Welcome to the Waiver Wire Picks, our daily fantasy baseball article that looks at the best players in baseball that you should be adding to your rosters. We’ll look at the players that are likely to be available in most leagues, as well as some deep league waiver wire options. We’ll also look at the most added players in fantasy baseball across the major sites and let you know which players to add and which players you can leave on the wire.

 

Top Priority Players to Add

 

Ryne Nelson (ARI), SP, RP (47% rostered on Yahoo, 27% rostered on ESPN)

Have the Diamondbacks found their ace? Probably not, but there is plenty of reason to be excited about Ryne Nelson.

Now, his start yesterday left lots to be desired, but the skills are there. In particular, with the fastball, which is one of the best in the majors. Nelson’s fastball has pretty much everything you want stuff-wise. It has well above-average velocity mixed with a high extension, has some of the best vertical movement of any four-seamer in the game, and it doesn’t come in at a steep attack angle. If he’s able to locate this pitch up more, it has incredible swing-and-miss potential. He balances out the arsenal with a slider, cutter, curveball, and changeup, which are all works in progress. If he can gain confidence with these offerings, it will just bolster the four-seamer even more.

Ignore the mediocre start last night, and Nelson is a great up-and-coming pitcher who looks to have a major role in the Diamondbacks’ late-season push.

Brice Matthews (HOU), 3B, SS (6% rostered on Yahoo, 2% rostered on ESPN)

Few things in baseball are more exciting than MLB debuts, and Houston’s Brice Matthews is next up in that department.

The Astros have been dealing with tons of injuries lately, which has led to them having to dip into their farm team a little more than they’d like.

Matthews struggled in his first outing, going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Ks have been a bit of a problem for Matthews, so he might take some time to heat up. However, the skill is there. He has great raw power, which, combined with speed, makes him a serious extra-base hit threat. He has also stolen a lot of bases, nabbing 25 in 73 minor league games this year. Matthews might not be the safest choice, but if you can grab him now, you can take advantage of his abilities.

 

Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players

 

It was an all starting pitcher day yesterday, with several big-name players getting picked up for their starts (and potentially beyond).

Gavin Williams was a bit of a mess against the White Sox, as he’s become one of the more prominent HIPSTER types this year. His issue in this game? Walks. Williams could not find the strike zone early in the game, which led to him issuing 5 walks in 5 innings in a three earned run performance. Oddly enough, he did kind of salvage this one. It was still a rough line, but he came out of it with 5 full innings. His future outlook for managers is probably fairly uncertain, but hey, it could be worse.

Dean Kremer has been a pretty popular streamer pick throughout the season, as many managers have nabbed him in order to take advantage of weaker matchups. Kremer held up his end of the bargain, as he gave managers 7 innings of scoreless baseball with 7 strikeouts to pick up the win against the Marlins.

Chase Burns was lined up against the terrible Rockies team, and he delivered in the strikeouts department. He got 15 whiffs for 10 strikeouts in 6 innings, with only two earned runs given up. This is a quality start you take to the bank, as even though the opponent was perhaps the weakest team offensively out there, he still pitched well and helped in the strikeout department. Unfortunate that he got a loss here, as Germán Márquez put up a once in a blue moon type of pitching performance.

Max Scherzer put together an incredibly successful outing, giving managers a quality start with eight strikeouts for the win against the A’s. It looks like the thumb pain might be in the rearview mirror now, as Mad Max pitched a gem here. It’s especially impressive when you consider the environment, as Sacramento is not an easy place for pitchers to play.

The top-added players on ESPN are mostly the same as yesterday, except with Ryne Nelson snagging the spot from Ceddanne Rafaela. We spoke about Nelson already, as he is an incredibly popular option right now and justifiably so.

The player at the top of the list is Brandon Woodruff. We weren’t sure what to expect of Woodruff this year, as he has missed significant time due to a shoulder injury that sidelined him all of last year. His rehab saw plenty of bumps in the road, but he finally got his chance to show what he can do against the Marlins, and he DOMINATED. Plenty of people probably let him go as we were supposed to see him quite some time ago, but he’s here and he looks amazing. Pretty soon, he will be nearly impossible to grab.

Oh, Lucas Giolito, how happy I am to see you thrive. Giolito had a bit of a rocky start this year, with many questioning whether he was worth rostering or even streaming at all. Now, he is on a stretch of excellent outings and looks to be a contender for pitcher of the month. Sometimes you just have to be patient, especially with a pitcher who is proven like Giolito.

I honestly hadn’t realized how good Michael Busch has been this season. I mean, I knew he was good, but the guy has been absolutely electric. He has a 282 wRC+ so far in July, coming off of a 178 in June. He’s on an extreme heater right now, and the xStats seem to show that this is legitimate.

Edward Cabrera might have finally figured it out. He’s been the poster child for the Marlins’ high-velocity changeup profile for years, but he never made the most of that nasty stuff. Now, he’s having a career year. He was coming off of two excellent 7-inning games going into yesterday, but unfortunately, he took a step back. Cabrera gave up four earned runs in four innings, with eight baserunners getting on via hits. He did have 6 strikeouts though, so perhaps this was a solid play in K/9 leagues.

 

Category Specific Players to Add 

 

Romy González (BOS), 1B, 2B, 3B, SS (32% rostered on Yahoo, 13% rostered on ESPN)

He’s been one of the most popular additions for fantasy teams as of late, and it makes sense why. Gonzalez has looked incredible so far, showcasing great contact abilities and raw power. There are questions about his consistent playing time and the future regression, but all of his estimator stats look good, with his power teetering on elite. He also has a solid sprint speed, so expect some stolen bases if he’s aggressive enough.

Ha-Seong Kim (TBR), SS (6% rostered on Yahoo, 3% rostered on ESPN)

Ha-Seong Kim has been back for a week, and he hasn’t missed a step. He’s pretty similar in many regards to Gonzalez in that the ratios have been there and there is potential across the board, he just isn’t hitting in the best spot in the lineup, and he probably won’t see everyday playing time. But still, Kim is a great shortstop who has great contact abilities combined with speed. His pull tendencies also increase his chances of hitting home runs, especially in ballparks with the right dimensions for it.

 

Streaming Pitchers

 

WAIT! You haven’t read Nick Pollack’s starting pitcher streamer rankings for today? Get on that pronto. He ranks every expected starter for each day, highlighting who you should start, sit, and claim off waivers. The whole series of these can be found here: https://pitcherlist.com/category/fantasy/sp-streamers/

In terms of whom I would recommend you pick up? One name comes to mind.

Nick Martinez (CIN), SP, RP (26% rostered on Yahoo, 25% rostered on ESPN)

NickMart hasn’t looked particularly great as of late. He is a bit of a streaky pitcher, which can be seen with the dichotomy of his start versus the Padres and his last start against the Marlins. With that said, the Rockies on the road are TERRIBLE. They’re also awful at home, but this is the team to stream against, and with Martinez having shown us that he’s capable of being a good pitcher at times, bank on him having a nice bounceback outing.

 

Deep League Players to Watch

 

Joey Cantillo (CLE), SP, RP (3% rostered on Yahoo, 1% rostered on ESPN)

Will we finally see Joey Cantillo shine? Cantillo, a top Guardians prospect, began his stint in the Major Leagues as a reliever. He has slowly started to get stretched out, and now he looks to be in the running for a long-term rotation spot. The key to his success is an excellent changeup, which has a 22% whiff rate. He also has excellent extension, which will allow him to tunnel pitches better and make his below-average fastball look faster.