Deep League Thoughts -- Subtle DeJesus

In late July, you were saving your FAAB dollars, or your waiver slot, in your AL-only league. You didn't go for Matt Garza or Alfonso Soriano or Francisco Rodriguez, thinking there would surely be some sort of bigger name or more influential player coming across.

Only...it never really happened. Trade deadline day itself was a complete dud, with basically no one changing leagues, and then the early parts of August - waiver month - were fairly slow as well. You were frustrated, wondering if your spare budget or your cushy waiver slot was all for naught.

And then the last week of August happened.

There was a flurry of activity at the very end of the month, before the waiver-trade deadline. In the days since, most guys who might be helpful have likely been snapped up. But there is one guy who remains fairly unowned despite at least even odds that he'll be a worthwhile contributor with a lot of playing time going forward.

As of this moment, David DeJesus is 3% owned in Yahoo leagues, and I don't know why. Since joining the Rays, DeJesus has played in 11 of the team's 12 games, and hit .281/.361/.375. It's a small sample, but his overall season numbers feature a .331 on-base percentage to go with a .395 slugging percentage as well. No, he's not going to carry your roster. But as a last-guy-on-the-roster type, you could do way worse than David DeJesus.

The Rays have stayed in the playoff hunt all year long despite somehow giving Sam Fuld 178 plate appearances of a .547 OPS and Kelly Johnson OPSing .611 since his hot April and May. They're slumping like mad right now, but if they want to have any hope of pulling out of this tailspin, Fuld and Johnson really need to be watching these games from the bench, while DeJesus, Desmond Jennings, Wil Myers, and Matt Joyce basically control the outfield and DH slots.

Like I said in my Edinson Volquez piece from Friday, there aren't a lot of chances left to add players that will help you make a run for a fantasy title in 2013. David DeJesus, now that he's on a contending team (in the AL, if you're AL-only) and will be playing at least against all right-handers, if not lefties too, might be one of those players. He might not, too, but it's September, and if you're looking for someone, you could do way worse.

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