Whether you're in need of an injury fill-in or just a hot-hand play, Scott White has you covered with 10 sleeper hitters for the upcoming scoring period, all rostered in no more than 80 percent of CBS Sports leagues. They're not must-starts by any estimation, but they're the best you'll find off the waiver wire.
All information is up to date as of Sunday evening.
Sleeper hitters for Week 19 (July 29-Aug. 4)
Zachary Neto is quietly on a 20-homer, 25-steal pace, but what's most attractive for this week is his .429 batting average and 1.047 OPS against left-handers. The Angels have the fourth-best hitter matchups, and three of the six pitchers on tap are lefties.
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Colton Cowser is batting .350 (14 for 40) with two homers and two steals in his past 11 games, making him a prime candidate to take advantage of the Orioles' eight-game schedule that features just two lefties. For all his struggles this year, Cowser, a left-handed hitter, has an .790 OPS against righties.
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Carlos Santana has been an impactful hitter since about mid-June, batting .290 (38 for 131) with five homers in his past 37 games, and it just so happens that he's also batting .312 with a .930 OPS against lefties this year. The Twins have three on the schedule this week.
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Jesse Winker's first week with the Mets figures to go well given that there are five righties on the schedule. You can be confident he'll be in the lineup for those games, given his .265/.388/.448 slash line against righties, and apart from Pablo Lopez, the ones he's facing are all pretty hittable.
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Winker's former team is also facing five righties in six games this week, which should work to the benefit of Luis Garcia. Garcia is batting .288 with a .785 OPS against righties and .338 with a .978 OPS so far in July.
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A week full of road games generally isn't the time to start a Rockies hitter, but the matchups do happen to be in their favor, featuring pitchers like Griffin Canning, Carson Fulmer, and Randy Vasquez. Michael Toglia has actually hit 12 of his 18 homers on the road, including three in one game just before the All-Star break.
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Michael Busch hasn't come out of the break as hot as he was before it, but the Cubs' matchups this week may be enough to get him back on track. They're expected to miss Hunter Greene in the Reds series and Sonny Gray in the Cardinals series, which means they'll be facing mostly bottom-feeder types (six of which are righties).
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Ryan O'Hearn has pretty good numbers for the Orioles, but as a platoon player, he rarely gets enough at-bats to be of use in the typical Fantasy league. He'll get plenty this week, with the Orioles scheduled to face six righties in eight games, and some of those righties include hittable types like Yariel Rodriguez, Ben Lively, Carlos Carrasco..
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This one is mostly just about Jeff McNeil being a hot hand, batting .343 (12 for 35) with four homers in his past 10 games. The Mets' matchups are reasonably good, featuring a bunch of back-end types apart from Pablo Lopez and Tyler Anderson.
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Like McNeil, Nate Lowe is hot right now, batting .302 (29 for 96) with six homers in his past 27 games. While the Rangers' matchups don't rank among the most favorable this week, they do include hittable righties like Andre Pallante, Lane Lynn and Kutter Crawford.
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Best hitter matchups for Week 19
1. Orioles TOR4, @CLE4
2. Braves @MIL3, MIA4
3. Cubs @CIN3, STL4
4. Angels COL3, NYM3
5. Royals @CHW3, @DET4
Worst hitter matchups for Week 19
1. Athletics @SF2, LAD3
2. Phillies NYY3, @SEA3
3. Red Sox SEA3, @TEX3
4. Marlins @TB2, @ATL4
5. Dodgers @SD2, @OAK3
