April 26: Bartolo Colon
Welcome to Pickup of the Day, where every weekday we'll pick an under-the-radar player whose immediate value is on the rise. The idea here is to identify a starter who can give you some solid innings off the scrap heap, a talented backup who's been given a chance because of a starter's injury, an unheralded regular with a favorable matchup, or a potential breakout player who's starting to put it together. Unlike regular waiver-wire advice, Pickup of the Day is geared more towards interim success, but hopefully we'll have the intuition to help you snag a waiver-wire gem a few times this season.
Bartolo Colon got a late start to the season while he served the remainder of his 50-game suspension for testing positive for synthetic testosterone, but he’s made up for lost time, going 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA and 17/1 K/BB ratio over 26 innings through four starts. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, of course, given that the rotund right-hander put up a nice 3.43 ERA and 1.21 WHIP last season in 24 outings before the suspension came down. Colon, who will turn 40 in less than a month, certainly doesn’t have much upside, but he throws strikes and pitches half his games in spacious O.co Coliseum. You could do worse with your final pitching slot in mixed leagues.
Previous Pickup of the Days:
April 25: Steve Lombardozzi
April 24: Andrew Cashner
April 23: Devin Mesoraco
April 22: Anthony Rendon
