BY: SOME GUY NAMED STEVE
Willy Adames: Milwaukee Brewers (47.4% ESPN Ownership)
The first player on this week is Willy Adames who has found new life since he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. It was no secret that the Tampa Bay Rays wanted to find room for top prospects Wander Franco and Vidal Brujan, so Adames became the sacrificial lamb. Unfortunately for Adames, he wasn’t performing well enough to keep his role and as a result was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers after 41 games. In those 41 games for the Rays, Adames was only hitting .197/.254/.371 with five home runs, six doubles, and 51 strikeouts to just ten walks. He was struggling mightily and had zero value for fantasy.
Since Adames has joined the Brewers, he has completely turned his season around. In 42 games on the Brewers, Adames is batting .298/.380/.550 with eight home runs, 14 doubles, 29 RBI, with 39 strikeouts and 20 walks. Adames has improved in every single category since the trade while raising his OPS by .305! Since the trade, Adames’ OPS+ has increased from 76 to 151, hard hit rate has increased by 4.7%, and exit velocity has increased by 2.6 mph. On top of all that, Adames has increased his walk rate by 4.7% while decreasing his strikeout rate by 13.1%. I’ve always said with fantasy that year long numbers don’t matter when it comes to pickups. Willy Adames has been playing like an all-star the past few months and should be owned in almost all leagues. He’s somehow available in over half of ESPN leagues so make sure to grab him in yours.
Andrew Vaughn: Chicago White Sox (37.8% ESPN Ownership)
The second player on today’s list in a rookie for the White Sox with a ton of potential. Andrew Vaughn is finally starting to get regular playing time and is capitalizing on the opportunity. Earlier this year consistent playing time was tough for Vaughn to find because of the explosion by Yermin Mercedes. However, Mercedes has struggled big time and is now in AAA opening the door for more at-bats for Andrew Vaughn. On the season, Vaughn is batting .242/.309/.423 with eight home runs, 22 RBI, and 17 doubles across 227 at-bats.
He started the year slow, but has been turning it on as of late. Over the past two weeks, Vaughn has batted for a .324 average with three home runs and seven RBIs. He is starting to show his power potential with an OPS over .900 and a season-long hard hit rate of 49.7%. I would expect to see a lot more home runs from Vaughn in the second half of the season. His exit velocity and hard hit rate are both well above the major league average and he’s starting to hit to ball better overall. As long as Vaughn stays in the lineup regularly he can help your teams a lot going forward.
Joe Ross: Washington Nationals (35.3% ESPN Ownership)
The final player on this week’s list in pitcher for the Nationals who is slowly having a breakout season. After opting out of last year, Joe Ross is having a breakout year in his sixth major league season. I will be honest, I have been tracking Ross for weeks but was skeptical to give him out as a pick-up because I didn’t trust him. It’s no secret that Ross has been a bad pitcher the past few seasons and even started this year poorly but I can’t ignore what he’s doing anymore. The year long numbers for Ross look very average. He is 5-8 with a 4.02 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, and 91 strikeouts over 87.1 innings pitched. However, Ross has strung together a lot of good starts over the past month and a half.
In the month of June, Ross went 3-2 with a 1.95 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 33 strikeouts over 32.1 innings. He walked just six batters in his five starts with four of the five starts being quality starts. His success carried over into July as he threw another quality start and stuck out a season high 11 batters against the Dodgers. Whether his success continues or not is to be determined, but for now it looks like Ross is someone you want to roster. He has a career-high strikeout rate of 24.7% and has held opposing batters to a .234 average. This is the best we have seen Ross pitch in over four years and with how bleak pitching can be in free agency, he is worth the add.
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