Each week, I will highlight a few players to target in your weekly free agent acquisition budget (FAAB) process, but know there are many others available and, more importantly, others who may be better fits for your teams. If you have any questions, please ask me on Twitter.
- Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Assistant
- Fantasy Baseball Trade Tools
- Weekly Fantasy Baseball Content
- MLB Prop Bet Cheat Sheet
Fantasy Baseball FAAB & Waiver Wire Targets: Week 5
Note: We use Yahoo for player percentages and recommend players rostered in no more than 60% of leagues.
Hitters
Rostered: 17%
Suggested Bid: 12%
Andy Pages will be one of the most popular pickups this week. The Dodgers prospect was called up this past week and has played daily. Pages has hits in two of three games with a double and two runs scored. He’s striking out 45.5% of the time over the first three games, but that will likely improve. Pages hit .371 over 15 Triple-A games with five home runs and two stolen bases. If Pages keeps getting playing time, he could return a similar output as James Outman last year, which may be even better.
Rostered: 27%
Suggested Bid: 7%
After a few years of battling injuries, Jesse Winker is healthy and thriving with the Nats. He’s hitting .345 this season with two home runs and two steals. Winker is barreling the ball 11.1% of the time with a hard-hit rate of over 40% while walking 12.5% of the time. He plays daily, even versus left-handed pitching, making Winker quite a waiver wire add where you may need help in ROTO categories.
Rostered: 19%
Suggested Bid: 6%
Bryan De La Cruz is locked in to start the season. He has hit safely in 24-of-27 games for a .286 average. His power is also showing up, hitting three home runs over his last five games. The power checks out with a 14.5% barrel rate and 45.2% hard-hit rate. He’s only walking 1.2% of the time, which is not great for OBP leagues, but in standard ROTO leagues, he’ll bring plenty of fantasy goodness.
Rostered: 43%
Suggested Bid: 18%
Zack Littell has been outstanding to start the season. In his first four starts, he has allowed three earned runs or fewer in each. He has thrown 21 innings with 22 strikeouts, a 2.14 ERA and a 3.30 xFIP. Littell’s success has produced a nice 19.9% K-BB and 10.4% SwStr. Next week, Littell has one of the best two-steps of the week as he takes on the Tigers and White Sox. He should be streamed in all formats.
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