Pickup Artists

Working the waiver wire for key pickups is essential to success in any format. On the flip side, it's just as important to know when it's time to cut ties with some of your guys who aren't performing. Let's take a look at some of the most added and dropped players (as of Thursday), courtesy of ESPN.com.

Most Added
Dan Wheeler 2.7% owned to 35.1%: Wheeler was well on his way to having a nice season as the main set up man to Troy Percival for the surprising Rays. Percival is headed to the DL and astute owners snapped him up as soon as news broke about Percival exiting Wednesday's game. Percival is only expected to miss the minimum 15 days with his hamstring strain, but any time a 38 year old tweaks a hamstring, it's more than possible that an extended stay on the DL will be required. Wheeler's numbers are nice as is - 2.19 ERA, 18Ks in 24 2/3 innings and a 0.89 WHIP - so adding saves bumps him into the useful category. If Wheeler is available and you could use some help in the saves department, he is definitely worth adding.

Jerry Hairston Jr. 16.0% owned to 42.6%: This one is a bit surprising, as most figured Hairston would be losing playing time with the arrival of Jay Bruce to the outfield. But with Jeff Keppinger's injury, he has been getting playing time rotating both in the outfield & infield. He seems to be one of Dusty Baker's preferred guys, which means Dusty will find a way to get him regular at bats. In his last 10 games, he's gotten 39 plate appearances and has collected 11 hits. More importantly, he's swiped 6 bags in these 10 games. He's not going to give you much, but if you need stolen bases, he's worth a shot.

Dana Eveland 53.3% owned to 73.6%: responding to his 3 hit complete game effort against the Rays last week, fantasy owners grabbed Eveland. Quietly, he's having a solid season for the A's, sporting a 2.90 ERA & a 1.16 WHIP. Just today though, he got rocked for 7 runs against the Blue Jays. Still, Eveland is worth a roster spot until the A's come back down to earth and the league catches up with him.

Jesse Litsch 9.7% owned to 29.0%: Litsch tossed a CGSO Saturday against the Royals, no doubt driving up his pickup rate. He followed that up with a 7 inning shutout performance against Dana Eveland and the A's today. He's gone 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA this month. He's not a big strikeout guy (just 50 in 111 innings before today's starts) but you can't blame anyone for riding him while he's hot. He's still not a tremendous option, but you could do worse.

Kevin Kouzmanoff 60.5% owned to 78.8%: Rumors were swirling a week ago that Kooz's days as the Padres starting 3rd baseman were in serious jeopardy with super prospect Chase Headley looming, but he's survived the threat so far. Who knows, maybe it motivated him a bit. In his last 10 games, he's hit 5 HRs with 8 RBIs and is slugging .659. He's even hitting for a decent average - a .293 clip over the last 10. He might not be available in most leagues, but if you are dealing with a struggling 3rd baseman, Kouzmanoff is worth riding while he's streaking.

Most Dropped
Ten of the top 11 players dropped the most are starting pitchers. And honestly, they're all similar. Here are the top 5:

Randy Wolf
Doug Davis
Aaron Laffey
Greg Smith
Andrew Miller

Wolf has been consistent and is still getting Ks. He is definitely a much better pitcher at home in Petco (who isn't), so not wanting to waste a roster spot just for his home starts is understandable. Not much else to say about the rest of the crop. Davis came back strong from his cancer surgery, but got hit hard in his second start. To me, the most interesting drop is the man who came in 6th on this list - Johnny Cueto. He hasn't been dominant like he was in the early going, but it's important to remember that he's still a rookie. He's strung together 3 solid outings now and is definitely worthy of a roster spot.

Most Added & Dropped

We're two plus weeks into the season & reactionary fantasy owners across the land have made their mark. Below is CBS' top 5 list of players added & dropped the most this past week. As with any set of data, this information needs to be digested with a grain of salt. Especially because this list encompasses all CBS leagues in any format, meaning that any given league can place additional value to players not necessarily worth it, and vice versa. Also, we can't filter out the uninformed fantasy player's moves from this information. As we've mentioned in a few prior articles, this early in the season, stats for pitchers are more telling - and the results below are indicative of this as well.

MOST ADDED
1. Jackson, Edwin SP TB - 14% owned to 61%: Jackson's first 2 starts against the Yankees & Mariners were impressive, to say the least. He surrendered just 1 run in 14 innings while striking out 10. Jackson has always been on the verge of breaking through as a reliable fantasy option, so it is more than understandable if AL-only leaguers & mixed leaguers alike took a chance on him. However, Jackson's 2nd shot at the Yankees wasn't pretty & I would imagine we'll see him somewhere on the most dropped list in the near future.

2. Lee, Cliff SP CLE - 30% owned to 66%: Lee has shown glimpses of returning to his reliable fantasy starter form so far this season. His inability to stay healthy the past couple of years were a major deterrant on draft day, but he certainly looks worthy of a roster spot for now & even a spot in your starting lineup, if he can stay healthy.

3. Johnson, Randy SP ARI - 48% owned to 83%: Maybe people just wanted to see him actually pitch in a major league game before picking him up? There's really no way that RJ should have been a free agent in any league. When he does pitch, he is still one of the most effective pitchers in baseball and is worth a roster spot (especially in daily leagues or leagues with a DL slot).

4. Crede, Joe 3B CHW - 50% owned to 83%: Crede's terrible spring & Josh Fields' presence no doubt scared people away early on. However, he's been one of the hottest hitters in the AL and is worth riding until he cools off.

5. Ryan, B.J. RP TOR- 41% owned to 74%: Somewhat of a surpirse that people would give up on Ryan so quickly after another injury. The fact is though, when healthy, the saves in Toronto go through him.

MOST DROPPED
1. Harden, Rich SP OAK - 96% owned to 54%: Every year, people fall for Harden and his potential. And every year, Harden lands on the DL. After his first 2 starts against the Red Sox, he looked like he was ready to finally put together a string of healthy starts. Not the case as he landed back on the DL, frustrating owners everywhere. I still think if you have room to stash him away that Harden can be a positive contributor this year. Reports over the winter indicated that Oakland was not going to baby him as much with his injuries, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

2. Soriano, Rafael RP ATL - 89% owned to 47%: Similar to Harden, Soriano's injury history & the Braves peculiar handling of him in the past are no doubt behind this trend. It would be hard to fault owners in shallow leagues who have cut ties with Soriano already.

3. Lowell, Mike 3B BOS - 96% owned to 55%: The extent of Lowell's injury and exactly how much time he will miss have yet to be determined. However, it appears that most owners did not want to stash him away and wait this one out. I wasn't high on Lowell to begin with this year since he was coming off a career year fueled by aspirations of a new contract, so I can't blame anyone who let him go. Especially considering that he could be out for a couple of months.

4. Willis, Dontrelle SP DET - 94% owned to 58%: The D-Train (can we still call him that?) has been a disaster all around for Detroit. Combine that with his freak injury and all signs point to this being a completely lost season for him. I find it hard to believe that he's still owned on 58% of people's rosters.

5. Garza, Matt SP TB - 57% owned to 24%: The dreaded radial nerve irritation led half of Garza's owners to cut ties with him. He'll have to prove himself after he returns from the DL to be in consideration for another pickup.

Predictions for the next 2 weeks:
Most Added - Mike Cameron, Evan Longoria
Most Dropped - Joe Borowski, Barry Zito