Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Joe Ross ready to return, and Cameron Maybin regaining his footing

Joe Ross is set to return to the majors and Edwin Diaz (presumably) to the closer role. But a couple left-handed bats have also caught Scott White's attention in today's look at the waiver wire.

Well, that didn't take long.

Joe Ross, a popular sleeper pick coming into the year, was unceremoniously shipped to the minors after three rocky starts in April, leading some Fantasy owners to question whether manager Dusty Baker, with his history of favoring veterans, would give the 24-year-old an honest chance.

Turns out Ross was sent down for the noblest of reasons. The Nationals attributed his struggles to a lower arm slot, so pitching coach Mike Maddux put him on a program to help him raise it.

That's exactly what he did in three starts in the minors, the most recent being a seven-inning effort in which he allowed one earned run on eight hits with one walk and six strikeouts. The bite is back on his slider. He's ready to go.

And go he will Tuesday night against the Mariners, making now your opportunity to beat the rush to the waiver wire if he indeed stakes his claim. And even if he doesn't, it sounds like he'll get opportunities beyond this one.

"We need Joe," Baker has repeatedly told The Washington Post.

Ross so far hasn't flashed ace potential in his two years in the majors, but he gets enough strikeouts as a ground-ball specialist to emerge as a reliable Fantasy option. And on a team like the Nationals, with as many runs as their offense puts on the board, he's a good bet to outperform his peripherals.

Another comeback kid, Edwin Diaz is on the verge of regaining the closer role in Seattle after allowing just two infield singles in two scoreless innings against the White Sox on Friday. Nobody in the Mariners bullpen has stepped up in his absence, and the demotion was always meant to be temporary, giving him a chance to shore up his mechanics in lower-leverage situations.

"I feel very confident that if he keeps moving in that direction, he'll be back doing the ninth inning solo and we can get back to him being our anchor," manager Scott Servais told MLB.com Saturday.  

Be sure nobody dropped Diaz in your league because he has top-12 potential.

Justin Bour wasn't often mentioned as a potential Freddie Freeman replacement last week, but at 50 percent ownership in CBS Sports leagues, he should deliver bang for the buck. Not only has he homered seven times in his past 11 games, but he has put his past platoon concerns to rest, actually performing better against lefties than righties, and is making some of the highest-quality contact of any Marlins hitter, ranking eighth in hard-contact percentage according to FanGraphs. Most of those ahead of him strike out a heck of a lot more, too.

With a home run in three consecutive games, Scott Schebler ranks fifth in the majors with 13 -- a pace that may be difficult to sustain. But if you can believe it, he has had bad luck on balls in play this year, compiling a .243 BABIP. Sort of like Bour, he has a lower-than-expected strikeout percentage (20.0) for a player with his home run potential, so while you need to be careful with him against lefties, he probably deserves to be owned in more than 66 percent of CBS Sports leagues.

After looking completely inept at the plate for the first six weeks, Cameron Maybin has caught fire in six games since moving to the leadoff spot -- and for reasons that aren't just a bunch of hocus pocus.

"At the top, I can be more patiently aggressive, where opposed to hitting sixth and seventh, a lot of the times they want you to be a little more aggressive early in the count," he told MLB.com after reaching base four times with a homer, two walks and a stolen base Monday.

With 10 steals in 11 attempts and a near 1-to-1 (28 to 26) strikeout-to-walk ratio, Maybin should excel in two of the more difficult Rotisserie categories to fill (batting average being the other) in the long run and is widely available even in those formats at 26 percent ownership.

Alex Avila is attributing his long-awaited turnaround to improved leg strength after a few injury-plagued years, but it's manifesting as more fly balls at a time when that's all anybody wants to hit. The last time he had a rate of better than 40 percent, he was an All-Star in 2011. Even more dramatic is the drop in ground-ball rate from 52.2 last year to 22.0 this year. If the Tigers decide Avila deserves to start over James McCann at catcher, he's immediately a top-10 option at the position.