week 21 waivers -#Filthnandez

So Uncle Jimmy, in his never ending quest to get me to join the Twatter, sends random texts that contain hashtags and some short phrase on the daily.  I am pretty sure that it started with #SpringerDinger, but it has now evolved into #BaezBomb, which I get every single time Javier Baez hits a homerun (who would have thought that is what it meant?) and with the Cubs calling up OF (and Bob's ATer) Jorge Soler, I imagine that #SolerPower is going to be in my very near future.  <<Side note, if there arent Soler Power T-Shirts with a picture of the sun shining on Jorge Soler holding a bat out extended, then the entire Cubs marketing department needs to be immediately fired. This needs to happen like today.>>  This morning I had a text from Jim before 7 am saying "I was hoping for #Filthnandez, but alas, outbid."  So, in honor of Jim, I will be creating a # for each pick up this week because I am a huge gomer.  And since I already ruined the surprise, we will start with:

SP Jose Fernandez (#Filthnandez) - $33 - Backyard SuperStars - drop 1b Joey Votto
For $33, Kyler got a 22 year old pitcher who has been one of the most dominant arms in the entire MLB universe over the past two years (when healthy), went for a completely justified $46 at auction at the beginning of the season, but one who is going to be coming off Shommy Shon surgery and who may or may not be ready to start 2015 with the big boy team.  Looking at the other pitchers who went in the $33ish price range during the auction (Cliff Lee $34, David Price $36, Stephen Strasburg $35, Chris Sale $35, Justin Verlander $35), Fernandez fits in well and has argueably the highest upside of any of them.  To be honest, I am surprised that more people were not in on the Fernandez bidding, as only Kyler, Uncle Jimmy and myself placed bids (Zach?  Kevin?).  If he comes back healthy, Fernandez projects to be a multiple Cy Young award winning pitcher beginning as soon as 2015.  Votto has been arguably the biggest disappointment in MLB this season.  Votto went for a sky high $41 at auction, in large part due to his contact and on-base skills with a moderate amount of power and large number of anticipated doubles.  As it turns out, he has been unable to stay healthy and when healthy has been plain terrible, hitting 255/390/409 with 32 runs 23 RBI and 1 SB in only 62 games (at least he has been able to keep walking, though I dont know why anyone would walk him this year).  Now each passing day increases the chances that he will be shut down for the season with a quad injury as he has yet to resume baseball activities and the Reds 10 games off the division pace (only 5.5 off the second Wild Card). 

SP, RP Mike Fiers (#WeDidntStartMikeFiers <sung to the tune of We Didnt Start the Fire by Billy Joel>) - $4 - MBHB - drop SS/3b Xander Bogaerts

Not many people know what to make of Mike Fiers...the Brewers certainly dont.  In 2012, Fiers was one of the top pitchers in the NL over the first half of the season before melting down on Aug 13 at Colorado.  After that, he wasnt the same pitcher, putting up quality starts in only 2 of his last 9 turns and seeing his season long ERA jump by nearly 2 runs to finish at 3.74.  In 2013, he suffered from ineffectiveness and injury and threw only 22 innings in the big leagues.  Demoted to AAA to start 2014, Fiers regained whatever Mojo he had at the beginning of 2014, dominating AAA hitters before earning the call to the bigs on June 10.  After hanging in the pen for a few games, he took the ball on 6/24 and gave up 2 runs in 4 innings against the Nats.  It was his worst start so far, as in the following 4 starts have yielded no more than 3 hits or 2 earned runs or 1 walk in any game with 32 punchouts over 28 innings.  Bogaerts has had a season to forget for the BoSawks.  He is hitting 223/293/333 on the season and has never really gotten going, despite being a regular in the Boston offense all season long.  After watching the 2013 post season, I have little doubt that Bogaerts will be a star in MLB, but the 21 year old is proving that he might not be ready for the big time just yet.

SP Archie Bradley (#GoldenArchie) - $3 - BySs - Drop SP/RP Alfredo Simon
Bradley is one of the top 10 prospects in MLB according to just about every prospect source available.  He has battled injuries this year that have pushed his arrival back from mid summer to likely September, but he has top of the rotation, MLB ace type stuff.  The drawback on him is that he has yet to control his pitches as well as his coaches would prefer.  Still, had my entire pitching staff not hit the DL at the same time, I would not have thought of dropping Bradley a couple of weeks ago.  Kyler and stash him in the NA spot for now and use the rest of the season to decide how he wants to move forward.

RP Kelvin Herrera (#TheOtherKCMasterpiece) - $2 - Bob's ATers - Drop RP Sean Doolittle
This is a case of Bob not being confident that Sean Doolittle is going to be back before the end of the fantasy season and needing a warm body to plug into a lineup.  Herrera has thrown 52 2/3 innings with 1.51/1.17 ratios and 46K.  He is the guy that bridges from the starter to Wade Davis/Greg Holland in KC's quest to turn every game into a 6 inning contest.

C/1B/OF - Stephen Vogt (#Vogt4President) - $2 - Bob's ATers - Drop C Yan Gomes
This is a case of Bob not being confident that Yan Gomes is going to be back before the end of the fantasy season and needing a warm body to plug into a lineup.  It helps that this warm body qualifies at 3 positions and is hitting 320/348/507 on the season, even if that slash line is well down from its peak 361/387/544 at the end of June.

1b Kennys Vargas (#TheyKilledKennys) - $2 - KIODL - Drop 3b Pedro Alvarez
Pedro Alvarez led the NL in HRs last year with 36 and averages 29 HRs for every 162 games played in his career.  Yet, somehow he has a career OPS under .800 and his OPS is just 6% better than league average for his career.  His career OBP is an incredibly awful .308 and this year he came down with Chuck Knoblauch disease (a complete inability to throw the ball to the first baseman) which eventually necessitated his move from 3b to 1b because the team could not afford any more throwing errors (he has 25 errors in 823 innings, more than an error every 4th game), yet his .924 fielding % is in line with previous seasons in his career.  Basically, all Alvarez can do is hit the ball a long way...when he happens to make solid contact with it.  I watched a little of Kennys Vargas in action this weekend while lunching at a local Applebee's, and I liked what I saw.  A massive (6'5" 275lb) switch hitting who has a little trouble with the strikeout (8 in his last 5 games) but also can put a charge into the ball (337/369/537 with 23 RBIs in 23 games).  I am not sure what his defense looks like, and he is blocked at 1b by some guy wearing Joe Mauer's sideburns and stealing his paycheck (unless Mauer of Kennys moves to LF or DH, though I feel like you cant have more than 1 Kenny playing at a time out there), but Vargas is another player (like Danny Santana) that the Twins can use to try to encourage fans to not start hating the franchise while they lose 100 games a season.

SP Michael Pineda (#PineTAReda) - $2 - MBHB - Drop SP, RP Michael Wacha

This one stings a bit.  Wacha was one of those preseason favorites who ended up on all of my teams after I developed a man crush on his pitching during last year's stretch run and postseason.  If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that I would be dropping him for any reason, I would have punched you right in your whore mouth.  But, with injuries continuing to mount and Wacha being passed by Garrett Richards in the man crush category, he was the one who had to go to get healthy reinforcements in the fold.  St Louis is saying that Wacha will be back in September, but it will likely be too late to make a fantasy impact (though it could greatly impact the actually MLB playoff race).  Pineda, on the other hand, has finally come back from a mysterious injury that caused sticky brown goo to start oozing out of his skin in random places.  That had to be terrifying for him and his family.  Pineda was on the mound last night in KC and looked every bit the monster he was in 2011 (his only other season in the bigs) when he threw 171 innings and gave up only 133 hits, throwing mid 90s fastballs, low 90s cutters, and sliders and change ups in the mid 80s all with terrific movement. 

Be sure to check your email, as I sent out the keeper voting options.