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Nate Springfield
Under the Radar - Mixed (Week 14)
Sunday July 4th, 2010
Clayton Richard
Richards' Under the Radar days are numbered. (AP)

Each week Baseball Press will be providing some Under the Radar fantasy players for NL-Only Leagues, AL-Only Leagues and Mixed Leagues. These articles will be dedicated to finding those diamonds in the rough on the waiver wire that will either be a short term or long term replacement to an injury or struggling player on your fantasy team. All players listed are owned in less than 30% of Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball leagues.

With the slew of injuries that has hit Major League Baseball this week the Waiver Wires are pretty picked over, but there is a little something for everyone's needs - unless you have gone through as many catchers as the Red Sox in the past 2 weeks.  Highlighting this week is another pitcher with favorable match-ups in both of his starts for next week.


Russell Branyan - 1B, Seattle Mariners (Yahoo! 8% / CBS 28%)
Branyan looks to be settling well into his new-old home of Seattle.  Since landing back on the West coast he has gone 4-14 with a home run and 4 RBI.  Next week he will be seeing some hittable righties all in Seattle where he hit 16 of his home runs last year and slugged a very respectable .548.

Carlos Guillen - 2B/OF, Detroit Tigers (Yahoo! 13% / CBS 45%)

Carlos has been mentioned in the AL Under the Radar, but it is time to go ahead and offer him up as a Mixed League option.  He has been pretty consistent over the last month - consistently good that is - hitting .292 in 89 at-bats and 3 home runs.  Now those aren't eye popping power counting numbers I know, but he would be a pretty good fill in for anyone that just lost Chase Utley for 6 to 8 weeks as long as he can keep that consistency at the plate.

Felipe Lopez - 2B/3B/SS, St. Louis Cardinals (Yahoo! 21% / CBS 17%)
With David Freese and Ryan Ludwick hitting the DL Lopez is going to be seeing quite a few at-bats between now and the All-Star break.  Lopez has streaks of brilliance at the plate every once in a while and you may see one of those before the break.  In the last week week he has gone 10 for 23 with 7 runs scored and a stolen base.  He may be a sub par defender but his bat will play better than the competition he has on the infield right now, and with 2 big bats missing you would have to think Tony LaRussa will have him in there every day - but it is Tony LaRussa.

Jeff Francoeur -  OF, New York Mets (Yahoo! 28% / CBS 48%)
Frenchy must be starting to feel that pressure of possibly losing playing time with the return of Carlos Beltran right around the corner.  Angel Pagan has been playing much better in the field than Francoeur and has been doing more than holding his own at the plate so in the past week Francoeur reminded owners what he is capable of by going 8-23 witih a home run.

Sean Rodriguez - 2B/OF, Tampa Bay Rays (Yahoo! 20% / CBS 37%)
After being highlighted in Week 12's AL Under the Radar Sean-Rod cooled off for a week or so, but he then immediately turned it around again making him a mixed league worthy pick-up going into Fantasy Week 14.  In the last week he is hitting .320, and even though he hasn't gone deep, he has swiped 3 bags.  If he happens to go deep this weekend he could be making a Roto Renaissance appearance.  With the multiple position eligibility he can fill in several different holes depending on where your team is missing a guy or weak at the moment.

Clayton Richard - SP, San Diego Padres (Yahoo! 53%, CBS 67%)
Even before striking out 10 over 7 innings against Colorado this week I had picked Clayton up in my Mixed point league.  I am sure glad I did that before his outing because after he definitely would not have been available because next week he is a two start pitcher.  Not only he is just a two start pitcher he is facing the offensively challenged Washington Nationals and that team he just struck out 10 times over 7 innings, the Colorado Rockies.  Like most of the Padres pitchers Richards has been floating "under the radar" all season long but is starting to get the publicity he deserves now.  For those of you unaware he is sporting a 3.27 ERA, 1.28 WHIP with 81 strike outs over 102 innings pitched on the season.  No matter the format he should be owned in 90%+ mixed leagues for next week's match-ups.
Nate Springfield joined the Baseball Press crew for the 2010 season and hosts the site's podcast. His love for the game has grown thanks to fantasy baseball, with a specialty in NL-only auction leagues. You can contact him at nate@baseballpress.com or follow him on Twitter @NateSpringfield.
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