We've spent the last several weeks reviewing the first half of the season, which offers some good perspective of what we've seen so far while making our best guess of what's to come.
However, with MLB back in action and many points head-to-head points leagues hitting the home stretch of the regular season, now is the time to sharpen rosters for both the short term while also looking ahead for a lengthy playoff run.
That said, we'll turn our eye to the points league waiver wire, with a specific focus on deeper leagues.
Hitters
Miguel Andujar 
OF, 21% rostered CBS
Max Schuemann 2B/SS/OF, 48% rostered Yahoo and 33% CBS
The A's have rightfully gotten some positive attention for their offensive output of late, driven primarily by Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler. Both of those players are rostered in many formats already, but other players have contributed and also benefitted from Oakland's recent positive trend.
Andujar is the exact type of player who benefits from being on a poor team after struggling to find playing time with the Yankees due to his defense for the early portion of his career. With consistent playing time, he has a decent skills profile for points league as he makes contact at a high rate (career 16.3 percent strikeout rate, 14.9 percent in 2024). He's also locked into the second spot of the Athletics' lineup, providing a nice floor for points leagues when combined with his pre-existing skillset. His ceiling is capped due to
We've spent the last several weeks reviewing the first half of the season, which offers some good perspective of what we've seen so far while making our best guess of what's to come.
However, with MLB back in action and many points head-to-head points leagues hitting the home stretch of the regular season, now is the time to sharpen rosters for both the short term while also looking ahead for a lengthy playoff run.
That said, we'll turn our eye to the points league waiver wire, with a specific focus on deeper leagues.
Hitters
Miguel Andujar OF, 21% rostered CBS
Max Schuemann 2B/SS/OF, 48% rostered Yahoo and 33% CBS
The A's have rightfully gotten some positive attention for their offensive output of late, driven primarily by Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler. Both of those players are rostered in many formats already, but other players have contributed and also benefitted from Oakland's recent positive trend.
Andujar is the exact type of player who benefits from being on a poor team after struggling to find playing time with the Yankees due to his defense for the early portion of his career. With consistent playing time, he has a decent skills profile for points league as he makes contact at a high rate (career 16.3 percent strikeout rate, 14.9 percent in 2024). He's also locked into the second spot of the Athletics' lineup, providing a nice floor for points leagues when combined with his pre-existing skillset. His ceiling is capped due to a relative lack of power, but he has the makings of being a steady contributor in the outfield.
Schuemann looks to be much more of a flash in the pan, but he could remain productive for key matchup periods and perhaps even the rest of the season. His primary draw in points leagues is his patience, as he consistently drew double-digit walk rates throughout the minors and has translated that to the majors so far. That's helped him score 44 runs in only 79 games this season, though that's likely unsustainable given that he regularly hits at the bottom of the lineup.
Rowdy Tellez 
1B, 18% rostered CBS
Tellez had a miserable start to his time in Pittsburgh, but since the start of June he's gone 37-for-116 (.319) with seven home runs, 14 total extra-base hits, 26 RBI and 16 runs in 36 games. He's best built for a daily lineups league because he still sits against most lefties.
It's been a couple of seasons since Tellez has been viable in points leagues, though he averaged a serviceable 2.7 points per game on the CBS scoring format as recently as 2022. That provides at least some precedent to suggest this isn't just a hot stretch and that he can contribute meaningfully for the rest of 2024.
Juan Yepez 
1B/OF, 27% rostered CBS and 31% Yahoo
Yepez is a similar story to Tellez, but he has one immediate bonus in that he's outfield eligible. He's also quickly found himself in a trusted position with the Nationals as he's been in the lineup every day since his contract was selected July 5. He began his time in D.C. primarily hitting in the bottom third of the order but has hit third or fourth in five of the team's last six games. We're working with a very limited sample but Yepez has cut his strikeout rate significantly while backing it up with better swing decisions. His career 9.3 percent barrel rate illustrates that he has the power to deliver more upside than any other hitter on this list.
Pitchers
Kyle Freeland 
11% rostered CBS
Truthfully, I'm skeptical of Freeland. The strikes against him are pretty much endless, thanks to both his own track record and because he pitches for one of the worst teams in the league that plays in one of the worst home ballparks for pitchers. Nevertheless, there have been some interesting signs.
In five starts since returning from the injured list, Freeland has completed at least six innings every time while maintaining a 1.95 ERA and 1.05 WHIP to go along with 25:6 K:BB. His walk rate is particularly appealing, because he's limiting his own mistakes while pitching in a hitting environment that punishes nearly every error a pitcher makes. Making all of these results lightly more believable is that Freeland's velocity has also been up almost exactly three mph on all of his pitches relative to past seasons.
Freeland isn't a player to be all in on, but he should be widely available and is a very easy way to sneak a potentially productive start into close matchups.
Yariel Rodriguez 
26% rostered CBS and 18% Yahoo
Rodriguez had some hype going into the season after pitching in Japan for the first several years of his professional career. He was largely unusable to begin the campaign, as he never surpassed four innings pitched. Rodriguez then went on the injured list for nearly two months, completely falling off the fantasy radar.
He's now worth reconsidering. In his last four outings, he's completed six innings twice and five innings on another occasion while striking out at least six in each appearance. Wins aren't as plentiful as expected in Toronto, but Rodriguez should still be getting more attention.
Tyler Phillips 
16% rostered CBS
Phillips has shown an interesting mix of individual skill while also benefitting from his team context. Across his first three starts in the majors, he has a 15:1 K:BB in 6 innings and has picked up two wins. One of those came in a start where he allowed four runs, which leads into the positive team context of having the Phillies' excellent lineup supporting him.
The concern is how long Phillips will stick in the rotation. He'll almost certainly be demoted after the return of Taijuan Walker (finger), though Walker has yet to start a rehab assignment, so Phillips could have the opportunity to stick around for the next few matchup periods.
Andre Pallante 
18% rostered CBS
Pallante has no strikeout upside and also has a higher than desirable walk rate. That's not a great place to start, but he does limit barrels and all forms of hard contact and pairs that with an exceptional groundball rate (60.9 percent this year). The other positive about Pallante's pitch-to-contact approach is that he is able to consistently work deep into games, as he's completed at least six innings in each of his last three starts. In leagues that reward quality starts, that's a good way to pick up points while offsetting some of the lack of strikeouts. Since entering the rotation in late May, Pallante has maintained a 3.42 ERA and 1.20 WHIP while tallying four wins. He falls more into a category with Freeland as a stream when needed pickup, but he has been on a strong run.
