The fantasy baseball season is still in its infancy, but to keep from crying like a baby over your team's poor start, there are plenty of players available on the waiver wire to pacify your fears of failure.
While the available player pool may not seem overloaded with talent, there are always a handful of breakout performers who emerge early in the season and end up contributing all year long. That's why it makes sense to try and find one of them now, based on little more than some playing time and a decent stat line or two over the past week.
Fantasy baseball waiver wire targets: Week 2
Due to the wide variance in types of leagues and individual team needs, the players listed here are in the highest to lowest roster rates in Fantrax leagues, which may or not match rates on other platforms. (Suggeseted bid values for standard 5x5 Mixed Roto leagues in parentheses based on $100 free agent acquisition budget for the season.)
- SP Jack Leiter, Texas Rangers (80% rostered)
Leiter won his first two starts of the season, allowing a total of one earned run in 10 innings (0.90 ERA). However, he left his last start against the Reds on Wednesday with a blister. Assuming everything is OK and he's good to take the mound at the Chicago Cubs as scheduled, Leiter should be starting in all fantasy formats. His 10 strikeouts to only one walk have him sporting an impressive 0.70 WHIP to go along with his stellar ERA. (FAAB bid: $14, if available)
- C/OF Hunter Goodman, Colorado Rockies (54%)
Playing time was supposed to be sporadic for Goodman, but in the Rockies' first two series he started four games at catcher and once at DH. He's made the most of those starts, too, with at least one hit in each game – including a solo shot off Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. And that's before the Rockies have even played their first game at home ... (FAAB bid: $8)
- 1B Ben Rice, New York Yankees (52%)
One of the torpedo bat swingers in the daunting Yankees lineup, Rice has started four of the first six games at DH for the Bombers and hit a pair of home runs for a 1.352 OPS. He'll play almost exclusively against right-handed pitchers and hit toward the bottom of the order, but any piece of the Yankees offense is worth having at this point. (FAAB bid: $6)
