Weekly Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire - Tampa Bay Hitters

The Tampa Bay Rays are generally thought of as a team built around pitching. In 2012, Tampa Bay led MLB in ERA and was 18th in runs scored. But this season, Tampa Bay's ERA ranks 22nd, while they are fourth in runs scored at press time. While a healthy Evan Longoria leads the attack, some of Tampa Bay's best hitters this season are still available in at least 30% of Yahoo! leagues. This is important to know if you play in daily or weekly fantasy baseball leagues.

Kelly Johnson, 2B/OF (69% owned)

Johnson hit .284 with 26 homers and 13 steals in 2010 for Arizona, but has been much less productive since then. Now playing outfield for Tampa Bay but retaining 2B eligibility, Johnson had a breakout May, hitting .330 with seven homers and 26 RBI. Even after Johnson struggled with back spasms in early June, he was still tied for third in homers with 10 and was fourth in RBI among second-base eligibles with 35. The lefthanded Johnson has much better numbers against righties, including all 10 of his homers. Johnson, now 31, also has six steals.

James Loney, 1B (55%)

Loney, the 19th pick in the 2002 amateur draft, looked like a rising star in 2007 when, at 23, he hit .331 for the Dodgers with 15 homers in 344 at bats. But Loney did not reach .300 or 15 homers again during his next four seasons in L.A. Sent to the Red Sox in 2012 as part of the big trade that brought Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett to the Dodgers, Loney hit just .230 in his brief time in Boston.

But Loney, now 29, has flourished after being signed as a free agent by Tampa Bay, hitting .373 in April and .306 in May with six homers and 17 RBI. Even after a slow start to June, Loney was hitting .322 with eight homers, 35 RBI and 30 runs.

Matt Joyce, OF (41%)

Joyce has 36 homers over the last two seasons. In early June, he had 12 homers and a .258 batting average, four points above his career mark. Joyce, 28, also had six steals, two more than he had all of 2012. The lefthanded Joyce has 10 of his homers against righties along with an .873 OPS as opposed to an OPS against lefties of .667. While Joyce typically sits against lefties, he did start against Boston's Jon Lester on June 11 and homered off him.

Lisa Swan writes for a variety of fantasy baseball sites. DraftStreet offers weekly fantasy baseball games.