiver wire in half of all Yahoo leagues, you could certainly do a lot worse.
Impact Fantasy Addition: Nick Martinez
Maybe it’s just an aberration, but has anyone noticed how well Nick Martinez has been pitching since the Reds moved him back into their starting rotation?
In his two starts since the Reds gave him the chance to start on August 5, Martinez has fired 12 innings of shutout baseball with a minuscule 0.42 WHIP and a 12/0 K/BB over 12 innings of work. It’s not like he was pitching poorly out of the bullpen either – in 37 total innings since June 14 he sports a 1.22 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and 35/3 K/BB. That’s elite production.
He’s currently rostered in only 31 percent of all Yahoo fantasy leagues, which to me is insulting. He’ll take the mound against the Royals on Friday night and makes for a tremendous streaming option in all formats.
If you look ahead to the next few weeks, his schedule gets even better. Martinez will do battle against the Blue Jays in Toronto next week, before drawing a two-start week against the Athletics and Brewers – both at home.
At this time of the year, we’re looking for anyone who can provide a boost for the stretch run. I believe that Martinez can and will provide just that to fantasy managers for the rest of the season.
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