FANTASY FOOTBALL ADD/DROPS
Week 10 working the waiver wire: Shopping for a used Carr
Nov 5, 2019, 2:44 pm
Photo via: Raiders/Facebook
Week 10 is already on the horizon, so let's see which free agents are still available. This week, 6 teams won't be playing so expect this to be a pretty busy week on the waiver wire. Keep in mind the owner % mentioned is for 10-team standard ESPN PPR leagues. Some of these players below are good for the short-term, while others have more long-term value. You have to make the call on what your team needs. Immediate help to start this week, or a player to stash on your bench and hope he breaks out. Let's get started.
QB
Jimmy Garoppolo: He's only rostered in 33% of ESPN 10-team leagues, which makes sense. You'll probably have trouble finding him in 12-team leagues. He faces the Seahawks and Cardinals over the next 2 weeks, so the matchups are good. Plus, he just threw 4 TDs against Arizona, so you there's a good chance he lights them up again in 2 weeks.
Derek Carr: I know it's hard to trust Carr off of name value, but he's been good for fantasy. His rookie RB Josh Jacobs looks like a stud, and Tyrell Williams has been a nice addition. He also has a good o-line and a below average defense, which are both great for fantasy. He's rostered in 37% of 10-team leagues, and he has good matchups against the Bengals and Jets coming up after this Thursday's game. Caution: This week could be tough since he's playing the Chargers, but at least the game is at home and stashing him to use for Weeks 11 and 12 could pay big dividends.
Nick Foles: Foles will be the starter when they play in Week 11. His matchups won't be great having to face the Colts at Indy and the Titans on the road, but if you're desperate he might help you out. He's widely available.
RB
Ronald Jones: Bruce Arians is finally giving Jones a sizable workload getting 20 touches against the Seahawks last week. He's only rostered in 38% of 10-team leagues, and this might be your last chance to pick him up.
Adrian Peterson: He's still out there in 40% of 10-team leagues, and he's clearly more valuable in non-PPR. He has 2 great matchups after the Redskins off week, so he's worth grabbing. Also, he might get dropped since he doesn't play this week, so add him if he's available. We'll see if Guice is ready to return from his knee injury after the off week, so that could change things. We'll have to wait and see.
Derrius Guice: If Guice is ready to return from injury he could make Peterson worthless. It's hard to know what the Redskins will do though. Maybe just stash him and see what happens. His first 2 matchups are great if he returns for Week 11.
Alexander Mattison: This guy could win your league for you if Dalvin Cook goes down. He's worth stashing for sure.
WR
DeVante Parker: I didn't want to trust Parker when I wrote this article last week, but he can't be denied anymore. Which probably means he'll put up a goose egg this week...You can't argue with his production because he's scored in 4 out of his last 5 games. His schedule isn't great though facing the Colts and Bills over his next 2 games. He's only rostered in 23% of 10-team leagues.
Zach Pascal: He's a decent #3 WR until Hilton returns from injury, and he plays Miami this week. He's widely available.
Josh Reynolds: He's worth consideration until Brandin Cooks returns, but he faces tough matchups against the Steelers, Bears, and Ravens. He's available in almost every league.
Josh Gordon: I'm not going to take a flyer on this guy, but if you're desperate for upside maybe he'll prove me wrong. He's rostered in 54% of leagues.
Corey Davis: I'll give him one more shot hoping he does something against the Chiefs' underwhelming defense. If he can't get things going, we might have to label him a bust. He's out there in about half of 10-team leagues
A.J. Brown: Just like Davis, the matchup could help him this week, and he's been the more productive WR for the Titans as of late. You can pick him up in about 85% of leagues.
TE
Gerald Everett: He's likely owned, but grab him if he got dropped during his off week.
Darren Fells: He's been a huge addition for the Texans, and Watson clearly loves throwing to him. Hell, Watson will even throw him the ball blindly as we saw against the Raiders. Fells scored again against the Jags, and he's very much a part of the offense. He's off this week, and gets the Ravens in Week 11. He might get dropped, so keep that in mind.
Noah Fant: I know it was just one big game last week (115-yards, 1TD), but there's a reason he was drafted in the 1st round, and he should continue to get targets with Emmanuel Sanders in San Francisco now. He's widely available.
DEF
The Ravens and Colts are good streaming options this week, and Baltimore's defense is only rostered in 34% of 10-team ESPN leagues. They get the Bengals on Sunday, so it doesn't get much better than that. The Colts play the Dolphins, enough said.
If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter. Be sure to check out my show MoneyLine with Jerry Bo on ESPN 97.5FM. We're on every Sunday morning from 10-noon, and we'll talk a lot of fantasy football and NFL gambling getting you ready for kickoff every Sunday.
Astros close series with a performance worth the wait
Jun 5, 2025, 11:59 pm
All-Star balloting opened up this week for what used to be known as the Midsummer Classic in Major League Baseball. I guess some still refer to it as such but the All-Star Game has been largely a bore for many years, though the honor of being selected on merit remains a big one. As always, fans can vote at all positions except pitcher. The fan balloting has resulted in mostly good selections for years now, though pretty much all teams still do silly marketing stuff trying to drum up support for their players. The Astros’ part in that silliness is their campaign to make it the “All-’Stros” game on the American League squad in Atlanta next month. It’s one thing to be supportive of your team, it’s another to be flat out ridiculous if voting right now for Yainer Diaz, Christian Walker, Yordan Alvarez, Mauricio Dubon, or Cam Smith. The Astros tried to game the system in submitting Jose Altuve as a second baseman where the competition is weaker than it is in the outfield, but given Altuve has played only about 25 percent of the games at second base this season he should not be an All-Star second baseman selectee for what would be the tenth time in his career.
Isaac Paredes’s recent freefall notwithstanding, he has a legitimate case as a backup third baseman, especially with Alex Bregman likely missing more than a month of games due to his quad injury. Jake Meyers is having a fine season but is obviously not an All-Star-worthy outfielder unless he is sensational for the rest of June. That leaves Jeremy Peña, who is simply the best shortstop in the big leagues so far this season. To be clear, no team in baseball (including the Astros) would rather have Peña going forward than the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., but we’re talking about the here and now. There are another 100 games to be played, but Peña not only is about a lock to deserve his first All-Star nod, but he is in contention to put in the books the greatest season ever by an Astro shortstop.
Over his first three seasons, Peña was a consistently mediocre offensive player. His highest batting average was .266, best on-base percentage .324, top slugging percentage .426. He is blowing away all those numbers thus far in 2025. While unlikely to come close to reaching his preseason goal of 50 stolen bases, Peña is swiping bags at the best success rate of his career. Add in Peña’s stellar defense and that he has played in every Astros’ game so far this season, and Peña has been irrefutably one of the 10 best and most valuable players in the American League. You could certainly argue as high as top three.
If Peña's productivity holds up for the rest of the season there are only three other seasons posted by Astro shortstops that are in the same league as what would be Peña’s 2025. Carlos Correa has two of them. Lack of durability may be the biggest reason Correa is not tracking to be a Hall of Famer. In only two seasons as an Astro did Correa play in more than 136 games. He was fabulous in each of them. 2021 was his peak campaign, playing in 148 games while compiling an .850 OPS, winning a Gold Glove, and finishing fifth in AL MVP voting. Correa’s Baseball-Reference wins above replacement number for 2021 was 7.3. Peña is at 3.6 with nearly 20 games still left before the midway point of the schedule.
For the other great Astro shortstop season you have to go back to 1983. Dickie Thon turned 25 years old in June of ‘83. He put up a .798 OPS, which gains in stature given Thon played his home games in the Astrodome when the Dome was at its most pitching-friendly. Thon won the Silver Slugger Award as the best offensive shortstop in the National League, and played superior defense. His Baseball-Reference WAR number was 7.4. He finished seventh for NL MVP playing for an 85-77 Astros’ squad that finished third in the NL West. Dickie Thon looked like an emerging superstar. Then, in the fifth game of the 1984 season, a fastball from Mets’ pitcher Mike Torrez hit Thon in the left eye, fracturing his orbital bone. Thon missed the rest of the ‘84 season. While Thon played in nine more big league seasons, his vision never fully recovered and he was never the same player. It’s one of the biggest “What if...” questions in Astros’ history.
Arms race
Players and the Commissioner’s Office pick the All-Star pitching staffs. Unless he suddenly starts getting lit up regularly, Hunter Brown can pack a bag for Georgia. Framber Valdez wouldn’t make it now but has surged into contention. Josh Hader’s first half is going vastly better than last year’s, so he is in line for a reliever spot.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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