Fantasy Baseball Deep League Options-Sleeper Central-August 22

Major League Baseball had a full night last night with all 30 teams in action across the country. Several big series with playoff implications continued as the Giants beat the Dodgers again, the Orioles dropped the Ranges, the White Sox took their second in a row from the Yankees, and the Nationals topped their division-rival Braves. The Red Sox paid tribute to the late great Johnny Pesky, and then went out and fell five games before .500 as they lost to the visiting Angels.

As the fantasy baseball season winds down, there are still some possible positive moves to make to help your team. Here’s today’s Sleeper Central post (Archive here) featuring a full lineup of players owned in less than half of ESPN leagues that put up good performances last night.

Here’s today’s lineup of waiver wire options:

Sleeper Awakening

Dewayne Wise – OF – Chicago White Sox: Wise will forever be famous for a catch he didn’t make in his time in New York. Remember this? Well, it was Derek Jeter who pointed out Wise’s exit as a downside to the Yanks Ichiro acquisition. Although Ichiro has been great, it looks like Jeter was right in that Wise has some real value in the Major Leagues. Unfortunately for pinstripers, he’s wearing White Sox now and taking it to his former club over the last several days.

Wise has hit .361 in his nine games with the White Sox to go with three home runs, nine RBI, five runs scored, and a a pair of steals. With Alejandro De Aza on the DL, Wise will get a couple weeks atop the White Sox order and should have the steals, runs, and average to make him usable for as long as he’s in a starting role.

Sleeper Starting Lineup

C– Geovany Soto-Tex: (10.5% ownership in ESPN leagues) 1-4, R, 2 RBI, HR. In his last five starts, Soto is 7-19 with three runs, five RBI, and his home run. Since joining Texas, Soto is hitting .231  and should get more playing time with Mike Napoli shelved with a quad issue. If you need a catcher, Soto isn’t a bad option and he’s available in almost nine out of ten leagues.

1B– David Cooper – Tor: (0.1%) 3-4, R, RBI, 2 2B. Cooper continues to hit in the Major Leagues raising his average to .297 with four homers and 11 RBI in his 44 games. In 18 games this month, he’s hitting .324 with two of his home runs and five of his RBI. He’ll continue to hit in the middle of the Jays lineup for the near future and can be used as a stop-gap if you’re in 1B or corner infield trouble.

2B– Donovan Solano – Mia: (0.1%) 3-3, R, 2 RBI, BB. Solano pulls out the rare back-to-back sleeper central editions win. He is an everyday starter for Miami at this point and is hitting second right in front of Jose Reyes. He offers a bit of speed with five steals in five attempts but his main asset is his countable stats like R, RBI and his average which he has raised from .250 to .275 with his current five-game hitting streak.

3B– Kevin Frandsen- Phi: (0.1%) 3-4, R, RBI, 3B. Back-to-back three hit games have brought Frandsen’s average up to a sizzling .350. He isn’t hitting for much power (one home run in 80 at-bats) but is swinging a hot bat and should continue to get playing time despite the semi-return of Placido Polanco.

SS– Zack Cozart- Cin: (26.2%) 2-4, R, 2 RBI, HR. Cozart’s average contineus to hover around .250 but he has hit safely in eight straight with seven extra-base hits over that span. His homer last night tied the game in the ninth of Jonathan Papelbon and was his 14 of the season. He has 30 RBI and 64 runs scored as he continues to leadoff for the Reds despite his .296 OBP.

OF– Dewayne Wise – ChW: (0.9%%) 4-5, R. Wise is a solid player and should get some nice playing-time over the next couple weeks. See above for more details.

OF– Nate McLouth – Bal: (0.0%) 1-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, SB HR. McClouth has started hitting in the middle of the O’s lineup on a regular basis. I said his power hadn’t returned the last time I highlighted him and he hit his first home run last night. He is also contributing in steals with three over the last nine games and four on the season. If your in a deep league, McLouth might be worth a look if he can get even close to his breakout year when he was an All-Star in 2008.

OF– Jon Jay – Stl: (47.3%) 3-5, R, 4 RBI, 2B. Jay has returned to his hot-hitting ways of earlier in the season and has back-to-back three hit games. It only took him five at-bats yesterday as opposed to the nine he had on Sunday in the marathon 19 inning game. Jay has 13 steals, four homers, 27 RBI, and 46 runs scored in 78 games in CF for the Cards. He’s a notoriously streaky hitter and is now hitting .310 on the season and .382 in August (26-68).

AL Starting Pitcher– Luke Hochevar- KC: (0.5%) 8.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 BB, 10 K, ND. Hochevar has four quality starts in his last five after dominating the Rays last night. Unfortunately it took KC until the 10 inning before they were able to push a run across and get the win. Still, it was his best performance of the year although he has shown flashes of great pitching mixed in with some stinkers that have killed his ERA

AL Starting Pitcher part two– Brett Anderson- Oak: (6.1%) 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 6 K, W. In his first start of the year Anderson was impressive picking up the win over visiting Minnesota. He will probably stay in the rotation the rest of the season and makes a great pickup as he looks to return to the form that gave him a career ERA of 3.62 and a 1.25 career WHIP.

NL Starting Pitcher– Jhoulys Chacin- Col: (4.9%) 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 2 K, W. Another pitcher returning from a long layoff due to injury, Chacin got his first win of the year while looking solid against New York. His next start is a pretty good matchup Sunday at Wrigley against Chris Volstad. Chacin is worth a look as a spot starter for all the games he’s not pitching in Denver at least.