Fantasy Baseball Drop Candidates: 5 Options At the Start of a New Week

After looking at fantasy baseball waiver wire/streaming options (hitters, pitchers, weekly projections), let's now discuss some possible drop candidates.

More droppable player data can be located on the waiver wire trends most dropped tab, which can be found on any fantasy baseball page here at FantasySP. 

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.

Jac Caglianone - Kansas City Royals

Caglianone is sitting at 79% rostered right now. He was over 90% near the end of June, so he's being let go over the past several days.

Caglianone has no hits over his past two games, but he did drive in a run on a sacrifice fly. He has two strikeouts across seven at-bats. Caglianone has four hits over his past nine games and 36 plate appearances, which tells the bigger story behind him being dropped now.

He has a .258 average and .325 on-base percentage over 83 contests and 317 plate appearances this season. Caglianone has 14 homers, 12 doubles and a triple, plus 31 RBIs, 39 runs scored, 74 total hits, three stolen bases, 25 walks and 94 strikeouts.

He's done some solid things this season, but has been a bit inconsistent. The inconsistency is what is making him droppable in standard leagues. Add and drop Caglianone as he goes in and out of hot/cold streaks the rest of the season. Keep him rostered in deeper leagues unless his cold streaks last weeks at a time.

Gage Jump - Athletics

Jump is owned in roughly 71% of leagues right now. That is dropping after his last start.

He allowed six runs on eight hits and three walks over five innings against a lackluster Marlins' lineup. Jump gave up five runs on 11 hits and five walks against the Dodgers in the start before that.

Jump has otherwise been pretty good in his rookie season. Over eight starts, he has a 3.98 earned run average, while also having a 3-3 record. Across 43 innings, he's allowed 19 runs on 43 hits and 13 walks, while striking out 41 batters along the way.

So Jump also has some inconsistency he's working through. That makes him a better deep-league fantasy asset right now, while being a standard league streaming option. Be careful streaming Jump going forward, at least until he shows some better results than he has of late.

JJ Bleday - Cincinnati Reds

Bleday is down to 47% owned at this time. He was near 80% on June 23, so he's fallen off pretty quickly.

He has three hits over his past four games, but they are all singles. Bleday has two walks and strikeouts in that span, while also having just one run scored and no RBIs.

He was excelling earlier this season, but is now down to a .233 average and .341 OBP over 61 games and 259 plate appearances. Bleday has 13 homers, 11 doubles and a triple among his 51 hits, plus 37 RBIs, 30 runs scored, three stolen bases, 35 walks and 50 punchouts.

The outfielder had a nice run of things, but looks like a better deep-league asset for the remainder of the season. He could work back into standard leagues if his bat heats up at some point, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening.

Brandon Woodruff - Milwaukee Brewers

Woodruff is currently rostered in 89% of leagues. That's down from nearly 100% when he made his last start - he's since hit the injured list.

He is on the 15-day IL now with right shoulder inflammation. It's reportedly a similar injury to what he had dealt with earlier this season, and now it will cost him some more time. There's no timetable for his return, but expect Milwaukee to be very cautious with the veteran given his injury-riddled history.

It's a bummer that he got injured again, because he was delivering good fantasy marks since coming back from his last IL stint. He has a 2.98 ERA over nine starts this season. Woodruff is 2-2 and has 47 strikeouts over 45 1/3 innings - he's allowed 16 runs (15 earned) on 28 hits and 10 walks.

Woody is droppable in standard leagues given his injury history - he's only worth holding on to if you have ample IR spots available. We can hope he comes back later in the year and stays healthy after that, but he's only worth stashing if your roster has room on it. Be watching his status and move off him if his layoff is going to be longer than 15 days.

Pete Fairbanks - Miami Marlins

Fairbanks is rostered in about 62% of leagues right now. He was at 66% on June 23, so he's fallen slightly since then.

He was excelling early in June, but he faded in the final week of the month, and it carried over into July. He's allowed at least one run in four straight appearances, and has just one save in that stretch.

Fairbanks has pitched in 28 games overall, and he has a 3-3 record, 12 saves, two blown saves and two holds. He has worked 26 innings, striking out 34 along the way. Fairbanks has allowed 24 runs (21 earned) on 26 hits and 12 walks.

Fairbanks is a solid deep-league fantasy asset almost at all times, but he's only worth utilizing in standard leagues when the Marlins are winning a lot of close games, or you are desperate for a fantasy closer. He's struggling of late, so I'd be looking elsewhere in standard leagues for fantasy relief help - at least until he gets back on track.