nolan-gorman-usatsi-1400
USATSI

Wednesday is rankings day at Fantasy Baseball Today, as Scott White, Frank Stampfl, and I all spend hours combing through our rankings for our latest updates. We talked about some of the biggest risers and fallers on Thursday morning's FBT podcast, and you can see Scott White's breakdown of the biggest movers at each position here – and I'm pleased to see that Scott isn't worried about Pablo Lopez at all. 

Neither am I, as I wrote in looking at the top buy-low candidates here. Lopez is still a top-five starting pitcher in my rankings, and he remains an elite trade target in my updated Trade Values Chart, which you can find here. Yes, his 5.25 ERA is ugly, but that's just about the only thing that's gone wrong for him so far, and that's pretty easy to write off for me. 

We're maintaining that confidence in Lopez even though his struggles look even worse in the context of a pitching landscape that has been far better than expected. Just yesterday, I wrote about five extremely interesting pitching performances to target on the waiver-wire, and on Wednesday, there were many more impressive pitching stars to take note of. 

I wrote about all of them in the rest of today's newsletter, but I figure you might need help finding hitting a lot more than pitching these days, so I'm making sure to focus on that in today's waiver-wire section.

 Let's get to everything you need to know about from Wednesday's action: 

Thursday's top waiver targets

Nolan Gorman, 2B, Cardinals (58%) – April was an absolute disaster for Gorman, but he's already back to being an above-average hitter for the season as a whole, if you can believe it. That'll happen when you homer six times with a 1.200 OPS in a 15-game span as Gorman has done. He's still probably going to be a batting average liability moving forward (.234 expected batting average), but he's also still one of the best sources of power at the second base position and someone who should be more widely rostered than he is. 

Joseph Ortiz, 3B, Brewers (56%) – The Brewers decision to use Ortiz as a part-time player early in the season was a curious one, given that he was one of the centerpieces of the Corbin Burnes trade, and his play since locking up a regular role has made it look even worse. Ortiz has started 19 of 25 games since the start of May and is hitting .295 with an OPS well north of .900 in that span, and he was just moved to the leadoff spot for Wednesday's game. Hitting at the top of the lineup with how well he's been playing could make Ortiz not just a player worth adding in most Fantasy leagues but potentially one who could be worth starting in all formats, especially if he starts running more – he stole his first base of the month as a leadoff hitter. 

Masyn Winn, SS, Cardinals (44%) – Winn has been pretty terrific in his first taste of the majors, hitting .308 after his three-hit showing Wednesday to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. And he's backed it up with a .279 expected batting average – not quite as healthy as his actual mark, though with his all-fields, line-drive approach and athleticism, he might be able to keep outrunning that. Right now, the only problem is, it's kind of an empty batting average – he's going to struggle to hit for much power, and the counting stats aren't great at the bottom of a pretty bad Cardinals lineup. The hope here is that he'll move up in the order before long, and I wouldn't mind seeing him run more – his seven steals are solid, but he could do a lot more with his 87th percentile sprint speed. It's not hard to see Winn turning into a Tim Anderson-type contributor before long, though. 

Matt Vierling, OF, Tigers (13%) – With Kerry Carpenter placed on the IL, Vierling could have a path to even more consistent playing time, though honestly, he was earning that long before this injury. Vierling has been one of the Tigers best hitters this season, especially in May, where he entered play Wednesday with a .947 OPS before going 3 for 4 with a homer and four RBI. He hit second in this one and could be a factor in five-outfielder leagues moving forward. 

Josh Bell, 1B, Marlins (41%) – Long one of the most frustratingly inconsistent hitters in the game, this season has been an extremely tough one for Bell, who has been making a ton of weak contact for a while. But he's starting to show signs of turning things around lately with consecutive three-hit games and a .338 average and an OPS over .900 over his past 16 games. When Bell gets hot, he can be a must-start Fantasy player, and he sure looks hot right now. If you're looking for pop on the wire, he's worth a look. 

Spencer Schwellenbach, SP, Braves (23%) – Schwellenbach made his debut Wednesday against the Nationals as the latest fast-moving prospect to make the leap for the Braves, this time from Double-A. The results were fine, with Schwellenbach allowing three earned runs in five innings of work, striking out five and allowing just one walk while throwing 88 pitches – a career-high as a professional, and seeing as he was a reliever in college, likely the most he's ever thrown in a start. He averaged 95.9 mph with his four-seam fastball and showed some whiff upside with his curveball (four), though his slider and cutter both left something to be desired in that regard, with just three combined on 21 swings. Still, there's clearly talent here, and it wasn't a bad debut at all given that he's thrown just 13 innings above A-ball. If Schwellenbach hangs around in the Braves rotation, he'll be backed up by what is still a great lineup, which should put him in line for wins, and there's some strikeout potential. I think I'd rank him around Jake Irvin among yesterday's waiver-wire targets, but in deeper leagues, that still means he's worth a look.