A healthy amount of skepticism is a good thing. But I'm not sure what you're waiting for with Jacob Faria.
In fairness, Faria's ownership did rise again this week and is now up to 71 percent. While that's an improvement, I'm fairly certain that 29 percent of the CBS Sports leagues are not eight teams or smaller. In other words, there are a lot of leagues where he should be owned and isn't.
Faria has now made three big-league starts for the Rays and he's yet to give up more than a run in any of them. The 22 strikeouts in 19.2 innings are awesome, but not really surprising. Faria had a K/9 of 12.9 in Triple-A this season before being called up. He's an elite strikeout pitcher.
What has been more surprising has been his control. Faria has just four walks in his first three starts. His BB/9 in Triple-A was 3.4, and he hasn't had a season long walk rate below 3.0 since 2014.
You should probably expect the walk (and home run) numbers to climb, but that doesn't change the fact that Faria should be owned in virtually all leagues. He has room to regress and still be a top 50 starting pitcher.
Here are five other waiver wire options:
| 52% | 
Sean Newcomb
Atlanta SP
|
| Sean Newcomb hasn't been as successful as Faria, but he was a better prospect and has back-to-back quality starts to begin his big-league career. I'm sure there's some concern that the Braves will send Newcomb back down once Bartolo Colon is back, but I'm not so sure. For the time being they're going with a six-man rotation and this feels like a tryout for both Newcomb and Colon (who has a 7.78 ERA). | |
| 43% | 
Mike Zunino
Seattle C
|
| It seems like everyone has always been a little more excited about Zunino than I was, but the guy is lava-hot right now and he plays the worst position in Fantasy. In the month of June he's slashing .367/.407/.776. Sure, it's likely he'll cool off and turn into a .200 hitter again at some point, but I'd be riding him (even in one catcher leagues) until he cools off. | |
| 41% | 
Tyson Ross
Texas SP
|
| Hey, guys, Tyson Ross is back. OK, we don't know if he's back, as in the pitcher that had a 3.07 ERA from 2013-15, but he's back on a major-league roster and he didn't look terrible in his first start of the season. Ross will never be an efficient pitcher but has big strikeout upside and should get plenty of run support. | |
| 40% | 
Francis Martes
Houston RP
|
| I don't totally know what to make of Francis Martes after an encouraging first start. He was terrible in Triple-A this year, but he's also a top-20 prospect with as much upside as anyone in this column. He also showed the ability last season to post a walk rate (3.4 BB/9) that was at least acceptable. I don't want to start him yet but he deserves a spot on your bench to see how his next start goes. | |
| 37% | 
Trey Mancini
Baltimore 1B
|
| Sometimes guys who hit well but don't play every day get exposed once they get regular playing time. Trey Mancini is not that guy. Chris Davis got hurt on June 12, and since then Mancini has slashed .448/.467/.931 in an everyday role. He has a .966 OPS in 214 major league plate appearances. Davis is expected to be out until after the All-Star break, and Mancini should be owned in far more leagues until he returns. | |
