Fantasy Baseball pickups - Grab these outfielders!
Yahoo Fantasy analyst Andy Behrens offers three players to target on waivers midway through Week 3.
Video Transcript
ANDY BEHRENS: You have fantasy baseball roster needs, and we have solutions. Let's discuss three widely available players who deserve attention right now. I'm going to start with Nelson Velázquez.
He barely made his way onto Kansas City's Opening Day roster after a pretty rough spring, but he has been terrific since the regular season began. Put together a seven-game hitting streak recently with several multi-hit games. And he's gone deep a couple of times this year. This man hit 17 home runs last season in just 53 games, and he did it with ridiculous Statcast numbers.
Nothing fluky about it. He had an elite barrel rate last year. He's not a walker, and there's a lot of swing and miss to his game. So I'm not saying that he's a flawless player. He's certainly not.
That's why he's still available in about 80% of Yahoo leagues. But the power for Velázquez. Is very real. He is clearly capable of a 30 to 35-homer season. Another outfielder I want to bring up, Brenton Doyle.
He a cheap and responsible way to get a piece of that Coors Field action. Last season, Doyle hit 15 home runs, stole 23 bags between triple-a and the big leagues-- spent most of that time in the big leagues. Had a nice spring, and now he's off to an excellent start for the Rockies.
He's got 3 early home runs. Like Velazquez, he'll strikeout a little bit. So we're not making any guarantees here regarding his batting average. But he is a terrific defensive center fielder, so that offers a greater degree of job security for Doyle. And again, he's a power-speed combo player.
There's not a lot of those out there for you on the waiver wire. The Rockies, by the way, have a nine-game home stand upcoming. So it's just a great time to plug and play someone from that lineup. And then one last name I want to give you, Kirby Yates. He is still available in roughly 75% of Yahoo leagues despite the fact that he's recently taken over the closing gig for the Rangers.
That's a good team. He's a verifiable closer. We like that combination. He saved a 1-0 win on Monday. He kind of cemented his role in the ninth inning now. Yates, of course, has a 40-save season on his resume already back in 2019 when he was with the Padres.
So he's proven as a ninth inning solution. He's only allowed 1 hit and 1 walk in 6 innings this season. He's always maintained a terrific K rate. So this is the kind of bullpen arm that you want. He is a gift right now. Go get him. It will not be too long before he's about 80% or 90% rostered.