No team boasts a better winning percentage than the Tampa Bay Rays, and while pitching has played a rather large role as compared to the offense, there remain several intriguing bats for fantasy purposes. Start with second baseman Brandon Lowe (pronounced "Lao"), hitting a surprising .300, but there is nothing surprising about the power. Lowe has five home runs after bashing 28 between the majors and minors a season ago, and it earned him a long-term contract. There remains some concern about
Outfielders Tommy Pham and Austin Meadows are the lone Rays rostered in more than half of ESPN's leagues, which seems a bit strange and likely to change soon, since the lineup is deep and productive. I am fine with those who give up on catcher Mike Zunino, a power option who cannot hit his weight, but in addition to Lowe, look at underrated Kevin Kiermaier, intriguing Yandy Diaz, shortstop Willy Adames, outfielder Avisail Garcia and infielder Joey Wendle.
Kiermaier, if healthy, can contribute more than 15 home runs and 15 steals. Diaz, now finally eligible at third base/corner rather than solely DH, boasts more power than expected, and hits for average. Adames can reach double digits in home runs and steals. Garcia, who homered and stole a base Wednesday, hit .330 for the 2017 Chicago White Sox. A 20-homer season is possible. Wendle hit .300 last season and should come off the injured list any day now.
Here are other players worth adding, by position, in ESPN standard leagues. All are available in at least half of ESPN's leagues.
Catcher: Josh Phegley of the Oakland Athletics has seized the starting role and hit several home runs to pique our collective interest. He is older than Minnesota Twins backup Mitch Garver but seems more likely to play regularly. Garver is in a platoon, but when he faces a lefty, he hits high in the lineup. I still think Houston Astros starter Robinson Chirinos remains overlooked as well and could surpass 15 home runs.
Corner infield: Kansas City Royals slugger Hunter Dozier is finally showing consistent power, having bashed four home runs the past eight games. What I noticed were the walks; Dozier has eight of them against 12 strikeouts, which sure does not match the ratio from a season ago. He is 27. Perhaps this is legit, perhaps even more so than Seattle Mariners first baseman Daniel Vogelbach. We have also seen a surprising power surge from San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt, hampered by his home ballpark. OK, perhaps he would hit 30 home runs somewhere else, but I doubt it. Health is always an issue.
Middle infield: New York Mets utility option Jeff McNeil can legitimately hit .300. Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Freddy Galvis cannot. Then again, McNeil might not see the playing time when other Mets return to health. Galvis plays every day and could soon hit directly in front of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. I still take McNeil. Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Scott Kingery sure looks like the hitter we expected early last season, hitting for power, even to the opposite field, and he can run. Playing time is even more of an issue for him than McNeil, unless injury to others opens up time. Chad Pinder of Oakland should play more and perhaps reach 20 home runs.
Outfield: People are adding Baltimore Orioles option Dwight Smith Jr., but there is little to like for power and speed there. Franmil Reyes of the San Diego Padres, however, is hitting hard and soon the results will show. Get Reyes now before he goes on a Dozier-like power streak. I also think Giants acquisition Kevin Pillar can raise his batting average a ton in the next few weeks, so get him now before he does it. Jesse Winker of the Cincinnati Reds should be rostered in all points formats.
Starting pitcher: Check out the Atlanta Braves. Lefty Max Fried is rostered in just more than 50 percent of leagues, but right-hander Touki Toussaint is not. Take them both over Texas Rangers lefty Mike Minor, who just spun a shutout but still has to pitch in Texas until further notice. Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Jordan Lyles remains a matchup option for now. His colleague Trevor Williams continues to pitch well when few thought he would. Just add Williams already! This looks legit! The Twins have something nice in Michael Pineda, but health always worries me there. Still, if you give me a choice of Pineda versus early-season star Matt Shoemaker, I likely go with Pineda.
Relief pitcher: Saves are available, but they come with risk. Go add Chicago's Alex Colome, Minnesota's Blake Parker, Atlanta's A.J. Minter, Philadelphia's Hector Neris and Seattle's Anthony Swarzak, in that order. Colome is proven. Parker sure looks like the job is his. Minter's concern is health and, I suppose, the threat the club brings in someone else. Neris has no security. There are saves out there.
Wednesday recap
Box scores
Highlights:
• Paul DeJong, SS, St. Louis Cardinals: 4-for-5, RBI, R
• Michael Conforto, OF, New York Mets: 2-for-4, HR, SB
• Brandon Lowe, 2B, Tampa Bay Rays: 2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI
• Carlos Carrasco, SP, Cleveland Indians: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 12 K
• Cole Hamels, SP, Chicago Cubs: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
Lowlights:
• Ozzie Albies, 2B, Atlanta Braves: 0-for-5, K
• Ryan O'Hearn, 1B, Kansas City Royals: 0-for-5, 3 K
• Corbin Burnes, SP, Milwaukee Brewers: 3 1/3 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
• Matt Harvey, SP, Los Angeles Angels: 4 1/3 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
• Jeff Samardzija, SP, San Francisco Giants: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Wednesday takeaways
Joey Votto just popped out to 1B for the 1st time in his career ...
In his 6,828th plate appearance. �� pic.twitter.com/rw6cBgTAMy
- MLB Stats (@MLBStats) April 17, 2019
• OK, so it is one measly plate appearance, but it is a bit hard to avoid noticing that Votto, hitter of 36 home runs over 707 PA, has hit 13 blasts in 688 PA since then. Everyone pops up to the first baseman on occasion, and we cannot read too much into Votto doing so for the very first time, but even the strongest defenders of his -- my hand is raised -- have to be worried that at age 35 the power is gone. I expected 25 home runs. Votto's launch angle is not improved, nor is he hitting baseballs hard after three weeks. The Reds led him off in Wednesday's contest. Ugh. If you roster Votto, continue to do so, but the No. 43 first baseman on the Player Rater -- after Lucas Duda, David Freese and the released Brad Miller -- might be waiver wire fodder by midseason in non-walks formats.
• Cleveland Indians ace -- well, they have several of them -- Carlos Carrasco bounced back nicely from an outing in which he could not get out of the first inning. The Mariners had homered in every game, so this was not as if he dominated the Marlins. Carrasco had been dropped in 3 percent of ESPN standard leagues! Corey Kluber remains fully rostered, and he should turn his season around soon. I cannot argue right-hander Mike Clevinger being on the most-dropped list. He is out two months, but I bet he is a strikeout machine in the second half.
• Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna is a streaky hitter. His final season in Miami featured 37 home runs, but in the year prior, and the year after with the Cardinals, he hit only 23 and showed disappointing plate discipline. I would say this looks like another 37-homer campaign, as he blasted No. 8 on Wednesday, his fifth since Sunday. He did not hit his eighth home run last season until mid-June. Normally this would look like an obvious sell-high situation, but perhaps Ozuna is doing some every-other-season thing and he matches his 2017 production. Baseball players can be odd in that way.
Health report
• Harrison Bader cannot join Ozuna in the Cardinals' outfield for at least 10 days as a hamstring injury from the weekend finally landed him on the official, non-active shelf. Fantasy managers could have used that official news before Monday's game, but whatever. The Cardinals boast no shortage of usable outfielders, even with Tyler O'Neill injured, but as a strong defensive center fielder, Bader should play upon full health, and while the upside is blunted by the fact he cannot hit right-handed pitching so well, this is still a potential 20-homer, 20-steal option. I do not believe in Dexter Fowler. The end came quickly for him. I do like Jose Martinez. Go get him.
• Dustin Pedroia won many a fantasy league for so many of us, but those days appear over, and Wednesday's unfortunate news that his knee remains a problem is disconcerting. We want to see Pedroia manning second base for the Boston Red Sox, but it looks like Eduardo Nunez will have to do it for the immediate future until Brock Holt comes off the injured list. The sputtering Red Sox could also trade defense for offense and try to plug Steven Pearce there (27 career games started at second) or intriguing prospect Michael Chavis. I seriously doubt Gold Glove right fielder Mookie Betts heads back to second base. If this is it for Pedroia -- as it was a season ago for Adrian Beltre and Joe Mauer, and I am sure I am forgetting someone -- thank you.
Closing time
• Well, now it is official with Braves right-hander Arodys Vizcaino, and for what feels like an annual thing, I feel cheated on the investment. Vizcaino underwent season-ending shoulder surgery. He saved one game, and over the past five seasons, he surpassed 40 innings once and he never hit 20 saves. Oh well. Move on! Lefty A.J. Minter keeps struggling, and it remains feasible that right-hander Dan Winkler might see a chance. Now I think the Braves move a starting pitcher into a late-inning role. Clearly, any baseball fan should want a potential star like Mike Soroka, Touki Toussaint or Kyle Wright giving a team 150 innings, not 50 in relief, but teams often do silly things. Stop with the Craig Kimbrel talk. No team is giving him what he wants.
• Put Twins right-hander Blake Parker in the class of usable fantasy closers until that ceases being the case. He is not alone. He joins right-handers Cody Allen (Angels), Shane Greene (Detroit) and Greg Holland (Arizona) in the class, and who knows, perhaps each of these flawed pitchers keeps his job for six months and saves 35 games with a decent ERA. It just seems unlikely. Still, for the Twins, move on from popular righty Trevor May. It appears the Twins have.
W2W4
• The Phillies and Rockies start a four-game set in Denver, and runs should be scored. It is tough to stick with lefty Kyle Freeland in a home game. Watch the Colorado lineup this weekend, for Ryan McMahon and David Dahl are healthy now and available. Garrett Hampson could lose playing time. The Phillies might have to place shortstop Jean Segura (hamstring) on the injured list.
• Fantasy first-round pick Francisco Lindor could be in the Cleveland lineup for Friday, and you will want him active. I suspect his presence could aid others around him as well, like struggling Jose Ramirez. Could it help Kluber? He looks bad and faces the Braves on Friday, but no Kluber investor can sit him.
• The Yu Darvish experience continues Saturday against Zack Greinke and the Diamondbacks. Darvish fanned eight Marlins in his most recent outing, though he walked four and told reporters afterward that is just who he is. Yep, walks with strikeouts and wins will be tough if he cannot go six innings. He has yet to do so in four starts. I am not investing. The Angels' Trevor Cahill at home against Seattle could help fantasy managers more.
• Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN features Max Fried and the Braves against Cleveland's Shane Bieber. The Braves have the better lineup, but then again, with Lindor back, Cleveland should hit. Bieber should be rostered in all formats and Fried is getting there. The Braves could stick with him. Meanwhile, the Cardinals stick with Dakota Hudson against the Mets, but the bullpen could be calling if he cannot find his control.
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Monday, April 15: Weekend wrap, Clayton Kershaw value
Thursday, April 11: Free agents to get, including Dansby Swanson
Wednesday, April 10: Extra-base hit strugglers, Tommy Pham, Eloy Jimenez