Fantasy Baseball Waiver Worthy: Nyjer Morgan, Glen Perkins, and More

Let’s take a look at a few potential waiver wire pick-ups for this week for both those who play in deeper and “normal” sized formats.

Deeper Formats

Nyjer Morgan - OF - Pittsburgh Pirates

He’s got a lot of speed, stealing over 50 bases between Triple-A and the Major Leagues. The former 33rd round draft pick back in 2002 was given the starting LF spot and put into the leadoff spot despite struggling during the spring. He has emerged as your prototypical leadoff hitter.

He has already stolen three bases and scored five runs. The biggest problem is that he’s walked just once, with his OBP being buoyed by a .367 BABIP (through Saturday). Over his minor league career he’s posted a BB% of 7.78 percent, not a terrible number but not a great one either. He has the speed to continue to find his way on base; it would just be much more comfortable if he was able to draw a few more walks.

For him to continue to be successful, he’s going to be dependent on Adam LaRoche getting things going (which we all know he will sooner or later) and Nate McLouth continuing to roll. While the Pirates are not going to be a high-powered offense, Morgan should continue to set the pace and cross home plate.

If you are in five OFer formats and need some potential speed, Morgan is a great option to grab while he’s hot. If Willy Taveras has value in your format, so does Morgan.

Glen Perkins - SP - Minnesota Twins

Perkins got off to a great start to the season despite taking the loss. He went eight innings, giving up one earned run on five hits and two walks and striking out four. His biggest problem is the fact that the Twins offense is likely to struggle with Joe Mauer sidelined with a back injury, making it tough to get wins.

As I’ve said before, wins are too unpredictable and not something to base taking a pitcher on. Perkins, a 2004 first round draft pick, is not your prototypical Twins pitcher, with a career minor league BB/9 of 3.5. The lefty showed great improvement last season, however, posting a BB/9 of 2.32 in 151 major league innings.

A .310 BABIP hurt his chance of posting a solid WHIP, but that is something that he easily could improve upon. His 4.41 K/9 last season also was not indicative of his raw ability.

It’s tough to bet against the Twins when it comes to developing pitchers, so he is certainly someone to watch. In deeper formats he has the potential to emerge as a very useful option. You may want to stash him away now while you have the chance.

Shallow Formats

Travis Hafner - Util - Cleveland Indians

Could Pronk be back? He’s gotten off to a very good start, hitting .300 (6-20) with 3 HR, 6 RBI, and 4 R, but it is still too early to tell. Still, last season he was sidelined by a shoulder injury, so it’s nice to see a power stroke early on. It gives hope that he has fully recovered from an injury that limited him to just 5 HR in 198 AB last season.

He’s a gamble, I’m going to give you that. He’s also not likely to return to the player who hit 103 HR from 2004-2006 with an average consistently north of .300. Don’t go grabbing him hoping for that.

Those numbers do give hope that he could be a useful player, however. I’m not suggesting that you grab him in order to use him immediately. That doesn’t really make much sense. He’s more of a short-term fill-in right now, one who could emerge as an everyday player in the near future.

That makes him someone to stash away if you have the room. He’ll be easy to ditch if he doesn’t continue to perform, but he has the chance to be so much more.

Kyle Lohse - SP - St. Louis Cardinals

He was fantastic last season, posting a 3.78 ERA and 1.30 WHIP en route to a 15-win season. He has picked up right where he left off, at 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA and 8 K over 16 innings of work to start 2009.

Is it the lack of strikeout potential that worries people? Yes, he has a career K/9 of under six, which significantly puts a hole in his value. Is it his career ERA of 4.66? Well, last season should have helped to relieve concerns regarding that.

At this point, given his performance last season and his start this year, he’s a pitcher that is certainly worth using. He’s going to help you in ERA and WHIP while giving you the potential for wins. Obviously, you want to have a few big strikeout options to help offset his deficiency there, but that’s the only real negative.

I’d put him in the same class as Mark Buehrle at this point, though he pitches in the NL, which should give him a leg up.

So, what do you think of these options? Would you grab any of them? Which would you avoid?

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