Pickups of the Day: All-in on Anderson
Happy Thursday everyone, we're back at it again trying to scour the available options on the waiver wire to find you the impact additions – both short-term and long-term – that can help to propel your fantasy squads to greatness in 2023.
As a reminder, our brand-new Pickups of the Day column is designed to help fantasy managers find a handful of widely-available targets. It could be a prospect stash, an injury replacement, a pitcher with a favorable matchup or week, a player who is due some better luck, or any other number of scenarios. If there's value to be found on the waiver wire, we will uncover it and bring it your way.
Here are a pair of players who have gotten off to tremendous starts in 2023 that could have more to offer than the majority of the fantasy community is giving them credit for.
These may not be the fantasy superstars that are going to lead your team to league titles, but they could be the glue that holds a championship squad together.
PICKUPS OF THE DAY
BrIan Anderson, 3B/OF, Brewers
Available in 68 percent of Yahoo leagues
Alright, nobody else is doing it yet, but I feel like we need to have a chat about BrIan Anderson and the ridiculous start that he has gotten off to for the Brewers. The 29-year-old is slashing an unbelievable .533/.579/1.200 with three homers, six runs scored and 10 RBI in his first five games – fueled by a two-homer, six RBI performance against Max Scherzer and the Mets on Tuesday.
Is he going to continue at this pace? Obviously not. But that doesn't mean that Anderson can't still have fantasy value for the 2023 season. His playing time – at least in the near-term – has been secured since Luis Urías is set to miss six-to-eight weeks with a strained left hamstring. That means, instead of clawing for at-bats in a crowded outfield mix, Anderson will function as the team's primary third baseman against right-handed pitching, while still covering right field against southpaws.
He's away from the Marlins and the pitcher-friendly ballpark that he called home for the first six years of his big league career and now finds himself in a hitter's paradise in Milwaukee – with a much improved supporting cast to boot. Anderson has started each of the team's first six contests and has hit fifth or sixth in the order in three of the last four.
If you take a glance at his Statcast page, you'll see an awful lot of red. The biggest takeaway is his average exit velocity of 95.2 mph which demolishes any other mark that he has registered in his career. The 50% barrel rate and the numbers that flow from there obviously can't be sustained, but they are tremendous signs that perhaps Anderson has evolved as a hitter now that he's healthy and with his new club.
This feels like it has all the makings of a player that could be mixed league viable for the duration of the 2023 season. If he continues producing the way he has been for another week, you won't have a shot to scoop him up off of waivers. Pounce now, ride the wave, and if the production eventually starts to fall off a cliff then he can be an easy drop.
Available in 83 percent of Yahoo leagues
When Seth Lugo hit the open market at the end of the 2022 season, he made it clear to anyone who was willing to listen that he wanted to transition back to the starting rotation in 2023. Most teams didn't take him seriously, or weren't willing to guarantee him a spot in their big league rotations. Ultimately, the Padres took the chance and said they'd give him a shot at making the move.
Through one regular season start – and six in the Cactus League – that decision has paid off handsomely. During spring training, Lugo registered a 2.70 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a 17/6 K/BB ratio across 23 1/3 innings. He then dominated the Rockies in his season debut on Sunday, racking up seven strikeouts while allowing just one run on four hits over seven impressive innings.
So far at least, Lugo has looked like the reliable reliever that he was during his Mets' days – just stretched out as a starter. The velocity on his fastball is down a bit (0.6 mph) from where he was in 2022 – but that makes sense as he's trying to conserve himself for an entire game rather than giving his all for an inning or two at a time.
He'll draw a difficult matchup his next time out, having to take on the Braves in Atlanta on Sunday, but if he can get through that one unscathed it could be all systems go. Lugo then gets the Brewers at home, the Braves at home, the Cubs in Chicago and the Reds at home over his next five starts.
I'm not suggesting that you should start him against the Braves in Atlanta on Sunday, but if you have the roster space available, take a flier on him now, and if he looks sharp again in that outing you could have a solid back-end rotation arm for the duration of the season – or at the very least for the next month.
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