The Ticker, Week 4: Popular opinion on the waiver wire

I'm a big believer in seeking help. Just about any time I'm considering a player, I end up on at least a few of each player's profiles pages on Baseball-Reference, on FanGraphs, on Rotoworld, on Baseball Prospectus, on ESPN, on Yahoo!, on any number of sites.

All of that is to say nothing of my texts, which will at least go to my brother, and sometimes to Lindo or Nate or even TBird, who doesn't even like baseball but understands I have a pathological desire for approval, so he just tells me whatever I want to do is the right move and goes on about his day.

Your opinions should be your own, but that doesn't mean you have to be the original and/or only source for those opinions.

In this week's Ticker, I'm searching further afield for defense of my opinions. For the entries below, I've gone searching for outside justification for my own thoughts, just to offer some different voices along with my usual one. My own contributions will only be a sentence or two; most of the opinions are from others.

(To be fair, this started as a time-saving tactic, as I didn't get started on this week's Ticker until super late. Of course — as so often happens with shortcuts — it ended up taking me way longer than just writing the damn thing normally would have, but I like the conceit, so I'm running with it.)

Maybe you don't need to consult 50 different people/sites/apps to back up your opinions, because your own self-esteem is stronger than mine. That's cool. But if you run a quick Google search or what-have-you for a guy you're thinking about and literally every result is a link to someone who disagrees with you, you had better have an even better reason for that opinion.

I realized this week that carving out a big chunk of my intro for an explanation of The Ticker was stupid, so I've done mini-intros in each section. That's that. The Ticker is a stock-minded look at the waiver wire. Here we go.

Stocks I'm buying

(low-owned players who are doing well, and I believe it)

Josh Reddick, OF, OAK (26 percent owned in Yahoo! leagues)

(from Thursday's Keith Law chat)

As long as he can stay healthy, he'll produce.

Chris Young, OF, NYY (26 percent)

(from April 22 on Pinstripe Alley)

Beltran bad, Young good.

Johnny Giavotella, 2B, LAA (3 percent)

(from Sept. 27, 2011, on Rany on the Royals)

See the prospect company he was keeping there? It was always supposed to be this way.

Stocks I'm not buying

(low-owned players who are doing well, and I am not a believer)

Ubaldo Jimenez, SP, BAL (42 percent)

(from May 18, 2014, on Fantasy Baseball Crackerjacks)

He never does this for long.

Freddy Galvis, 3B/SS, PHI (10 percent)

(from April 21 on Section 215)

He's the captain of the All-Unsustainable Club.

Justin Maxwell, OF, SFG (8 percent)

(from Monday on CBSSports.com)

Nori Aoki and Angel Pagan aren't going anywhere, so ...

Stocks I'm selling

(high-owned players who have struggled, and I'm not as in as I was)

Andrew McCutchen, OF, PIT (99 percent)

Only sell if legit offer. But don't pay full price. Tough to view as top-10 player with clear knee problem. https://t.co/YWNwFCm5qf

— Eric Karabell (@karabellespn) April 30, 2015

Maybe kinda cheating to include a tweet, but McCutchen's health worries me. Still great, just not as much so.

Neftali Feliz, RP, TEX (73 percent)

(from Monday on Nolan Writin')

Struggling closer on an awful team; there just aren't saves to be had.

Stocks I'm not selling

(high-owned players who have struggled, but I'm holding fast)

Craig Kimbrel, RP, SDP (99 percent)

(from May 8, 2013, on Rant Sports)

Kimbrel had struggled to that point; the rest of the way, he had a 0.67 ERA, 40 saves and 12.9 K/9. He'll bounce back from Wednesday's roughness.

Masahiro Tanaka, SP, NYY (88 percent)

I'm breaking the pattern here to say my own stuff. Tanaka's for sure out a month-ish. Maybe way longer. Maybe until the All-Star break next season. Who the heck knows. But if he's on your roster, here are your options:

• You can drop him. If he comes back like he could, you're going to look like a moron and hate yourself.
• You can trade him. The return on any trade right now will be itty-bitty awful, so if you do it, and he comes back like he could, you're going to look like a moron and hate yourself.
• You can keep him. If he ends up needing Tommy John, well heck, the options you had before are still basically identical then. But if he comes back, at least you can enjoy that.

Is Tanaka going to need Tommy John? Heck, I don't know. But there is literally only one scenario in which you can enjoy the fact that he's on your roster right now, and that's holding fast and hoping he doesn't go under the knife.

Futures market

(low-owned guys who have a starter in front of them or another reason for doubt, but there are things that could change)

Josh Hamilton, OF, TEX (31 percent)

(from Tuesday on ESPN.com)

His when-healthy floor is at least competent; his ceiling is way higher, if admittedly unlikely.

Melvin Upton Jr., OF, SDP (1 percent)

(from Thursday on Lindy's Sports)

For all Upton's failings, he's good at defense; when he's healthy, he'll play the field at least some, and in that lineup, that will lead to plenty of run opportunities.

Hedges

(handcuffs; low-owned guys who have someone in front of them, but they are strong backups or replacements to stash)

Odrisamer Despaigne, SP, SDP (9 percent)

(from April 16 on Lindy's Sports)

Anyone counting on Brandon Morrow, Tyson Ross and/or Andrew Cashner to stay healthy over a full season is counting on a lot; it's not actually going to be that hard to get these guys their starts.

Mike Aviles, 2B/3B/SS/OF, CLE (3 percent)

(from April 9 on Cleveland.com)

I wrote about this two years ago; Aviles is widely eligible and productive enough to be worth it. Hooray versatility.