Rotoworld’s brand-new Pickups of the Day column is designed to help fantasy managers uncover a handful of widely-available targets over the course of the season. It could be a breakout candidate, a prospect stash, an injury replacement, a pitcher with a favorable matchup or week, a player who is due some better luck, or any other number of scenarios. If there’s value to be found on the waiver wire, we will find it and bring it your way.
In today’s column, we’re going to look at a recent top overall draft pick who has been on a power binge over the past week and yet another terrific streaming option for Thursday’s slate of MLB action.
PICKUPS OF THE DAY
Spencer Torkelson, 1B, Tigers
Available in 71 percent of Yahoo leagues
When we think of top overall selections from the MLB draft, we expect superstars. Players who hit the ground running from day one and lead fantasy managers to glory with stable production. Oftentimes though, it takes these guys a few years to put it all together at the big league level.
Let’s look at Spencer Torkelson – the top overall selection from the 2020 draft class – as an example here. His rookie campaign in 2022 was a complete abomination. He slashed a putrid .203/.285/.319 with just eight homers, 28 RBI and a 99/37 K/BB ratio over 404 plate appearances before he was banished to Triple-A Toledo for most of the summer.
His sophomore season hasn’t been much better, though overall there have been some improvements. He’s slashing .230/.309/.431 with 21 homers, 66 RBI and a 123/48 K/BB ratio over his 505 plate appearances. The obvious jump from a season ago is in the power department. Torkelson has always hit the ball extremely hard, that’s not in doubt. If you glance at his Statcast page, you’ll see he ranks in the 92nd percentile in average exit velocity, 83rd percentile in maximum exit velocity, 94th percentile in hard-hit percentage and the 87th percentile in barrel rate.
His issue has been finding the proper launch angle to turn those hard hit balls into dingers more consistently. Perhaps that light is finally clicking. If you haven’t been paying attention to the Tigers over the last seven games – and let’s face it, I’m a die-hard Tigers’ fan and haven’t been watching them closely enough over the past few weeks – Torkelson has been on an impressive power binge. He cranked a pair of home runs in Wednesday afternoon’s victory over the Twins – giving him six home runs over his last seven games, including a pair of multi-homer efforts. He also had a four-hit game included in that mix.
The counting stats aren’t going to be great hitting in the middle of an underwhelming Tigers’ lineup, and despite the fact that he has decent speed (55th percentile sprint speed), he has only swiped two bases on the season (in two attempts), so he won’t help out in that category either. What he can provide – especially if what we’ve seen over the past week-plus is true – is power. At a minimum, he’s worth riding until he shows signs of cooling down, and you may just wind up with a major impact contributor over the final six weeks of the season.
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Jose Quintana, SP, Mets
Available in 81 percent of Yahoo leagues
José Quintana was expected to bring stability to the Mets’ rotation this season after he was signed to a two-year, $26 million contract over the winter. He wound up suffering a stress fracture in his ribs while pitching for Team Columbia during the World Baseball Classic and didn’t make his Mets’ debut until July 20.
Since returning though, he has actually done a pretty nice job. Through his first five starts, the 34-year-old southpaw has compiled a 3.03 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and a 20/10 K/BB ratio across 29 2/3 innings of work. After going five innings his first time out, Quintana has logged at least six innings in each of his next four outings – and has allowed three or fewer runs every time out this season.
He’ll look to extend his quality-start streak to five when he takes on his former club – the Cardinals – in St. Louis on Thursday. He’ll be matched up against veteran right-hander Adam Wainwright – who holds a miserable 8.78 ERA and 2.09 WHIP on the season – so he’ll enter the game as a favorite to earn a victory. Combine that with the high likelihood of collecting a quality start, and it’s easy to see why Quintana makes for an attractive streaming option on Thursday.
