Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Cam Schlittler lives up to the hype in his debut, and more

If you didn't know who Cam Schlittler was a few weeks ago, I don't blame you. He had one brief start above Double-A at the start of June and ended up making just five starts at Triple-A before making his major-league debut Wednesday against the Mariners. But he's definitely a name you need to know about now. 

Schlittler wasn't dominant in his MLB debut. He fell short of a quality start by a couple of outs, giving up three runs over 5.1 innings of work, and the Mariners jumped on him for a couple of homers and four batted balls with an exit velocity over 100 mph, and his command generally wasn't pristine – he didn't throw a single slider below the bottom edge of the strike zone, and that pitch led to most of the damage he surrendered.

But man, it was easy to get excited about Schlittler while watching this start in spite of the iffy results. The scouting reports were high on his fastball, but it was even better than expected in his debut. Schlittler hit 100 mph on the high end and averaged 97.9 mph, as he was clearly amped up for this one – in Triple-A, he was averaging 96.6 with his four-seamer. That velocity will probably prove unsustainable, but this still looks like a fastball that should work at 96-97, with a pretty good movement profile. He generated five whiffs with it on 20 swings and had a very good 38% Called-plus-Swinging strike rate with it, making it a very good foundation for an arsenal.

The slider was a bit iffier, but definitely flashed. He probably threw it in the strike zone a bit too much when he should be looking to bury it more often, but he still managed four swinging strikes with the pitch, too. He didn't generate a swinging strike with the rest of the arsenal, which included a heavy downer curveball 7 mph slower than the slider, plus a sweeper with a similar movement profile to the slider but 4 mph slower. I don't know how well that sweeper is going to work, so focusing more on the slider and getting it down below the zone more consistently could be something for Schlittler to work on.

But all in all, I thought the stuff looked pretty good, and the stuff models agreed with me – Thomas Nestico's tjStuff+ model graded all four of Schlittler's pitches as solidly above-average in his debut. Those grades will probably come down if and when Schlittler's velocity comes down, but he certainly looked the part in his MLB debut.

Don't be surprised if Schlittler is sent back down to Triple-A in the coming days to give the Yankees another arm through the end of the weekend. But with Clarke Schmidt out for the season, I do expect him to be back for the second half before long. And he'll have a chance to pitch his way into the rotation long term, even with Luis Gil working his way slowly back from injury.

Is Schlittler a must-add pitcher in Fantasy? I'm not ready to go that far when names like Edward Cabrera, Emmet Sheehan, Noah Cameron, and Joe Boyle are still all rostered in fewer than 75% of CBS Fantasy leagues. All four of them would be priority adds ahead of Schlittler, and Ryne Nelson (75%) and Trevor Rogers (52%) are in the same tier as him but with less ambiguity in their short-term roles. But if you've got the roster spot and none of those pitchers are available, Schlittler showed enough in his debut to be worth an add. 

Here's what else you need to know about from Wednesday's action around MLB: 

Thursday's waiver-wire targets

Noelvi Marte, 3B, Reds (61%) – Marte has been playing pretty consistently since coming off the IL after missing two months with a hamstring injury, but you'd be forgiven for not realizing it with how cold his bat had been before Wednesday. Marte went just 1 for 12 in his first four games back, albeit with just two strikeouts, which was a promising sign. And he got back on the board Wednesday by going 2 for 3 with a homer, his first since April 26. Marte's season got derailed by that hamstring injury, but he's still hitting .277/.330/.494, and he's still a recent top prospect, which makes it worth giving some extra weight to that line. He's an obvious talent, and he's starting to show it off. Let's hope Marte can just stay healthy. 

Masataka Yoshida, DH, Red Sox (11%) – Yoshida didn't waste any time making his impact felt in his first game back from offseason shoulder surgery Wednesday, going 3 for 4 with a double while starting at DH. He had three hard-hit (95-plus mph) batted balls in the game, which is a good sign for a guy coming back from a shoulder injury. The nice thing is, despite making his debut in July, Yoshida has actually been cleared to hit for a lot longer than that and should be a lot closer to fully healthy than most players making a mid-season debut. He is DH only and will likely be limited to starting vs. RHP for the time being, but the Red Sox have talked about trying Yoshida out at first base, which would both make him more viable as a Fantasy option and give him a path to more playing time. I don't think Yoshida needs to be on radars in most 12-team points leagues, but deeper Roto leagues could look his way for some cheap batting average help and RBI upside. 

Ha-seong Kim, SS, Rays (22%) – Even at his best, Kim is a fringe-y enough hitter that it was fair to question how valuable he'd be after having offseason shoulder surgery. Well, he hit a ball 107 mph Wednesday against the Tigers, his third batted ball of at least 100 mph in just three games since coming off the IL, which seems like a pretty good sign that his shoulder is feeling okay. I don't say that to make the claim that Kim is suddenly going to be a big bopper the rest of the way, just to say that he looks fine. He looks like himself, more or less. And Kim has been a pretty valuable Fantasy player the past couple of seasons thanks to his ability to hold his head above water as a hitter while stealing plenty of bases. Could he hit .250 with a 10-homer, 30-steal pace the rest of the way? Yeah, that feels reasonable enough, making him a solid middle infielder in any Roto league.