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It’s a great day to make those fantasy baseball rosters just a little bit better, people. All players hyped today are available in a majority of Yahoo leagues and approved for use. Let’s get to it…
Not many batters are hotter than this guy at the moment. Burleson is currently on an eight-game hitting streak, with multiple hits in five of those eight. He’s homering, he’s stealing bases and he scores a run pretty much every day. In Burleson’s last full minor league season back in 2022, he cleared the 20-homer plateau while hitting .331/.372/.532 at Triple-A Memphis. He definitely offers multi-category appeal in fantasy.
As a team, the 2024 Cardinals have clearly been a disappointment, but Burleson has been a notable success story. His age-25 breakout feels pretty legit. Burleson’s statcast page is full of red.
Ortiz was part of the return package for the Brewers in the Corbin Burnes deal and he’s definitely been an early season success story. He’s locked down an everyday role and he’s delivered 14 extra-base hits (including five homers) with an OPS north of .900. Ortiz slashed .321/.378/.507 with 11 steals last year at Triple-A in Baltimore’s system, so it’s not as if he just hit the fantasy radar. If he remains unattached in your league, he deserves a look. The multi-position eligibility is a nice bonus.
Young is strictly a category specialist, but he can definitely assist your squad in steals. In 72 major league games across two seasons, he’s swiped 28 bags in 30 attempts. Young’s sprint speed is obviously elite (97th percentile) and he has a 52-steal season to his credit in the minors. He’s batting .267 for his MLB career, so at least he’s not a liability in average. Add wherever you can use a speed enhancer.
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Let’s just slide Caminero’s name in here one last time before his roster percentage climbs further and he becomes ineligible for the pickups feature. He is of course one of the best hitting prospects in the game, recently drawing starts at second base in Durham, and he has easy power to all fields.
JUNIOR CAMINERO HAS DONE IT AGAIN
He homers for the 2nd time in game 2 tonight, giving him a pair of 2-homer games over his last 3 contests going back to Sunday! pic.twitter.com/dlh6WbisRD
— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) May 2, 2024
Caminero is a career .311/.379/.548 hitter in the minors and he’s coming off a 31-homer season across two levels. So far this year, he’s delivered seven bombs and 13 extra-base hits over 30 games. Whenever he arrives in Tampa, his promotion will be an actionable event.
James Wood, OF, Washington Nationals (23%)
While we’re considering prospects, we should also note that Wood is crushing at Triple-A Rochester these days, hitting an absurd .358/.465/.600 with nine homers, 10 steals and nearly as many walks (34) as Ks (37). As with Caminero, whenever Wood gets the call, he’ll have immediate fantasy relevance. Here he is launching a home run off a lefty on Wednesday:
If you can use a guy with power, speed and on-base upside, Wood is worth stashing today for later use. He’s mildly dinged at the moment, but his production is too great to ignore.
Olson was mass-dropped across the Yahoo fantasy landscape after the early exit in his most recent start, after he was drilled in the hip by a line-drive. But there’s no worrisome injury here beyond a bruise, so we have no reason to think Olson’s future performance will be negatively impacted. We’ll remind you that the 24-year-old right-hander has produced a 2.16 ERA and 1.06 WHIP over his nine starts this season; he’s been a valuable fantasy piece despite the total lack of run support. Olson has averaged 10.3 Ks per nine innings over his minor league career and 8.6 in the majors, so he shouldn’t be a liability in any starting pitching category.
This season, it feels like we’re either getting six scoreless frames from Soriano, or it’s a two-inning, four-run mauling. Not much in between. So, hey, maybe he’s not for everyone. But he’s a man with triple-digit velocity and significant strikeout potential who’s delivered a 3.30 ERA (3.87 xERA) thus far. As a fantasy manager (or an Angels fan), you truly love to see quotes like this gem from a catcher:
“Every umpire I talk to, they think it’s top-3 stuff in all of baseball,” said catcher Matt Thaiss. “It’s out of this world. As long as he does what he did today and fills up the zone, it’s kind of unhittable.”
At his best, Soriano is overpowering. Definitely worth a shot in our game. He’ll take his next turn on Saturday against Cleveland.
Look, he’s a closer with a monster fastball and perfectly acceptable ratios. He also has SP-eligibility, which allows unusual flexibility. We’ve run out of new ways to explain that every team in MLB is easily able to deliver a 30-save closer. It’s wild that Kopech remains so widely available. Even if he gets dealt at some point, all the saves between now and then are yours to keep.