Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Is there more to come for Michael Kopech and Madison Bumgarner?
From Kopech's gem to Bumgarner's (not) no-hitter, who's deserving of a pickup?
By
Scott White
•
2 min read
Madison Bumgarner threw a no-hitter Sunday. Correction: He finished the same game he started, allowing no hits in between, but it wasn't a no-hitter. Or even a shutout. It was the second half of a doubleheader against the Braves, and since doubleheader games are only seven innings this year, no such start could ever be a no-hitter.
So perhaps by mere technicality, Bumgarner's outing wasn't the headliner Sunday. No, Michael Kopech, making his second start of the season, upstaged him with this performance:
10 strikeouts in 5.0 IP. Michael Kopech was on a mission today! pic.twitter.com/Ekmkq3Am0K
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 25, 2021
It wasn't so much the 10 strikeouts that floored me. It wasn't the 14 swinging strikes or the way he froze Rangers hitters for another 20 called strikes. It wasn't even that he walked no one, continuing to distance himself from the control issues that defined his early time in the minors. It was that he went five innings, throwing 87 pitches.
I didn't know he'd be allowed to do that -- not just Sunday, but at any point this season. The plan was for him, after missing the past two seasons, to serve as a multi-inning reliever this year, maybe approaching 100 innings, and then transition him to the starting rotation next year. But the plan seems to have moved up.
We break down the weekend waiver wire and whether to add Michael Kopech on the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast. You can follow us to get the latest episodes on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
| ||||||||||
Maybe just out of necessity. With Lance Lynn expected to come off the IL Friday, Kopech will presumably go back to the bullpen. But for how long? Dylan Cease is once again struggling to get anything going. He has yet to make it five innings in any of his four starts.
Perhaps the White Sox will ride it out with him a little longer just to keep Kopech's innings from piling up too quickly, but come late May, given that they've already shown a willingness to use Kopech like a traditional starting pitcher this year, won't he have enough innings left in reserve to make the transition full-time? I'm beginning to think so.
Whether you're willing to stash him in the meantime may depend on how big of a bench you have, but at this point, I have little reason to doubt he'll be awesome when he does get his shot. It seems worth it to find a way to roster him, then.
Who knows? Maybe someone else gets hurt -- or the White Sox pull the plug on Cease after all -- and there ends up being no wait at all.
Possible waiver wire pickups
Madison Bugarner's average fastball velocity, which dropped to 88.4 mph during a disastrous first season with the Diamondbacks, has been around 90 most of this year and was back up to 91 in this start. That's about where it was in 2018 and 2019, when he was still regarded as a Fantasy asset. You wouldn't dare start him yet given how bad he's been overall, but it's possible he's figured something out. After all, he allowed just two hits over five innings in his previous start.
| |||||||||||||
Kyle Gibson has in the past stood out as a pitcher who got mediocre results in spite of a good whiff rate, but with four consecutive quality starts (in which he's allowed a total of two earned runs), he's looking to seal the deal this time. His current whiff rate is the best it's ever been, thanks mostly to the slider that's always been his go-to, but it may actually be his new cutter that's putting him over the top, giving opponents an intermediate velocity to account for.
| |||||||||||||
Is it possible I was just a year early in my J.D. Davis love? Remember: He hit .307 with 22 homers and an .895 OPS as a part-timer in 2019, so we already know what the upside is. He hit too many balls straight into the ground last year but so far has gotten his launch angle back closer to where it was in 2019, making hard contact as always. The strikeout rate is a little high, but after stalling early because of hand injury, he looks deserving of some love again.
| |||||||||||||
Deivi Garcia, who made a splash as a rookie down the stretch last season, is set to make his season debut Monday at the Orioles, and it's unclear if the Yankees are planning to go with a six-man rotation for the time being. It might depend on how Garcia performs. Of course, he could perform well enough to render the point moot by going on to claim Domingo German's rotation spot. Maybe beat the rush now and then dump him if it doesn't work out.
| |||||||||||||
Every year, I find a reason to get excited about Alex Wood, but it's hard not to when he allows four hits in 12 innings over his first two starts. His average fastball velocity (91.4 mph) is more like it's been in his best years rather than his worst, and as I've been saying about Anthony DeSclafani, this Giants front office has done well with pitcher reclamation projects. Compared to DeSclafani, Wood has more strikeout potential, methinks, and he's RP-eligible, for all you points-leaguers out there.
| |||||||||||||
With four home runs in his past six games, including two Friday, Adolis Garcia has seemingly made himself a fixture in the Rangers lineup, and it's a fun development for a 28-year-old Cuban defector who made his way through Japan before joining the Cardinals organization in 2017. He hit 32 homers for Triple-A Memphis in 2019 but with some truly dreadful plate discipline, so while he may turn out to be a good source of power in 5x5 leagues, you can avoid him in points leagues.
| |||||||||||||
Seeing as Nico Hoerner got the call because of an injury to Joc Pederson, it's not clear that the Cubs intend for him to stick around, but having him start three straight games is a pretty good sign. So is his 4-for-9 performance. They could certainly use him at second base, where David Bote hasn't been pulling his weight, and let's not forget that by opening his stance to unlock more power, Hoerner was one of the top performers this spring, batting .364 with two homers, three steals and a 1.055 OPS.
| |||||||||||||
Bouncing between the outfield and first base, Pavin Smith is quickly becoming a fixture in the Diamondbacks lineup, even batting leadoff against righties. He doesn't elevate the ball well enough to be a big power hitter, but he's in the 93rd percentile for hard-hit rate. He consistently produced high contact rates in the minors, as he is now, and Statcast suggests he's actually underperformed so far, pegging him for a .337 batting average and .592 slugging percentage.
| |||||||||||||
