Fantasy Baseball: Marcell Ozuna and Other Outfielders To Add In Deep Leagues

Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back to “Off The Deep End”, where I will give you fantasy baseball tips on who to pick up in deeper leagues.  For people who play standard leagues, drop/add columns are easy for you to find, but for those of you that love deeper leagues, advice can be harder to come by.  That is where I can help.  All of these players are available in 85% or more of ESPN leagues.

This piece will focus on outfielders worth picking up in AL or NL only leagues, or leagues that start two of every position, or 20 team leagues.  Any league in which more than 200 players are owned.  Tune in tomorrow for the starting pitchers!

Outfielders:

Marcell Ozuna, Marlins: Perhaps it is the fact that Jake Marisnick is a slump away from taking his job.  Whatever the reason, Ozuna continues to play well with the parent club.  He won’t “wow” you with many counting stats, but his average sits at a lofty .339 on the season, and it has been even better than that (.375) over the last week.  He is definitely worth the add until he cools down.

Junior Lake, Cubs: Oh, if those damn Cubbies would only turn him loose!  Lake has two homers and a steal in his last five starts.  His starts are coming more frequently now.  Us people that already own Lake can only hope that his recent hot spurt puts him in the lineup full time!

Seth Smith, Padres: Yes, this is only a temporary add while Carlos Quentin is out, and he is almost exclusively a platoon guy, but you can do worse than someone hitting .375 in the last week.  He is always a good power threat as well, so if you need HR without sacrificing average, Smith might be worth looking into.  Just make sure you check your lineup every day to see if he is playing.

Nate Schierholtz, Cubs: Okay, I admit, there isn’t much in the outfield that you don’t already know about if I am mentioning names that I dropped in my first column and Schierholtz.  But he is hitting at a .320 clip over the last week.  As long as he hits, you can do worse!

Travis Snider, Pirates: It seems as though Jose Tabata will miss the DL after a spectacular catch in which the wall provided more resistance than he thought it wourd on Tuesday.  I would be Tabata misses at least one more game, which means Snider and his powerful bat will be in the lineup a little more.  His average is nothing pretty, but all three of his home runs have come in the last eight games.  He is a streaky hitter, so he might be worth picking up just to see if you can squeeze a little more out of his extra playing time.

J.B. Shuck, Angels: He has started the last six games, and now with Kole Calhoun headed to the DL, chances are he will play regularly over the next month.  Shuck is a career .286 hitter, and with little on waivers in most leagues, if you need OF help, you can do much worse.

Come back tomorrow for a look at the starting pitchers that could be worth an add!