With one month down it's still early, but it's starting to get to the point when you can make some bigger decisions. I still wouldn't give up on your early draft talent, but perhaps a few days on your bench for some new pickups could be worth a shot.
Hitter
Matt Joyce - OF - Tampa Bay Rays (19% owned)
Here's another outfielder who might have 20 homers in his bat if he gets the playing time. Even if he doesn't hit the home runs he has a very impressive eye and with a solid OBP could supply plenty of runs for a waiver wire option.
He homered in two straight so the power is showing and the team even put him in at cleanup on Saturday. The ability to steal 5+ bases is just an added bonus.
Pitcher
Bud Norris - SP - Houston Astros (52% owned)
When it comes to waiver wire pitchers you usually need to expect only a few things out of them. Perhaps ERA and an OK WHIP or maybe a good strikeout total. This is the case with Bud Norris as his strikeout totals are very good, but he walks plenty of batters.
There are some encouraging numbers so far as his walks are down and his strikeouts are up, but with only 123 batters faced those will probably regress some. If your doing well in wins and ERA you could definitely add Norris to increase your strikeouts and many pitchers start to improve their control around years 2-3, so a better walk total in 2011 could be a huge boost for Norris and your team.
Keep Your Eye on
Alex White - SP - Cleveland Indians (18% owned)
As part of writing for FireBrandAL.com I was invited to write an article for the SweetSpot blog on ESPN this weekend. I decided to look at the debut of young pitcher Alex White in his matchup with Rick Porcello. I found some interesting comparisons between the two besides the fact that they are only 4 months apart in age.
I wouldn't recommend adding White in and non keeper mixed leagues as there is rumors he will only make one more start, but his stuff is quite good. He has some control issues although the 4 walks on Saturday are deceiving as he intentionally walked Miguel Cabrera twice. He also throws a solid sinker and splitter resulting in a very good ground ball rate.
The surprising Indians could make good use of White if they need to keep him up. He's not going to be a elite arm right now with his potential control issues, but he can get outs by the K and keeps the ball in the infield.
Follow the new @RotoSavants tweet account.
