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

 

Abner Uribe (MIL), RP (42% rostered on Yahoo, 27% rostered on ESPN)

The Brewers are a closer factory. Seriously, it’s ridiculous how much talent they’ve had at the back of the bullpen. Josh Hader was probably the best closer in the game. His replacement following the Padres trade, Devin Williams, was probably the best closer in the game after that. They traded Williams, and he has struggled, but new-to-the-role Trevor Megill was awesome this year, getting strikeouts and saves galore before the recent injury. Now Uribe is in the spot, and he looks ready to dominate.

Uribe primarily throws two pitches, a sinker and a slider. The sinker routinely hits 100 on the gun, the perfect encapsulation of why he is closer material. The slider might be better, though, as it is a called strikes + whiffs machine. He also has a four-seam fastball, though it rarely sees usage.

Uribe is going fast in leagues, so grab him and you’ll have another closer option for playoff season.

 

Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players

 

It was an all-streaming pitcher day yesterday, with some of the more common picks on this list as well as two MLB debuts at the top!

Now we all know how Pitcher List feels about debuts; they are genuinely to be avoided due to the combination of nerves and adrenaline making them very much boom or bust outings. For Payton Tolle and Jonah Tong, they lucked into getting some pretty solid matchups for their first outings, the kind that would make you reconsider that rule. Both really started strong, with Tolle in particular looking strong. For Tong, he got the best thing a pitcher can get in their debut: run support. The Mets were terrorizing the Marlins, which allowed Tong to cruise in his five innings. Tong only allowed six hits and one earned run, and grabbed six strikeouts in a winning effort. It was a great start, even if it was in a fairly low-pressure situation. As for Tolle, he had the arguably better start, as even though he allowed two earned runs in five-and-two-thirds innings, he got 14 whiffs for eight strikeouts. His WHIP was also below 1.00, making it a seriously successful debut in real life and fantasy, even if his team unfortunately didn’t pull off the win.

Nestor Cortes got back on the mound for the Padres after an incredibly clean game against the Dodgers of all teams. He got the Twins yesterday and unfortunately didn’t give us much. He allowed three runs in three innings, with only two strikeouts and seven baserunners. He was ejected after three, though it appeared he was getting the hook as he left runners on the corners. He’s such an enigma, as he can go from dominating the top contender to looking lost against a team that sold nearly everything they had a month ago.

Jack Leiter has been a roller coaster this year, giving managers headaches with his inconsistency. In his start against the Athletics, he did surprisingly well against a good offense that gets a boost at their home ballpark in West Sacramento. Leiter stood tall against the A’s, going six innings, allowing only two earned runs and notching seven strikeouts. The stuff is there for Leiter; he just needs to harness his command.

I feel like Cade Horton starts every Friday. Is it just me? He got the Rockies at Coors, which is still streamable in my book due to how rough the Rockies can be. He was alright in this start. The Cubs seem to love their five-inning starts, and this was another one for Horton. He only allowed two earned runs and got four strikeouts, though his WHIP was higher than he and streaming managers would have liked. He grabbed the win at the end of the day, which made this stream worthwhile.

 

It’s a pretty similar group of players in the ESPN top 5 as it has been lately, though there’s a little bit of shuffling around and a couple of new names.

We highlight Nolan McLean a lot in these articles, as he has shown us the makings of a future ace. Actually, maybe a present ace? I love it when highly-touted prospects look good right away! This has been an amazing year for young, talented arms. McLean looks to be an incredibly efficient pitcher who gets outs in a variety of ways. His sweeper is his main pitch, and it grades out phenomenally. He also uses sinkers, curveballs, four-seamers, and the occasional changeup and cutter to find success putting hitters away. He’s awesome and is probably going to go pretty high in drafts next year.

Shane Bieber to the Blue Jays felt like a match made in heaven. The Jays needed someone with serious ace potential, and Bieber gets to join a team with serious World Series aspirations coming off Tommy John surgery. That start against the Marlins was beautiful, as he looked like the Bieber of old. So did we all have Bieber fever in his next start against the Brewers, who seem to win under any circumstances? Yes, yes, we did. Bieber went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs and keeping the WHIP under 1, and obtaining six strikeouts. He’s an ace, and he won’t be available in most leagues.

One of my favorite moves of my fantasy year was spending a couple of bucks in FAAB money on Cam Schlitter right before his start against the Rays. Schlittler dominated against the Rays and Nationals, racking up strikeouts galore and proving himself to be worthy of a major role with the contending Yankees. He has an above-average swinging strike rate on his four main pitches, which showcases the potential for strikeouts and a solid WHIP. The Yankees will also make him a good play for wins.

Mark Vientos had a rough start to the year. Plenty of people predicted he wouldn’t be the near-30 home run hitter of his age-24 season, but they didn’t expect him to be one of the worst bats in the game for a stretch. To really showcase the swing, he had a -30 wRC+ in June. In August, he has put up a wRC+ of 155. Realistically, he isn’t the

terrible, below-replacement-level player he was for a lot of this season, and he also probably isn’t one of the best hitters in the game. What we do know is that he is a solid power hitter who is surrounded by one of the better lineups in baseball.

 

Category Specific Players to Add

 

Matt Wallner (MIN), OF (10% rostered on Yahoo, 2% rostered on ESPN)

The Twins aren’t the most exciting offense, but every once in a while, Matt Wallner can give us a stretch of excellent performances. He might be in that streak right now, with four home runs this week. Walner is a pure power hitter, which hurts his ratios a bit. But if you need home runs and RBIs, he might be the move, as it will be hard to find someone on the wire with as much power potential and the track record of hitting bombs.

Andrew Saalfrank (ARI), RP (7% rostered on Yahoo, 1% rostered on ESPN)

Similar to Uribe, Andrew Saalfrank has appeared to assume the closer role with the Diamondbacks. I’ve always liked Saalfrank and viewed him as a fun high-leverage bullpen option, something the Diamondbacks have had quite a few of over the years. Saalfrank is not a strikeout pitcher, but he gets of groundballs. It is fun seeing a pitcher use a curveball nearly 50% of the time, as that’s not something you see often. Gotta love the world of funky high-leverage relievers.

 

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? A couple of names come to mind.

Luis Gil (NYY), SP (50% rostered on Yahoo, 18% rostered on ESPN)

It’s been a bit of a struggle for Luis Gil since coming back from injury this year. Gil won the American League Rookie of the Year last year in a surprise breakout where he looked like an ace at certain points. Unfortunately, Gil’s struggles with control have reared their ugly head this year, and he has looked awful at points. The thing is, though, while the White Sox offense has been hot lately, I don’t see this carrying for too long, as we’ve seen it dry up completely in some games. Gil could be in line for some Ks and the win, which might be just what you need come Sunday.

Tomoyuki Sugano (BAL), SP (24% rostered on Yahoo, 11% rostered on ESPN)

I’ve chosen Tomoyuki Sugano quite a bit as a streamer pick, which is strange, because he really isn’t high on my personal list. But you have to play the matchups, and Sunday against the Giants in San Francisco is exactly the kind of juicy matchup you check the schedule for. The Giants are a pretty tame offense these days, and their home park certainly helps with that, as it is a pitcher’s paradise. This could be an easy stream to keep your ratios down while also giving Sugano more Ks than usual.

 

Deep League Players to Watch

 

Ian Seymour (TBR), SP, RP (6% rostered on Yahoo, 1% rostered on ESPN)

The Rays and changeup-throwing, soft-tossing lefties. What’s new? I really like Ian Seymour as a deep league play as he looks like a great fit in the Rays rotation. The Rays have gotten the most out of similar guys like Jeffrey Springs, and Seymour did look surprisingly amazing in his first start. There may be regression to be expected, but he has a really solid slate that includes an outing in Washington, a rematch against Cleveland, and then the White Sox. He’s cheap due to the low floor, but the Rays have shown what the ceiling is with this kind of pitcher.