2018 Fantasy Baseball Week 9 Waiver Wire: Let Us Remember

As many will have a three day weekend coming up, it is a time to reflect on why we have it.

Many have given their lives for our nation to be able to have an extra day off at the end of May. Often times, Memorial Day is referred to as the unofficial start of summer. What is more fitting than talking about the boys of summer?

All my selections for this week have reference to our nation and the memory that many have left to live our freedom. As a son of a Marine and a brother of an Army member, it is with great pleasure to talk about this week’s waiver wire players.

2018 Fantasy Baseball Week 9 Waiver Wire

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Hitters

Mark Reynolds, 1B, Washington Nationals (22% owned in Yahoo)

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Why not start off big right away?! Washington, with the signing of the Residence Act, became the Nation’s Capital in 1790. No offense to Canada, but how ironic is it that we took a team away from them (Montreal Expos) and placed them in Washington, D.C. then named that team the Nationals.

Kind of a hard player to be playing on a regular basis, but the Nationals are getting him at-bats whenever they can because of how well Reynolds is doing at the plate. Currently cutting into Matt Adams’ at-bats, Reynolds is doing a nice job of stepping up for a much aligned Nationals lineup. This seems to be the theme for the Nationals season thus far in 2018.

In the past two weeks, Reynolds is hitting a robust .478 and has an OBP of .520. During this time, he hit four home runs, scored six and has six RBI. This is all with only having 23 official at-bats. As it is going to be hard to trust him long term, you have to ride the hot bat while you can.

Travis Jankowski, OF, San Diego Padres (30% owned in Yahoo) 

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Padre is a term meaning a chaplain in any of the armed forces. A guy simply trying to lead a bunch of protectors in a meditation that can be an outlet for what they are trying to concentrate on at that moment.

Jankowski is a five-tool player that can give you instant gratification if he is in your lineup. The speedy outfielder is being placed at the top of the Padres lineup and for all the right reasons. While not having a lot of pop in his bat, he is getting on base over 40% of the time and already has seven stolen bases.

He has been a nice early surprise for a habitually bad Padres lineup. Just make sure he is playing that night because he has been known to sit when facing a left-handed pitcher.

Pitching

Daniel Mengden, SP, Oakland Athletics (19% owned in Yahoo)

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Athletics. Often in a time of crisis, many Americans use sports as an outlet to override and come together as one. I specifically remember after 9/11 when the first baseball game was played. The Mets and Braves gave a spirited display of the nation’s pastime and made people forget what bad things our country endured for a moment. It is often times that many athletic events like this have helped people get through tough situations.

The Athletics have Mengden, who is not enduring any tough times these days. He is not going to go out there and blow batters away when he is on the mound, but he is going to get the job done. In the past two weeks, in two starts, he has two wins and two quality starts. His combined ERA is 0.69 and his WHIP is 0.85.

This all adds up to a must-add right now in all mixed leagues.

Vince Velasquez, SP, Philadelphia Phillies (28% owned in Yahoo)

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It is time to come full circle with this one. Philadelphia played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. It was the place of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It is the birthplace of the United State Marine Corps and as speculated in the Residence Act was the temporary nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800, while Washington, D.C. was being built.

Velasquez doesn’t normally go deep into games, but in two of his last three starts, he has been able to pitch six innings or more. What is impressive about this is his high strikeout rate in the last three games. He has averaged over eight strikeouts while still going far into the game.

Ever since his horrible start against the Braves on April 29^th, it seems like Velasquez is in a nice groove. In his last four starts, he faced the Nationals, Giants, Cardinals and Braves. He has gone 3-1 over this time and had two quality starts.  He will look to continue this hot streak against the Dodgers in his next start.

Deep Dives

These are players who are better suited to be owned in 14-plus team leagues or deeper roster leagues.

Jurickson Profar, SS/OF, Texas Rangers (14% owned in Yahoo)

Rangers are often referred to as an elite group of the U.S. Army. Obviously, those in the MLB are in an elite group by being at the highest level that anyone can play in baseball. Jurickson Profar was once regarded as a highly talented prospect and seems to be coming into his own as of recently.

Keep an eye on his progress. He has an OBP of .333 in the last week. Along with six runs scored, one home run, 11 RBI and two stolen bases.

Let us remember and thank our brave service members this Memorial Day and celebrate the greatest pastime, baseball!

Check out the rest of our great 2018 Fantasy Baseball content.