The summer is heating up and so is the competition in all of our leagues. Most standard leagues have four regular season weeks left, while roto leagues have seven weeks to go, so the decisions we make and the pickups we find will have a deeper impact on where we end up when all the dust settles. Whether you’re in first place and cruising to a first round bye or in sixth place or lower and fighting for a playof spot, the waivers can and will help anyone. I didn’t mean to have three arms that can help your team out right away and until the end of the season, but here we are.

Before we dive into the more broken down pickups, I have one thing to say: GO PICK UP RYNE NELSON. I covered him last Monday and, since then, all he has done is hold the Phillies to only two earned runs over seven and a third innings pitched, striking out nine and continuing his phenomenal run – and his roster percentage DROPPED five points. We need to reverse that plus about thirty percent.

Now, let’s dive into the pickups of the day for today.

Spencer Arrighetti – SP – HOU – 28%, Yahoo

Arrighetti has really turned it on since the Blue Jays knocked him around for six runs over four innings back on July 2nd. Since then, in six starts, Arrighetti has tossed 36 innings, striking out 49 (six or more strikeouts in all but one start; in his most recent back-to-back starts he struck out 12 and 13, setting and re-setting his career high), walking only 11, with five home runs allowed and only 13 earned runs. He’s done so with a near league average 0.282 BABIP and a strand rate of 81.1% (lots of strand luck there, but none from the BABIP), a 14.7% swinging strike rate, 26.8% chase rate and a 69.6% contact rate. He has helped stabilize the back end of the Astros rotation, at a time when Ronel Blanco has stumbled a bit since his hot start to the season and with the addition of Yusei Kikuchi at the trade deadline. Arrighetti is performing better than even Astros fans could have predicted, giving them a strong one through five in the rotation, even with Justin Verlander still on the shelf. He will play a huge part in both fantasy managers’ and the Astros post-season hopes. My guess is that it will be in a positive way and he is the type of piece that can help win a title, especially when found for free.

League Size Recommendation: 12 team and deeper leagues

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