The first month of the season is almost finished, and while months are ultimately just arbitrary markers of time in a long baseball season, it's still a natural point to stop and take stock of things. And that's just what I did on Monday, as I wrote about the biggest rankings risers at every position for CBSSports.com.
Scott White has been writing a weekly Rankings Movers column, and he highlighted Josh Naylor's rise in his most recent edition last week, and I'm in full agreement there. Naylor is my biggest rankings riser at the first base position, jumping from the No. 10 spot to No. 7. That might not seem like a huge rise, but I was already higher on Naylor than the consensus, and it represents about a five-round jump from where Naylor was being drafted before the season. So, it's a bigger leap than you think.
Monday's top waiver targets
Joey Loperfido got his own big write-up on CBSSports.com Sunday when it was announced that the Astros were calling him up, and then we found out about an almost-as-interesting hitter promotion from the NL side of things Monday, so we'll start this segment off there, with the looming addition of Jordan Beck to the Rockies roster.
And, on the one hand, the fact that he's going to play for the Rockies should be reason enough for Fantasy players to take notice. With Coors Field at his back for half his games, Beck doesn't even need to be all that good to matter for Fantasy – Charlie Blackmon hit .279/.363/.440 last season with a 90-run pace over 150 games, and nobody really thinks he's any good at this point.
And Beck might be good! He was a top-100 prospect in MLB.com's preseason top-100 prospect rankings, and was hitting .307/.405/.594 in his first 25 games at Triple-A, with five homers and five steals. We have a fairly limited sample size from Beck as a professional, but he hit 25 homers and stole 20 bases as a 22-year-old last season, and it's not too hard to see a Nolan Jones-circa-2023 outcome here if everything goes right.
But there's that other hand we've been hiding, and that's that … it's the Rockies! And they have a pretty notorious history of playing boring old veterans ahead of young hitters who might eventually turn into actual contributors for them. They recently recalled another promising young hitter in Hunter Goodman, who started two of his first four games, with no clear sign they're going to give him an everyday opportunity. I mean, when you've got such luminaries as Jake Cave and Alan Trejo around, you've simply gotta make sure you get them in the lineup.
Which is to say, I don't have a ton of faith in the Rockies to get the most out of just about anyone at this point, which is the biggest reason to temper expectations for Beck's promotion. The Rockies haven't developed a must-start Fantasy player since Trevor Story, so skepticism is certainly warranted.
That being said, if you missed out on Loperfido (who I do prefer) Sunday, Beck should be next on your waiver-wire priority list. It could go wrong – it often does when the Rockies are involved. But there's must-start Fantasy upside here, and I'm always going to want to chase that, especially in five-outfielder Rotisserie leagues.
Clarke Schmidt, SP, Yankees (66%) – Schmidt probably isn't a start, but he continues to pitch very well for the Yankees, lowering his ERA to 3.19 with 5.1 one-run innings Monday. His command isn't great, and that's the biggest thing holding him back from being a better pitcher, and that was the issue Monday, as he walked three and failed to finish the sixth inning for the sixth start in a row. That limits his upside, perhaps, but with more than a strikeout per inning and a good offense backing him up, he could be pretty useful moving forward. And, for what it's worth, while this wasn't an overwhelmingly good start, it's fair to grade on a curve against the Orioles, of all teams.
Jacob Young, OF, Nationals (23%) – Those of you in H2H points leagues can probably skip right over this one, but Young continues to matter for Roto leagues. He stole two more bases Monday and is now up to 12 in just 21 games on the season. He's probably not a good enough hitter to matter for much more than that, though I will point out, he has a .296 expected batting average so far, mostly because he's making plenty of contact and spraying softly hit liners all over the place. If he can just be a decent source of batting average, that speed will play.
Carlos Santana, 1B, Twins (10%) – There's always a stretch every season where Santana reminds us that, though he's not the consistent force he once was, he can still swing it, and we're in the midst of one of those stretches right now. After going the first 10 games of the season without homering, Santana homered in three straight games Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and then did it again Monday; in that stretch, he is 7 for 21 with five homers and 10 RBI. He had a .247/.316/.464 line with a 30-homer pace from June 1 on last season, and might have more left in the tank than we give him credit for.
Bryse Wilson, RP, Brewers – It didn't garner much attention at the time, but Wilson made the transition to the bullpen recently and actually looks pretty solid! He went up against the Rays Monday and limited them to one run on four hits and a couple of walks over six innings while striking out six, and now has just three runs allowed in 14 innings as a starter. I don't think there's a ton of upside here – Wilson wasn't getting many strikeouts out of the bullpen – but he has maintained his velocity jump as a starter and has terrific command, so maybe he can pull a Tyler Anderson/Martin Perez and be useful against the right matchups.
