The month of May has somehow arrived, as the 2023 fantasy baseball season enters Week 6. The weather has been getting warmer (most places), and players on both sides of the new MLB rules seem to be getting used to 'the new normal.' And while it's obviously still far too early to cut bait on struggling early-draft picks like Juan Soto and Eloy Jiménez, fantasy managers do have enough of a sample size to know their teams' strengths and weaknesses. Today we will explore the number of different ways you can improve your fantasy team with our all-encompassing offensive cheat sheet.
The old adage remains that 'fantasy leagues are not won on draft day.' I've seen fantasy managers flunk their draft-day report cards — or fail to even show up, and ultimately get auto-drafted — and still manage their way into the championship. The key to fantasy consistency — and eventually, greatness — is to never settle. Always work the waiver wire, finding strong positional upgrades and solid streaming options. Keep your eye on the prospects, staying a step ahead of your opponents. If you never stop working to improve your team, typically your team keeps working for you.
Our Week 6 offensive cheat sheet will help you pinpoint the players under 65 percent owned who should be rostered in all formats, the streamers and deeper-league guys under 50 percent owned worth targeting, and the prospects to keep on your queue in case they get called up soon.
All rostership data is from Yahoo and based on 5x5 or 6x6 category leagues.
Fantasy Baseball Week 6 Cheat Sheet: Must-roster hitters
The following hitters are available in at least 35 percent of Yahoo leagues and should be added in all formats.
Josh Jung, 3B, Rangers (62 percent rostered) — Jung hit the skids a bit last week, but the rookie third baseman is still the 111th-ranked 5x5 player and he's among the top 55 over the past two weeks. Some say Jung's five homers are fluky because of his underwhelming average batted-ball data and awful 2022 batting average, but we think he's absolutely worth an add in all formats. He's recorded a hit in seven of his past 10 games, and logged three homers, 12 RBIs, seven runs, and a steal in that span. He's 25 and his max exit-velo numbers suggest that his power is here to stay. Grab him wherever you can!
Joey Gallo, 1B/OF, Twins (51%) — Gallo just barely cracks the 'owned in over 50 percent of leagues' list, yet we have him as the second-most important 'must-roster' player on our priority list. So many fantasy managers seem to have forgotten that Gallo mashed 38 home runs just two seasons ago! He had a down year with the Yankees and Dodgers last season, sure, but he has already given us plenty of reasons to believe in his ability to bounce back. Seven home runs in 53 at-bats speaks for itself — that's an 11.5 percent home run rate compared to 4.6 percent last season — but take a look at the differences between Gallo's batted-ball data between last year and this season to date:
| Year | Barrel % | Barrel/PA | Exit Velo | Max EV | Launch Angle | Sweet Spot % | Hard-hit % | K % |
| 2022 | 17.6 | 8.0 | 89.6 | 113 | 23.8 | 29.3 | 50.5 | 39.8 |
| 2023 | 31.3 | 16.4 | 97.8 | 112.6 | 32.9 | 25 | 75 | 34.4 |
Gallo has been demonstrably better this season in just about every way, and you would have to be crazy to leave him on your league's wire. He might never crack 40 dingers again like he did in 2017 and 2018 — and his career contact numbers suggest regression from his current .245 batting average is imminent — but good luck finding better power from the free agent pool this year.
Brent Rooker, OF, Athletics (60%) — The Athletics may be a barren wasteland, but even the bottom-tier squads have some glimmers of hope. Rooker has gone yard five times over Oakland's past seven games, and he's now up to eight homers, 20 RBIs, and a .333 average on the season. Oh, and his 1.178 OPS leads the majors! Rooker may qualify as a 'sell-high' — this kind of production is about as close to the definition of 'unsustainable' as you can get — but you can't sell him until you own him, so go pick him up on the double!
Austin Hays, OF, Orioles (59%) — Hands missed a few games for a bruised hand recently, and promptly got dumped by a ton of fantasy managers for whatever reason. Right after his ownership dropped by 12 percent, he returned to the lineup for Baltimore's double-header in Detroit Saturday and collected four hits, one RBI, and a 1.225 OPS for the day. Yeah, he's okay, folks. Scoop him up and brag about it to your reactionary league-mate who dropped him.
Harold Ramirez, OF, Rays (61%) — 'Barreled' Ramirez is more of a power streamer vs. righties — especially now that Jose Siri has returned from his recent injury and clogged up the Rays' OF depth chart — but I can't imagine leaving him on the wire of and five-outfield or 12-team leagues. He has already collected five homers and 11 RBIs on the season and sports a .333/.395/.638 slash line.
Fantasy Baseball Week 6 Cheat Sheet: Best waiver options & streams
The following hitters are available in at least 50 percent of Yahoo leagues and should be considered strong adds in all formats.
Jack Suwinski, OF, Pirates (45 percent rostered) — Suwinski is quietly the 33rd-ranked player in fantasy baseball, but it's only quiet because he plays for Pittsburgh. He's hitting .297 with six homers, five steals, and 18 RBIs. His chase rate indicates that his average may come down to Earth a bit, but he's 24 years old and possesses enough speed and power to warrant a roster spot in every standard league. Of course, if you can package him with another top-75 guy to acquire a Juan Soto or Fernando Tatis Jr., do it in a heartbeat. There will always be managers who fall for sell-low, buy-high trades six weeks into the fantasy season, and it's important to keep our eyes on the big picture with talent evaluations.
Joey Meneses, 1B/OF, Nationals (50%) — Meneses has come on strong of late, notching 17 hits over his past nine games. He has a homer, six RBIs, and three runs during that span. Of course, nobody's watching because it's the Nats, but if a fantasy hitter gets hot in a forest but nobody's watching it still counts for your team if you own him. Meneses hasn't reached 'must-own' territory quite yet, but he's certainly flirting with it. He showed us what he's made of as Mexico's top catalyst in the World Baseball Classic, hitting a team-high two home runs in six games and batting .370 with a .963 OPS. Don't be surprised if he truly catches fire soon.
Esteury Ruiz, OF, Athletics (44%) — Ruiz is another relatively unknown fantasy commodity due to playing on a crap team, but he has been super solid as a steals specialist (alliteration for the win). We profiled him last week when he was 5-of-5 in swipe attempts, and a week later he remains 100 percent successful with an AL-leading 11 thefts. He's also hitting .367 against southpaws this season, so he's much more than just a speedster.
Mauricio Dubon, 2B/SS/OF (43%) — The regular leadoff hitter for the defending-champion Houston Astros is available in 57 percent of leagues! And what a month of April Dubon enjoyed — he hit safely in his first 20 games of the month and closed it out with 29 hits, 18 runs, and a pair of stolen bases. The runs will only continue to ramp up for Dubon as the season progresses, especially if Dusty Baker ever pushes Jose Abreu down the batting order. You can do a lot worse than Dubon, especially considering he has multi-positional eligibility.
Brett Baty, 3B, Mets (41%) — We're remaining bullish on Baty, who initially failed to live up to his massive expectations after getting the call-up from Syracuse. He has nine hits over his past six starts, including his first dong of the season. His slash line is now up to .333/.394/.467, and we think the sky's the limit with Baty's power swing once the weather warms up.
Fantasy Baseball Week 6 Cheat Sheet: Top prospects to watch
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 1B, Reds (4 percent rostered) — Encarnacion-Strand has been hitting the cover off the ball for the Reds' triple-A affiliate in Louisville ever since he returned from a three-week absence due to a herniated disc. He went 4-for-his-first-13 with a walk, double, and home run, but then went nuclear on Thursday. Against rehabbing White Sox closer Kyle Hendricks, the 23-year-old singled. An inning later, he homered an oppo-blast off lefty Anthony Kay. In the sixth inning, he added a three-run moonshot to left-center. All said, Encarnacion-Strand finished the day with five hits, six RBIs, and a ton of raised eyebrows from fantasy baseball managers.
Elly De La Cruz, SS, Reds (14%) — Another hopeful midseason call-up, De La Cruz has the kind of size, speed, and power that lands guys on 14 percent of fantasy rosters before even sniffing a call-up. He joined Encarnacion-Strand on the Bats' mash show on Thursday, going 4-for-6 with a double and a triple. He also took Hendricks to the warning track in the first, ultimately leaving him just feet away from hitting for the cycle. He clobbered two balls over 105 miles per hour in the game — and on his triple, he went from home to third faster than any minor leaguer this season.
Matt Mervis, 1B, Cubs (12%) — Mervis remains a strong stash not just because he has an elite power ceiling, but also because current Cubs first baseman Eric Hosmer has no big-league power left. The 25-year-old Mervis is batting .295 with six homers and 27 RBIs through 88 at-bats for the Iowa Cubs, and we would be astonished if he's still down there by the summer solstice.
