All Star week is upon us, the 2024 First Year Player Draft had it’s first round last night and the All Star Game Home Run Derby is tonight, so before we get into those festivities, let’s take a look at the waiver wire and see what is out there to help us win our leagues.

Lawrence Butler – OF – OAK – 7%, Yahoo

Butler is exactly the kind of player that can help drag your team from middle of the pack or worst into a playoff spot and contention to win your league. He is showing big holes in his swing, though the last two seasons, at AA and AAA his strikeout rate was under 20% and he has a solid enough hit tool I do believe he can bring his MLB strikeout rate down from 30.5% to somewhere in the 25% or lower range. He has real plus power (as he demonstrated when he hit three home runs on Sunday) and good enough speed that we could see a few 30  homer, 20 stolen base seasons out of Butler, with an outside chance at a 10 homer, 10 steal second half if the A’s just leave him in the lineup the rest of the season. He has a top 25% hard hit rate (46.9%) and average exit velocity (91.7 MPH), a solid barrel rate (10.6%) and an above average launch-angle sweet-spot rate (34.5%).There is room for improvement in some areas, as you’d like to see a contact rate higher than 75% (he sits at a 71.4%) and turning more of his fly balls into line drives, so he can tap into his tremendous gap-to-gap power, but as it is, he can still be a very productive fantasy asset, with room to grow. Oakland is starting to cook up a decent little offense, with Butler joining Zack Gelof, Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers in a youthful, home run packed lineup, one that scores more like the top half of the league instead of the bottom.

League Size Recommendation: 14 team or deeper

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