Gerbil's Waiver Wire Week 8- Less Repeats

It's getting to be a bit much having to include the same guys every week, while trying to find new and interesting ways to express my enthusiasm and excitement for said players. I've genuinely put my all into recommending Sam Antonacci about 10 times going back to Fall of 2025, and at this point, managers either want him or they don't. These players have graduated: Sam Antonacci Connor Prielipp Peter Lambert Casey Schmitt Carson Benge TJ Rumfield

JJ Bleday Moises is no longer graduated - between his slump and the Cubs refusal to commit to him as an everyday player, he'll probably wind up back on this list the next time he goes ballistic. Also, AJ Ewing is being skipped, he fell in between weekly articles and he's already 40% owned. Kid is good.

Gavin Sheets

Gavin is looking scrumptious, and we've kind of expected this as Gavin Sheets has continued to turn up in the bat tracking data we've explored over on the Patreon:

Gavin Sheets, embraces summer heat. Heat in the sheets, she eats, Gavin Sheets.

Sheets comes in slightly above average on one of our more predictive data sets, putting the ball into plate on 41% of swings while blasting the ball at a slightly above average 14.1% per contact. And calculating the math on my handy-dandy phone, he's also putting the ball in play at a 62% rate, meaning nearly 2/3's of plate appearances. That's pretty damned good for a guy rocking a 63rd percentile barrel rate, 66th percentile hard-hit, and 81st percentile sweet-spot. We're looking at a guy with some fantastic launch angles, great contact rates, and just enough of juice to get the ball out of the park

Sheets' .244 BA and .316 OBP continue to rise, but what we're really impressed with is that .804 OPS and 7 dingers on the season. I think Tatis is probably jealous.

Brett Baty

Baty's had a nice week, hitting for a .368 BA and 1.034 OPS with 4 RBIs over the last week. And maybe even more importantly, he's started the Mets' last 7 games. The bat speed remains as good as ever at the 82nd percentile, and the one power metric that's currently reflecting that best is the average exit velocity.

But fret not, as the other power metrics continue to steadily rise as Baty's continued to improve on that sweet-spot rate. Although Baty has a 47% groundball rate on the season, that's been cut down to 37.5% over the past week - so we're really looking at an over 50% GB rate leading into the week, and poor launch angles can destroy power metrics. In fact, let's take a look at his tendency over the last week:

That 25% Pull AIR is looking awfullllly enticing. A Bretty Baty that's lifting and pulling the ball is a good Bretty Baty, so let's hope his discovery of the sweet-spot is more than temporary.

Austin Martin

It's getting hard to ignore what Austin Martin is doing in 2026 - and what he's doing is inching his way towards the batting title. His current splits:

vs Left, 47 AB - .340 BA, .500 OBP, .989 OPS

vs Right, 62 AB - .323 BA, .400 OBP, .771 OPS

Regardless of the matchup, Austin Martin is a godsend for ratios, and that alone makes him worth rostering. Trust me when I say that the counting stats might not immediately impress, but that .319 BA and absurd .435 OBP will do a lot of work behind the scenes to help win matchups. Add on those 7 stolen bases and we're looking at perhaps the most underrated fantasy asset in 2026.

Kody Clemens

When your father is the brick-shithouse that is Roger Clemens, you've really got no choice but to showcase some farmer strength, or otherwise risk bringing shame to the family name. And Clemens has shown that he is, in fact, a Clemens, though perhaps not through brute force.

Kody continues to put up some impressive exit velocity, barrel, and xSLG rates, and it's all thanks to a surprisingly elite 85th percentile sweet-spot mark. Because his bat speed and squared-up rates come in pretty middle of the road, Clemens' ability to achive near perfect launch angles has given the power marks a real boost here. And with the weather heating up in a cold, cold home park in Minnesota, Kody Clemens stands to benefit enormously in the coming months. Hell, he's benefiting right now - this fucker has hit .474 with 1.342 OPS over the last week. As long as Clemens maintains his current approach and continues to put the ball in the air at a 60% rate, he should wind up being a fantastic sleeper add. He's only had a single day off over the Twins' last eigh contests, and that's the key here.

JT Ginn

Yay, JT's 4-seam is back! After entirely scrapping the pitch in 2025, JT has resurrected the offering from the dead, and the results have been excellent:

.143 BA (.221 xBA)

35% hard-hit rate

.190 SLG (.373 xSLG)

And the weirdest part? This pitch has 47% ground ball rate, only 4% behind his primary pitch, the sinke - the pitch typically associated with grounders. This dude has two groundball fastballs.

On 19% usage against LHH, alongside a 19% cutter usage against LHH, Ginn is now throwing those two fastballs on a combined 38% usage against lefties, which outpaces the 25% his sinker sees against lefties. This has dropped the BA on the sinker from .254 in 2025 to .226 in 2026.

Now that the righty Ginn has a better methodology for finding outs against LHH, he's become quite the pitcher here in 2026. His current gameplay is basically:

Changeups, cutters, 4-seams, and sinkers against LHH.

Sinkers, Sinkers, Sinkers, and Sliders against RHH. The real star of the show, though, has been the changeup, coming in hot with a a .258 wOBA, 34.5% whiff rate, .292 SLG, and miniscule 16.7% hard-hit rate. This couldn't be a more exaggerated difference from 2025, when the pitch was such a liability that I honestly don't even want to post the numbers. Let's just say the SLG was over .600. The pitch has a bit less drop and a bit less armside run here in 2026, and thanks to the introduction of a pretty decent 4-seam fastball, it's now keeping LHH a bit more off balance as opposed to 2025, when they only had a sinker and changeup to contend with (and the sinker and changeup had identical shape). The 4-seam has really unlocked the potential of this pitch against lefties.

Perfect! The current 96 stuff+ projection from fangraphs won't really impress anyone, but he's also rocking a 104 pitching+ and 103 location+. JT's sinker, changeup, and slider pitch shape kind of remind me of Cris Sanchez, but with two extra pitches in the cutter and 4-seam to supplement the lack of juice on those pitches compared to a guy like Cris.

Zebby Matthews

I'm going to throw out a warning right now - Fangraphs has Zebby at a 90 stuff+ after this start, and that kind of lines up with how bad he looked at AAA. Not a single pitch graded out over 100, and I recommend you proceed with caution here. If you want to grab a pitcher, I would probably recommend Ginn or Coleman Crow (nvm) before Zebby. His velocity just isn't that impressive at 95 mp (even with his slightly above average iVB), the changeup is coming a bit slow at 84 mph, and the slider doesn't have much bite on it to differentiate it from that cutter. The curveball coming in at 78 mph with a good deal of gloveside break and vertical drop is probably the most enticing aspect of this pitch mix, and it showed with a 50% whiff rate and 50% K rate in his first start.

The overall pitch shape is fine - good, even - but the fastball might not be good enough to be thrown on 50% usage. I'm mixed here, because I do like the overall pitch shape and pitch mix, but his performance at AAA with a 4.72 ERA and 6.08 FIP combined with this fangraphs projection just really worries me.

Jack Wenninger (NA)

#1 Tanner McDougal - yet to debut. Had been pitching extremely well at AAA, but suffered an injury.

#2 George Klassen - performed poorly, and his stuff isn't the same as last year. Struggling at AAA and has lost 1 mph on his fastball.

#3 Wenninger - we're about to find out?

When it comes to my top 3 yet-to-debut pitching prospects going into 2026, we're sadly 0/1. Other guys have done well, like Coleman Crow, but we're still waiting on one of these top-tier guys to make their mark on the season. And boy do I hope it's Wenninger, because I've made quite the fuss about him across social media, alongside making trades for him in all three dynasty leagues back in 2025.

Back in the Fall of 2025, I basically fell in love with Jack Wenninger's split changeup. It was the most beautiful pitch I had the pleasure of watching in film study, and sent me on a quest to acquire him wherever I could. Out of every pitch I studied, this thing was just the most capable of making hitters look flat-out silly in the worst possible way. I'd call this changeup "The Master of SWORDS."

And it wasn't just the changeup - in the AA playoffs, Wenninger was suddenly reaching back for 96-97 mph on his high iVB 4-seam fastball, and although that velocity hasn't shown up in 2026, the pitch still grades out with a 113 psSTUFF+ and settles in at nearly 18 inches of ivB. It's still an elite pitch. But man, is that changeup doing work at AAA:

.134 xBA

40% hard-hit

.212 xSLG

43% whiff rate

Wenninger's bread and butter pitch continues to be one of the most devastating offerings across all levels of ball, and really doesn't entirely reflect in the metrics you see below. What winds up being deceptive here is that although Wenninger's slider and sweeper are being hit fairly hard, which is fucking with his statcast metrics, they're also seldom being lifted in the air. His slider in particular is problem-child, as it's both being hit hard and lacking any kind of control, leading to that 38th percentile walk rate. But when Wenninger gets into trouble because of said slider, he simply falls back on his 4-seam and changeup and almost always succeeds. It's actually pretty incredible that this dude somehow only has a 1.08 ERA and .165 BA against, despite his attempts to work in the slider in actual games. I'm slightly worried his slider will be punished to a more extreme extent in the majors, but hopeful that the kid is wise enough to stick to what he does best.

I'm excited to see my current redraft NA stash hopefully make his debut at the expense of this Clay Holmes injury (which sucks), and I'm hoping it pays off big for both myself and my readers. I know damn well you folks own Jack Wenninger stocks too, so let's have some fucking fun with this.

Coleman Crow (If he returns)

Coleman Crow spins the ball real fucking good, and he's really just a few mph of velocity away from being Nolan McLean. Luckily, this dude doesn't need velocity, as his primary cutter gets the job done in Mo-esque fashion. On 51 pitches in the majors this year, the cutter has: .177 xBA 25.9% whiff .221 xSLG 2 run value His pitch mix is extremely impressive beyond that, with his cutter, slider, and sweeper handling RHH while his cutter, curveball, and 4-seam handle LHH. Coleman crow is essentially a 3 pitch pitcher to both sides with a total arsenal of 5 offerings. Fangraphs currently has four of his five pitches graded above a 100 stuff+ mark, good for a total 105 stuff+, 113 location+, and 111 pitching+: 4-seam, 104 stuff+ (14.1 inches iVB out of a 29 degree slot!) Sinker, 102 stuff+ Slider, 124 stuff+ Curve, 117 stuff+ Cutter, 92 stuff+ (and least reliant on movement and velocity)

Coleman Crow is just a spinrate god, as you can see in the pitch shape chart below. How he's able to get the sweeper and curveball (and that vertical drop) to break so ridiculously far gloveside while also being able to get so much ride on the 4-seam is just a mystery to me. Especially when he gets so much armside break on that sinker. It's rare to find a pitcher that can make the ball break drastically in all directions. If Crow were ever to find even 2 mph of velocity on that sinker and 4-seam, he'd be in the running for the top arm on the Brewers rotation behind Mis. And that's not impossible, we see it happen all the time.

Kodai Senga (IL Stash)

This might be a risky play, but I'm not really out on Senga. His miserable production over 20 innings came with a surprisingly encouraging statcast, and we've obviously found out Senga has been dealing with some major back issues in the early going of 2026. I think that kind of shows in the pitch shape chart, where we're seeing some remarkably uncharacteristic inconsistency with the pitch shape of his ghost fork and sweeper, and I think that reflects mechanical related to his back. If Senga comes back with a fully healthy back, and continues to show the 4-seam velocity improvement we've seen, plus better mechanics, I think there's actually a good pitcher here. He was still managing 76th percentile whiff and 59th percentile K rates through the pain, and his middling average exit velocity and hard-hit rates weren't the worst thing in the world.

Ben Brown

Brown has always been just one pitch away from being a stud, and boy oh boy has this new sinker been kind to Brown. He's throwing this bad boy on 42% usage against RHH and it's working wonders: .191 xBA .220 xSLG 26.1% Hard-hit

Being able to handle righties with the sinker and curveball has essentially given Brown the tools he needs to be a good starter in the majors, but that doesn't really explain why he's so much better against lefties in 2026. That's because of improvements to his 4-seam, curveball, and changeup, where he's added nearly 1 mph of velocity to the 4-seam, 1.4 inches of drop to the curveball, and 4 inches of vertical drop to the changeup. Basically, Brown has made lots of little improvements across the board, on top of adding a really effective new pitch to his arsenal. Brown might finally be fulltime starter for the Cubs, and hopefully you all bought low in dynasty before the season started!

Watching: Christian Scott

Zach Gelof

Vaughn Grissom

Ezequiel Duran