Fantasy Baseball Bests, Busts and Waiver Wire: Sept. 3
Stay tuned each week to Athlon Sports for a 2012 Fantasy Baseball Weekend Waiver Wire every Monday.
Top 25 fantasy baseball hitters of last week (8/27-9/3):
| Name | Team | Pos. | R | HR | RBI | SB | BA | OPS |
1. | Pedro Alvarez* | PIT | 3B | 7 | 4 | 8 | 0 | .417 | 1.545 |
2. | Rickie Weeks* | MIL | 2B | 9 | 1 | 2 | 4 | .423 | 1.146 |
3. | Torri Hunter* | LAA | OF | 8 | 1 | 6 | 1 | .536 | 1.281 |
4. | Chase Headley | SD | 3B | 3 | 2 | 12 | 1 | .407 | 1.096 |
5. | Josh Donaldson* | OAK | C/3B | 5 | 4 | 8 | 1 | .304 | 1.277 |
6. | Delmon Young* | DET | OF | 5 | 3 | 10 | 0 | .385 | 1.314 |
7. | Bryce Harper | WAS | OF | 7 | 3 | 8 | 0 | .333 | 1.042 |
8. | Chris Heisey* | CIN | OF | 6 | 2 | 6 | 1 | .500 | 1.500 |
9. | Ryan Braun | MIL | OF | 5 | 2 | 6 | 2 | .379 | 1.128 |
10. | Carlos Gomez* | MIL | OF | 6 | 2 | 6 | 3 | .261 | .901 |
11. | Chris Carter* | OAK | 1B | 6 | 3 | 6 | 0 | .421 | 1.429 |
12. | David Murphy* | TEX | OF | 6 | 2 | 5 | 0 | .524 | 1.535 |
13. | Mark Reynolds* | BAL | 1B/3B | 6 | 4 | 7 | 0 | .280 | 1.200 |
14. | Martin Prado | ATL | 2/3/OF | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | .375 | 1.093 |
15. | Josh Reddick | OAK | OF | 5 | 2 | 10 | 0 | .355 | .977 |
16. | B.J. Upton | TB | OF | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | .308 | .910 |
17. | Coco Crisp* | OAK | OF | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | .280 | 1.078 |
18. | Brandon Moss* | OAK | 1B/OF | 6 | 2 | 7 | 0 | .412 | 1.326 |
19. | Jimmy Rollins | PHI | SS | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | .310 | .996 |
20. | Garrett Jones | PIT | 1B/OF | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | .455 | 1.318 |
21. | Cliff Pennington* | OAK | 2B/SS | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | .444 | 1.111 |
22. | George Kottaras* | OAK | C | 4 | 2 | 8 | 0 | .444 | 1.722 |
23. | Adrian Beltre | TEX | 3B | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | .375 | 1.275 |
24. | John Mayberry* | PHI | 1B/OF | 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | .393 | 1.148 |
25. | Angel Pagan* | SF | OF | 8 | 1 | 4 | 2 | .258 | .859 |
* - less than 70% owned in Yahoo! leagues
Oakland A's
Of the top 25 hitters of last week, seven of them were Oakland Athletics. This means that seven of the nine hitters in the batting order landed on this Top 25 list and Josh Reddick is the only one owned by more than 70 percent of leagues. So which ones should you add? Chris Carter at first is a must-add for anyone who needs some pop in their line-up. He has 14 homers in 166 at-bats this season. Coco Crisp is No. 2 on the must-add list with his roto friendly stat line (55 R, 10 HR, 39 RBI, 31 SB in 383 at-bats). The sneaky add would be "C-1B" Josh Donaldson. He has been on a major kick of late and as a catcher, brings major value to most line-ups. He might also be the one most likely to cool off. Proceed with caution.
Top 20 fantasy Starting Pitchers of last two weeks:
| Name | Team | IP | W | K | ERA | WHIP |
1. | Kris Medlen | ATL | 24.0 | 3 | 28 | 0.00 | 0.75 |
2. | Max Scherzer | DET | 22.0 | 3 | 26 | 0.82 | 0.82 |
3. | Brett Anderson* | OAK | 20.0 | 3 | 15 | 0.90 | 0.70 |
4. | Marco Estrada* | MIL | 18.0 | 2 | 27 | 0.50 | 0.94 |
5. | Hisashi Iwakuma* | SEA | 19.0 | 2 | 16 | 0.47 | 1.00 |
6. | James Shields | TB | 22.0 | 2 | 20 | 2.78 | 0.84 |
7. | Bronson Arroyo* | CIN | 20.0 | 2 | 9 | 2.25 | 0.65 |
8. | Eric Stults* | SD | 13.0 | 2 | 9 | 0.00 | 0.85 |
9. | R.A. Dickey | NYM | 16.0 | 2 | 9 | 0.56 | 0.88 |
10. | Cliff Lee | PHI | 20.2 | 2 | 19 | 1.31 | 1.11 |
11. | Yu Darvish | TEX | 14.0 | 2 | 16 | 1.96 | 0.86 |
12. | Zach Britton* | BAL | 14.2 | 2 | 16 | 1.84 | 0.89 |
13. | Felix Hernandez | SEA | 24.0 | 2 | 17 | 1.88 | 1.04 |
14. | Zack Greinke | LAA | 14.2 | 2 | 12 | 1.84 | 0.95 |
15. | Jhoulys Chasin* | COL | 18.0 | 2 | 9 | 1.50 | 1.00 |
16. | Chris Tillman* | BAL | 16.2 | 2 | 14 | 2.70 | 0.96 |
17. | Ryan Dempster | TEX | 12.0 | 2 | 14 | 1.50 | 1.25 |
18. | Miguel Gonzalez* | BAL | 7.0 | 1 | 9 | 0.00 | 0.71 |
19. | Edwin Jackson* | WAS | 14.0 | 1 | 18 | 1.93 | 1.07 |
20. | Gio Gonzalez | WAS | 15.0 | 1 | 15 | 1.80 | 1.00 |
* - less than 70% owned in Yahoo! leagues
Top 5 Spot Starts for the Week (Mon. - Sun.):
Recommended Articles
1. Brett Anderson, OAK: at Sea (Sat.) 54% owned
The former ace of the staff is finally back on the mound after two years of injuries and he has been effective. He has allowed two earnies in 20.0 innings with 15 strikeouts and only three walks.
2. Jeff Samardzjia, CHC: at Pit (Sat.) 52% owned
The Shark has been downright nasty of late. He has 41 strikeouts in his last five starts (33.0 IP) and has allowed two or fewer earned runs in four of those five starts.
3. Ross Detwiler, WAS: Mia (Sat.) 36% owned
Since returning to the rotation at the end of June, Detwiler has been strong by not allowed more than four runs in any start since. He tossed seven scoreless innings for his third win in four starts on Monday.
4. Tommy Milone, OAK: at Sea (Sun.) 44% owned
The soft tosser got hit around a bit by the Angels on Labor Day but he should bounce back against the Mariners this weekend. He had two awesome starts before Monday and has been lights out against Seattle.
5. Patrick Corbin, ARI: at SD (Sun.) 10% owned
This one is a bit of a flier but the match-up feels right and Corbin has provided big strikeout numbers all year long. Take the risk against the Padres this weekend.
Top 20 fantasy Relief Pitchers of last month:
| Name | Team | IP | W | SV | K | HLD | ERA | WHIP |
1. | Greg Holland* | KC | 13.1 | 2 | 9 | 15 | 0 | 0.68 | 1.05 |
2. | Jim Johnson | BAL | 10.2 | 0 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.38 |
3. | Aroldis Chapman | CIN | 11.1 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 0 | 0.79 | 0.71 |
4. | Jason Motte | STL | 13.0 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 0 | 2.77 | 0.85 |
5. | Joe Nathan | TEX | 9.0 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.56 |
6. | Fernando Rodney | TB | 12.2 | 0 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 0.71 | 0.95 |
7. | Rafael Soriano | NYY | 12.2 | 0 | 9 | 14 | 0 | 2.13 | 0.79 |
8. | Sergio Romo | SF | 10.0 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 0.90 | 0.50 |
9. | Jonathan Papelbon | PHI | 12.2 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 2.84 | 0.87 |
10. | Ernesto Frieri | LAA | 9.1 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 2.89 | 0.64 |
11. | Grant Balfour | OAK | 9.1 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 2.89 | 0.54 |
12. | Tyler Clippard | WAS | 11.0 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 1.64 | 0.91 |
13. | Jake McGee* | TB | 8.2 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 0.00 | 0.35 |
14. | Glen Perkins* | MIN | 10.0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.50 |
15. | Rafael Betancourt | COL | 11.0 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 1.64 | 1.18 |
16. | Casey Janssen* | TOR | 11.0 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 2.45 | 0.73 |
17. | Wilton Lopez* | HOU | 13.2 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 0 | 2.63 | 1.02 |
18. | J.J. Putz | ARI | 12.0 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 0 | 2.25 | 1.25 |
19. | Ryan Cook* | OAK | 10.0 | 2 | 2 | 15 | 2 | 1.80 | 1.00 |
20. | Luke Gregerson* | SD | 13.0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 8 | 1.38 | 0.69 |
* - less than 70% owned in Yahoo! leagues
Keep up to date all season long with Athlon Sports' Fantasy Baseball Closer Grid
- by Braden Gall
