The importance of focusing on the right now

While the rest of the fantasy community is neck-deep in football coverage, those of you still competing for your fantasy baseball championship are either scratching and clawing for last-minute points or hanging on for dear life to your first-place position.

Every waiver claim you make needs to have a specific purpose, and there is little to no room for error.

But for many of us, the waiver priority or FAAB has been spent or we are extraordinarily low or out of FAAB dollars.

That means we have to look past the fun, new September call-ups and need to focus on players who are performing well right now, but might have been forgotten after a season of struggles.

Rockies corner infielder Elehuris Montero opened the season playing third base, but struggled with a .255 average and minimal power.

He was striking out nearly 40 percent of the time and was promptly demoted to Triple-A.

He bounced back and forth between the two levels for most of the season but found a more permanent home in the majors in late August.

He flashed a little power with three doubles, a triple and two home runs over 68 August at-bats and has maintained that momentum here in September.

He is currently riding a seven-game hit streak, and is now batting .395 with four doubles and two home runs over his past two weeks.

If it is power you seek, the Rockies play 11 of their final 17 games at Coors Field.

If it is speed that you seek, keep a close eye on Brewers infielder Brice Turang.

He also bounced back and forth between the majors and minors during the first half of the season, but has settled in nicely as a regular in the second half.

However, Turang has hurt fantasy managers with his .222 average and lack of run production, to the point where many have forgotten about him.

But looking at his five stolen bases over the past two weeks and the six steals he had in August, Turang should be turning heads for those who need to move up in the stolen base category, especially with the fact that he hasn’t been caught stealing since back in July.

Depending on what you need in statistical production, there are plenty of forgotten names likely sitting on your waiver wire who can give you a quick boost.

In addition to Montero and Turang, you can also look at Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, Pirates outfielder Jack Suwinski and even Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe.

Just focus on the right-now and forget about what was.

Your championship awaits.

Howard Bender is the head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on X @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to Fantasy-Alarm.com for all your fantasy baseball advice.