It’s no fun to watch the Colorado Rockies slide into irrelevance. The Rockies, as you know, have the worst record in baseball. They’re 27th in runs scored. They also have the worst pitching by far, with a messy 5.54 ERA — over a run behind the next closest team, the Chicago White Sox.
But it’s the right time of the year to view the Rockies with an optimistic lens. Colorado has been a competitive 9-11 over its last 20 games, and a glorious home swing is upon us. Nine of the next 12 Colorado games will be at Coors Field, still the best cheat-code ballpark in all of fantasy baseball. It’s midsummer when this stadium really shows its teeth. And while the Rockies lineup doesn’t go deep enough to recommend wholesale pickups, we can at least squint and see some plausible upside with a couple of widely-available guys.
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Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Hitters to Consider
Tyler Freeman, SS/OF, Rockies (6% Rostered on Yahoo)
Expectations were low when Freeman first joined the Colorado lineup — he was batting ninth at the opening of the month. But a .323/.412/.434 push has grabbed the team’s attention, with Freeman slotting first or second in his last seven starts. Freeman already has eight steals in his 38 games, which would translate to 30-plus in a full season. And he’s controlling his at-bats nicely, with more walks than strikeouts. I could see Freeman holding fantasy relevance the rest of the year.
Mickey Moniak, OF, Rockies (7%)
Although Moniak was the first pick in the 2016 draft, he’s fallen into a journeyman’s career — he’s been closer to Mickey Mouse than Mickey Mantle. But he’s found a nifty power pocket with the Rockies, ripping 11 home runs in just 192 at-bats. The home runs are close to evenly split home and away (six at Coors), although Moniak does have a juicy .547 slugging percentage in the thin air. Like Freeman, Moniak has enjoyed better lineup real estate of late. I’m not as confident in what Moniak will be long-term, but he holds my interest while the Rockies are mostly at home.
Ernie Clement, 1B/2B/SS/3B, Blue Jays (20%)
You have to accept that Clement doesn’t offer a lot of category juice — just four home runs and 2-for-5 on steals. But he’s carrying a sturdy .307 average and he qualifies at every infield position for Yahoo managers. The Blue Jays have steered into Clement as a regular, starting him in 41-of-43 games. He’s the perfect type of versatile reserve to carry you through when injuries strike. Despite swinging freely at the plate, Clement has outstanding contact skills, striking out a modest 11.1% of the time. He’s a craftsman.
Javier Báez, SS/3B/OF, Tigers (41%)
Although the pretty .290/.328/.473 slash line catches your attention, it’s not fully approved with the batted-ball profile — Statcast data says Báez should be batting .254 and slugging .406. But even if Báez regressed to those ratios, he’d likely hold fantasy interest, covering three positions and showing playable pop. Báez will swing at almost anything you throw near the plate, but he’s trimmed his strikeout rate down to 21.4%, a career low. Báez will never justify the massive contract the Tigers handed him three years ago (and the Mets will never forget trading Pete Crow-Armstrong to get Báez four years ago), but at least he looks like a bonafide MLB player again.
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Josh Smith, 1B/SS/3B/OF, Rangers (47%)
Smith is back from a hamstring injury and producing nicely, with a .284/.350/.431 slash, seven homers, and eight steals. The Rangers often shield him from left-handed pitching (and his platoon bias supports that), but the schedule lines up nicely, with 10-of-12 right-handed opponents slated for the next two weeks. The Rangers offense was a no-fun zone to open the year, but it’s been around league average in June. Small steps, but progress nonetheless.
Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Angels (17%)
The surname isn’t easy to spell or pronounce (shawn-uh-well, emphasis on the first syllable), which might be why the roster tag stays so low. Schanuel is a callback to a time when first basemen often carried good averages with modest power, the Mark Grace or Nick Johnson frame. And there could be room for growth with Schanuel, as he’s just 23 and was a first-round pick two years ago. All of his plate-discipline metrics are excellent, and his average and slugging numbers are validated by the under-the-hood stats.