Welcome to the latest edition of Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers! As we slog through the dog days of summer, it’s important not to fall asleep at the fantasy baseball wheel—there are still impactful roster moves we can make for the final months of the season!
This series will highlight last week’s hot and cold players from a fantasy perspective to assist with those roster moves and waiver wire decisions. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get to those Week 19 risers and fallers for fantasy baseball.
Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers
Stats from 7/29 – 8/4
Risers
Colton Cowser (OF — BAL)
Colton Cowser was a hitting machine last week. He reached base safely in all eight games, tallying 13 hits in 31 at-bats (.419), including two home runs. He also hit at the top of the order against righties and got on base at a healthy .472 clip in his new leadoff role.
Cowser has been on fire since the All-Star break and is riding a 17-game hitting streak entering the week. Since July 19, Cowser has a .391/.452/.625 slash line across 73 plate appearances with four dingers and a couple of stolen bases. He’s also making quality contact in that stretch, posting a 13% barrel rate and 45.7% hard-hit rate. Cowser brings pop and speed to the fantasy table and should be an excellent source of runs while leading off. Cowser is only rostered in 70% of Yahoo leagues, which is criminal.
Geraldo Perdomo (2B/SS — ARI)
Geraldo Perdomo has been making some noise. Last week, he collected 11 hits in 21 at-bats (.524), including four doubles. Perdomo also sported a .565 OBP and scored six runs and six RBI to go with a couple of swipes.
Perdomo started seeing consistent playing time once the calendar flipped to July. In his last 26 games, he’s slashing .297/.346/.407 with 21 runs, 12 RBI, and three steals across 106 plate appearances. Perdomo also only struck out at a 16% clip in that span. There’s not a lot of power with Perdomo, and he bats at the bottom of the order. However, his on-base prowess has resulted in a steady clip of runs, with Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte hitting behind him at the top of the order. Perdomo is a solid source of runs with a plus batting average in 15-team leagues.
Jake Burger (1B/3B — MIA)
Jake Burger continues to mash the ball. Four of his eight hits last week were long balls, and he smoked them to the tune of a 23.5% barrel rate and 70.6% hard-hit rate. He also finished the week with a robust .500 ISO.
Burger has been crushing the ball since the beginning of July. He’s cranked 10 of his 17 homers in his last 27 games while sporting a .987 OPS and .333 ISO. Burger also made significant gains in his quality of contact metrics during this stretch — he upped his barrel rate by six points from the start of the season to 16.2% and improved his hard-hit rate by nearly 12 points to 54.4%. Burger should continue to be a productive bat in all league sizes while he’s swinging a hot stick.
Alex Call (OF — WAS)
Alex Call hit the ground running after getting called up on July 28. He collected eight hits in 14 at-bats (.571), including a pair of doubles and a home run. He also added a couple of steals to his weekly total and walked at a hefty 26.3% rate.
Call has played in five of seven games since his call-up, including one start against a lefty. He has solid plate skills and popped eight home runs and stole nine bases across 439 plate appearances with the Nationals in 2023. Call should have a fairly long leash in the outfield for the rest of the season, with Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker shipped out at the trade deadline. The Nats are aggressive on the basepaths, making Call a sneaky source of steals and a nice OBP play moving forward. He’s worth a flier in deep leagues.
Fallers
Ha-Seong Kim (2B/SS — SDP)
It’s tough to have a worse week than Ha-Seong Kim. He failed to record a hit in 16 at-bats and finished with a -55 wRC+. Kim has been riding the struggle bus since the beginning of July. He’s hitting .202 with zero home runs and five steals across his last 94 plate appearances. He also has a paltry .519 OPS during this span and hasn’t hit a home run since June 22.
Despite Kim’s recent struggles, some positive signs are under the hood. Since July 1, Kim has made a strong amount of contact in the zone (91%). Additionally, his quality of contact metrics are up, with a 35.4% hard-hit rate and 88.5 mph average exit velocity. While both marks are below league average, they are career highs for Kim. Overall, Kim is one of only 13 players with at least ten home runs and 20 steals this season (min. 300 PA). Hang tight with him in shallow leagues until he finds his rhythm at the plate again.
Jose Caballero (2B/3B/SS — TBR)
Jose Caballero had a rough week, going 2-for-17 (.118) and striking out at an unsightly 52.6% clip. The speedster was 1-for-2 on the basepaths, but that likely doesn’t cut it for most fantasy managers.
Overall, Caballero has been a nice source of steals this season, with 28 swipes across 93 games. However, much of that production came at the beginning of the season, as Caballero has only eight steals (11 attempts) since June. Recent struggles at the plate have contributed to Caballero’s stagnant steal totals. Since July 1, he is 4-for-7 on the basepaths with a 34.7% strikeout rate and a lowly .230 OBP across 75 plate appearances. His poor plate skills and inefficiency on the basepaths don’t inspire much confidence moving forward, especially since most of Caballero’s fantasy value lies in his legs. Caballero is a fringy play in deep leagues until he can turn things around at the plate.
Nolan Gorman (2B/3B — STL)
Things aren’t looking good for Nolan Gorman. He played in only two of the team’s eight games last week and was hitless to boot. The Cardinals faced four lefties in that span, but it’s still concerning that Gorman sat in two of four games against righties.
On the year, Gorman has 19 home runs and six stolen bases across 372 plate appearances. But that comes with a .199/.272/.408 slash line and a league-worst 37.9% strikeout rate. It’s also worth pointing out that Gorman’s swing-and-miss tendencies have worsened as the season has progressed — his strikeout rate surged from 34.2% in April/March to 44.9% in July. It’s unclear if Gorman’s whiffs are driving his declining playing time, but they certainly aren’t helping his cause. The next few weeks should be telling. Stay tuned.