I hope you enjoyed my first edition of The Fantasy Baseball Experience last week and had a great Father's Day weekend. This week I will be focusing on players you should add to your team.
Last week I talked about draft strategy and how me and my dad went hitter heavy. I left out how hard it was to pick up pitching throughout the year. We were forced to scrap together a rotation mainly through waiver pickups. Our biggest pitching waiver pickups were a combination of four players. Javier Assad, Clarke Schmidt, Tobias Myers, and Kirby Yates.
Javier Assad was a fine reliever going into the year but switched to a starter in 2024 and finished with a 3.73 ERA and was for sure one of our overall best waiver pickups. Clarke Schmidt was a fine player in 2023 but never really broke out. In 2024 he started 16 games and posted a 2.85 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. Tobias Meyers was a rookie in 2024 who we took a chance on picking up from the wire. He started 25 games posting a 3.00 ERA for us. Finally, Kirby Yates who was supposed to be a setup man in 2024 but after Jose Leclerc started to struggle at the start of the season they decided to try Yates in the closer role. That's when Me and my dad jumped on him and he racked up 33 saves and put up a 1.17 ERA.
Through the help of those four pickups and others we managed to scrap together a fine rotation. Now that I have told you about my pickups from last year, it's time to help you with your current pickups. If you went hitter heavy like I did last year I will give you 3 pitchers you should consider picking up, but if you went pitcher heavy, I would also suggest to you 3 hitters you should consider picking up.
Pitchers:
Jacob Misiorowski(SP)Sandy Alcantara(SP)Chase Burns(SP)
Jacob Misiorowski was a top prospect for the brewers with nasty stuff but questionable control and durability. His durability was questioned due to how hard he throws. He was called up a couple days ago and made his first start. He looked nasty in five innings giving up no runs and striking out five. He did walk four though so if you pick him up be very cautious with his control and especially with his health. Sandy Alcantara has been one of the best pitchers in the league for the past couple of years but came into the 2025 season struggling badly. He managed to put up a really good start a couple days ago and looked like his old self by pitching six scoreless while striking out six. If he truly is returning to his old form, then this is a definite pick up but there is a risk he continues to struggle so be cautious. Chase Burns is MLB Pipeline’s number eleven overall prospect. He was just called up to triple A and has been dominant in the minors to start the year. Even though he isn’t up yet it might be good to jump on him early. The only things to be cautious about are how young and unpredictable he is and if he doesn’t get called up soon.
Hitters:
Alejandro Kirk(C)Jeff McNeil(2B)Evan Carter(OF)
Alejandro Kirk has shown success in years past and has been tearing it up recently at the plate. The only risk I can think of is if he cools off. With how slim the catching position can be in fantasy I think that the risk of Kirk cooling off is worth taking. Jeff Mcneil has certainly shown past success by winning the 2022 NL batting title and in that same year he also won a silver slugger. Ever since Mcneil has cooled way off and has even been bad at the plate. He has been having a really good stretch lately and he might be worth looking into based off of how good he has been in the past.
Evan Carter is my final hitter recommendation. In a short span of 22 games in 2023 he batted .306 with 5 home runs and that success continued into the playoffs of that year. After his breakout in 2023 he struggled in 45 games during 2024 after a back injury kept him off the field for most of the year. In 2025 he started the year in triple A before being called up and almost immediately injuring his hand. He came back a week ago and has been on fire ever since. I think the only cautions I would give is that he is still young and that he could get into a slump like in 2024.
Hopefully these waiver pickups help, and I hope to see you next week for my third edition of The Fantasy Baseball Experience.