Should You be Targeting Emilio Pagan on the Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire?

After looking at some waiver wire hitters to possibly add, let's do the same for pitchers now.

We'll avoid anyone who was mentioned in the daily streaming article here.

Explore the best in-season tool to manage lineup/start decisions including waiver pickups, projections, trade suggestions, trade value charts, rest of season rankings, power rankings, and tons more with Fantasy Assistant.

Should You Add Eduardo Rodriguez?

Rodriguez is the top waiver wire addition of the day, up 9.55% at the time of publication, which brings his overall total to 41.63%. He is a streaming option on Thursday, and has a good matchup against the Marlins. 

It's been a rough start to the season for Rodriguez though. He's 0-2 with a 4.86 earned run average across three starts. He's allowed 10 runs (nine earned) on 14 hits and six walks, while striking out 20 batters.

He's gone at least five innings in all three starts, which came against the Cubs, Nationals and Brewers. Rodriguez has allowed at least three runs in each game. Twelve of his strikeouts came against the Nationals in his second start.

I understand why fantasy owners want to utilize Rodriguez on Thursday against the Marlins, but truthfully, he's not the safest of streaming options out there.

His poor start on the mound is the reason behind my skepticism. Rodriguez could get things turned around today, but I'd personally like to see him actually deliver good fantasy results before queuing him up for a streaming start.

Even if Rodriguez performs well on Thursday, he's likely to be dropped in most leagues after the game ends. He'd need a string of good outings to be a keeper in most fantasy leagues.

Should You Add Andrew Heaney?

Heaney is another starting pitcher who is starting on Thursday. He takes on the Nationals, who are a favorable matchup for a pitcher.

In three starts, he's 0-1, but with a strong 3.00 ERA. Heaney has allowed six runs on 12 hits and four walks, while striking out 18 batters.

Heaney has pitched at least five innings in each start, and gone at least six frames in each of his past two outings. He allowed a run in his first two starts before surrendering four against the Reds his last time out. He opened the season by striking out two Marlins - he then punched out 10 Yankees before fanning six Reds.

Heaney is owned in a similar amount of leagues as Rodriguez. Heaney is owned in 40.54% of leagues, and I think that's simply too low.

Sure, his last start wasn't all that great, but he had two good outings before that. This matchup is a favorable one, and his next start could be against the Angels, which is another great matchup for Heaney.

So this isn't just a streaming add for Heaney. He can be added today and started today and probably for his next start (if it does come against the Angels). Heaney will regress over the course of the season most likely, but you might as well take advantage of things while he's pitching well now.

Should You Add Max Meyer?

Meyer is rostered in 2/3 of fantasy leagues right now. He just made a start, so he's being added for strong pitching.

Meyer is 1-2 across four starts, but has a strong 2.63 ERA - the downside of pitching for a bad overall team. He's allowed eight runs (seven earned) on 20 hits and seven walks over 24 innings. Meyer has 27 strikeouts as well.

Meyer has now made starts against the Pirates, Braves, Mets and Diamondbacks. There's a mix of poor offenses and decent ones in there. Meyer has worked at least 5 2/3 innings in every start, including at least six frames in three straight.

He hasn't allowed more than three runs in any start, but he has allowed at least two walks in three straight. Meyer has seven or eight strikeouts in three of the four contests, and the one game he didn't reach that total, he shut out the Mets over 6 1/3 innings.

Meyer is a fantasy starting pitcher who should be rostered in all deeper leagues at this point. Even though he's on a bad team, he's a good standard league streaming option for every start too. His fantasy ceiling might be capped a bit, but he's starting to get some standard league keeper love now.

His own percentage will only keep growing if he keeps turning in strong starts. If you don't want to add Meyer now, you better keep a close eye on him, because another good start or two might get him pretty close to 100% owned.

Meyer has probable starts against the Reds and Mariners next, so I'd personally just add and hold him in all league types. He's a guy to trust in both those starts, and he's pitching well enough to keep utilizing until his numbers dip.

Should You Add Osvaldo Bido?

Bido is up to 23% rostered today. Like Meyer, Bido just pitched, so he's being added for good work on the bump.

He's 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA across four starts in the early going. Bido has allowed seven runs (six earned) on 23 hits and seven walks over 20 2/3 innings, while punching out 14 batters.

He has made starts against the Mariners, Rockies, Padres and White Sox, so the matchups have been kind to Bido early on. He's worked at least five innings in each start, but hasn't reached six innings yet.

Bido has allowed one or two runs in every start. Four of his walks came in his first outing, and his only game under four strikeouts was his last appearance (when he failed to K a batter).

There's nothing super flashy about his numbers, he's just not allowing runs in the early going. His lack of deep starts and big strikeout numbers holds him back from being a standard league keeper, but he's a decent deep-league option.

He's got upcoming starts against maybe the Rangers and White Sox, so continued success is possible for Bido. I'd be fine adding and utilizing him in deeper leagues for those couple starts, and he could even be a standard league streamer for those outings (especially the start against Chicago) in a pinch.

Should You Add Emilio Pagan?

Let's add a reliever to the waiver story for the first time in a while. He's rostered in 45% of leagues overall.

Even with Alexis Diaz now back in the big leagues, Pagan is serving as the Reds' closer. Eventually, I'd expect Diaz to win that role back, but Pagan is pitching well enough to not make the decision an easy one.

In nine outings so far, Pagan has an 0-1 record, but a 1.08 ERA and four saves. He's allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits and a walk over 8 1/3 innings - Pagan has struck out seven batters.

Pagan has finished each of the past eight games he's appeared in, meaning the team trusts him with high-leverage innings. As long as he's in that closer role, he's got real fantasy value too.

Pagan could be a fantasy streaming option in all leagues, but with an uncertain future ahead, I prefer to only roster and utilize him in deeper leagues. He's a good fantasy reliever right now, and is a bit overlooked being on a not-so-great Reds' team.

Utilize Pagan while he's still serving as the team's closer, and hope he can keep pitching well and hold off Diaz from getting the closer role back.

Should You Add Jake Irvin?

We'll end with Irvin, who made his last start a couple days back, so he's not a streaming option for Thursday either. He's rostered in 15% of leagues.

Across four starts, Irvin is 1-0 with a 3.91 ERA. He's allowed 10 runs on 21 hits and seven walks over 23 innings, while also striking out 18 batters.

His last start was his best one. Irvin tossed seven scoreless innings against the Pirates, striking out six while allowing just three hits and a walk.

He's worked at least five innings in each start. He allowed two runs against the Phillies before giving up four runs against the D-Backs and Dodgers. Aside from his last start, Irvin has had tough matchups in the early going.

Irvin had only five strikeouts his first two starts combined, but has 13 over the past two. He's trending up, and the matchups are bound to ease up a bit over time.

His next outing is likely to come against the Rockies, which is pretty favorable - it is in Colorado though, so it's not as great of a matchup as you might be hoping for. He could face the Mets after that, which isn't as daunting as some of the other starts he's made, at least right now.

Irvin is a player to add in some deeper leagues, and he'll at least be a streaming option in those leagues for most of his starts this season. If he can deliver more positive results, like he did most recently, he'll be a standard league streaming option too.