Wednesday’s Wide World of Waivers: All-Star Review

Welcome to the All-Star version of Wednesday’s Wide World of Waivers. Hope you enjoyed the game last night — remember, this time it counted! For a change of pace, this week I will be looking back at all the players recommended to date and see just how well Tom and I are doing in advising people on the guys to pick up off of waivers.

We’ll check out their Yahoo ownership at the time, their Yahoo ownership as of July 13, grade them according to whether or not they were a good recommendation and add any comments as appropriate.

Note: I will review up to one month ago (June 10), as it takes more than a month in many cases to judge the effectiveness or not of waiver wire pickups.

And so, without further ado, and with huge drum roll, here is your WWWW All-Star Review!

April 8

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Fred Lewis	Mixed	30	5	F	Huge disappointment, and no sign of improvement to come
Scot Shields	Mixed	32	3	F	Good start, but faltered badly before season-ending surgery
Jason Kubel	AL	22	53	A	14 HR with an AVG over .300 – should be owned in all standard leagues
Cody Ross	NL	12	49	B	Proving valuable, and a borderline mixed leaguer

April 15

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Randy Winn	Mixed	34	13	C	44 runs are nice, but would need more than 8 SBs to be mixed league-worthy
Paul Maholm	Mixed	43	30	D	Decent April, but whilst K/BB has improved, ratios have nosedived
Aaron Hill	AL	19	91	A+	How is he unowned in 9% of Yahoo leagues?
Chris Duncan	NL	4	7	D	Has little value even in NL-only leagues

April 22

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Jason Bartlett	Mixed	42	87	B	Not much power since coming back from injury, but still valuable
JD Drew	Mixed	41	39	B-	Performing as expected – and injury free!
Julio Lugo	AL	1	1	D	As with Duncan, little value even in AL-only
Mike Hampton	NL	8	6	C	ERA dropped by a full point since May 24

April 29

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Coco Crisp	Mixed	32	14	D-	Bit of speed but little else before season-ending injury
Yunel Escobar	Mixed	48	58	B	Solid and consistent
Russell Branyan	AL	12	78	A	22 HR – another graduate to mixed leagues
Eric Byrnes	NL	9	5	F	Didn’t produce even before hitting the DL

May 6

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Jose Guillen	Mixed	21	14	D	Very little to get excited about outside AL-only leagues
John Baker	Mixed	27	14	C	June slump; signs of life in July
Kendry Morales	AL	17	41	B+	Quietly hit 15 HR with an AVG over .300
Michael Bourn	NL	13	66	A	When he gets on base, he steals (32 to date)

May 13

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Todd Helton	Mixed	39	71	A-	Hit over .300 every month, and on pace to top 100 RBI
LaTroy Hawkins	Mixed	38	33	A	Great as fill-in closer, and still putting up fine ratios
Brad Penny	AL	10	19	C	Picking up a few wins here and there, but not a lot else
Chris Coghlan	NL	1	3	D	Nothing much positive to talk about, really

May 20

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Juan Pierre	Mixed	46	36	A-	Manny may be back, but you can’t argue with what Pierre did in the interim
Ubaldo Jimenez	Mixed	42	59	A	Lots of Ks and quality starts, little run support
Ben Zobrist	AL	15	87	A+	With Branyan, one of the bargains of the season
Josh Willingham	NL	3	8	B	Missed some time, but hitting for great AVG and OPS near 1000

May 27

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Travis Hafner	Mixed	31	24	C	Better than 2008, but need more from a guy who locks up your utility spot
John Smoltz	Mixed	37	52	C	Last start against Royals was a step in the right direction
Dontrelle Willis	AL	3	2	F	No way to sugarcoat this – he’s been terrible
Nick Johnson	NL	15	22	C+	Terrible June, but May and July were good; where are the HRs, though?

June 3

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Luke Scott	Mixed	43	61	B	AVG and power seemed to drop in June, but back with a vengeance in July
Adam Kennedy	Mixed	13	17	D	Disappointing. AL-only? Yes. Mixed? No.
Ben Francisco	AL	5	3	F	Didn’t take advantage of Sizemore’s absence
Sean West	NL	1	3	F	One good start, several poor ones, now back in the minors

June 10

Player	Format	Yahoo % Then	Yahoo % Now	Grade	Comments
Ian Stewart	Mixed	33	42	C-	AVG and OPS almost identical to that at June 10 – .223 and .795
Chris B Young	Mixed	35	33	C	Slight improvement, but still below Mendoza line
Lyle Overbay	AL	7	7	D	OPS has fallen by over 100 points in the last month
Colby Rasmus	NL	5	19	B+	In contention for ROY in the NL

Head-To-Head

That’s the review, up to June 10th, but what about the all-important Chris vs Tom match-up? Here’s where we stand, if we award points for each grade (A=5; F=1):

	Chris	Points	Tom	Points
A	5	25	4	20
B	6	24	2	8
C	2	6	7	21
D	3	6	5	10
F	4	4	2	2
Total		65		61

Which puts me narrowly ahead at this stage of the game! I’m sure Tom won’t like that! Check back next week to see what he has to say, and in the mean time, keep watching those waivers!

 
Chris Routledge is busy ruminating over the "wisdom" of the New York Mets trading for Jeff Francoeur. Catch up with him in the Cafe under the username chris8.
 

(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)  Loading ... Questions or comments for Chris? Post them in the Cafe Forums! Want to see your own fantasy wisdom published? Check out the Cafe's Pencil & Paper section!