by Will Overton

The trade deadline is over and now it’s time to analyze the damages. Earlier this week the esteemed Professor gave us an astute analysis of the fantasy winners and losers. What I am going to do is look at things from a waiver wire point of view. The waiver wire needs a shake up sometimes and the trade deadline often provides it.

Most people spend a lot of time analyzing only the players involved in a deal, and that’s part of the puzzle. But it’s also important to recognize the ripple effects of the trades as well and talk about who is left on a team that will benefit from the trades their team made.

In this week’s waiver worthy post I will be looking at both traded players and those left behind in a better position than they were in a week ago.

Rajaj Davis – OF, Toronto Blue Jays: The Blue Jays did some house cleaning in their outfield moving Travis Snider and also Eric Thames who really needed to be recalled. This opens things up for Davis to be the everyday LF in Toronto. Davis had been a platoon OF who hit against LHP, but so far he’s hitting .282 against RHP this year and showing signs that he can still be an everyday starter. And he’s hot right now going 12 – 32 in his last 9 games with 4 SB’s. Davis has as good of speed as anyone in baseball and uses it well. When  Jose Bautista comes back Davis will be forced to split time with whoever stays up between Anthony Gose and Sierra Moses, but right now it looks like Davis ends up getting the better part of that split.

Marco Scutaro – 2B/SS, San Francisco Giants: It’s hard to imagine that someone leaves Colorado for San Francisco and gains value, but I think Scutaro does it. For one Colorado’s HR friendly park never fit Scutaro’s skill set. Since joining the Giants Scutaro is 7 – 21 with a pair of runs and runs batted in. It looks like the Giants plan on hitting Scutaro either fifth overall right after Melky Cabrera and Buster Posey, or batting leadoff. Both spots are enviable and should provide a solid jump in runs scored and runs batted in. Scutaro has put together some big second half’s for contenders before and looks primed to do it again this year.

John Mayberry Jr – OF, Philadelphia Phillies: With Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino out of town the Phillies have no choice but to play the struggling John Mayberry Jr. with some regularity. There are still other options, but I don’t think Philadelphia is ready to give up on Mayberry just yet. His inability to hit right handed pitching has hurt him, but he’s still got big league power and the potential to hit a good amount of HR’s. Mayberry might end up being a situational player for your fantasy team, but he’s going to get opportunities to play and he’s got real potential still. I haven’t waived the white flag on Mayberry yet, but these next months could tell us a lot.

Nate Eovaldi – SP, Miami Marlins: Eovaldi was starting in LA, but he was a fringe starter who could have been losing his spot at any point. In Miami Eovaldi isn’t at risk of losing his job anymore and he will get a chance to show his potential. Eovaldi is a strong strikeout prospect, he has control issues, but it hasn’t gotten too bad yet this season. In his first start in Miami Eovaldi allowed just one run in 5.1 IP with 5 K’s. Hopefully he starts getting stretched out a bit more and as he does his value will go up. I wouldn’t take him in anything other than a deep league right now, but he’s the high upside kind of guy you should be aiming for in deep leagues.

Justin Germano – SP, Chicago Cubs: With Ryan Dempster and Paul Maholm headed out of the Windy City there are two open spots in the rotation for the Cubs. It’ll essentially be an open audition looking for someone to hold the job, but one of the first cracks at things goes to Justin Germano. In Boston Germano wasn’t getting a shot at starting, but Chicago is another story and I think he’ll be good enough to make him deep league worthy. Germano was dominant at Triple-A earlier this season. He doesn’t get a ton of strikeouts, but he gets enough to be useful and shows above average control. Germano is another good gamble like Eovaldi who is a low risk pickup.