Every league has a waiver wire, the only question is whether you’re allowed to use it. Most leagues place some kind of limit on owners’ moves, say, 2 drops or pickups per season. Two might seem a little skimpy, but smaller numbers usually yield better long-term results. Leagues with unlimited moves often degenerate into a constant race for the waiver wire, with owners turning their teams over on a daily basis.

If you’re in a position where you’ve got the leeway to make some moves and you’re looking for some good “ride’em while they’re hot” players, then consider adding these guys in the short-term…

Chris Capuano: A lot of people haven’t seemed to notice, but Milwaukee is now one of baseball’s better organizations. Mike Maddux has taken a staff of average pitchers and worked hard with them to maximize every iota of ability. Their scouting has been excellent and they’ve piled up a good base of talent by making smart moves. Capuano came over in the Sexson deal and is having a pretty decent year. All you really need to know is that he’s a lefty in the NL, and, consequently, is worth owning. He throws in the low 90s, Ks twice as many as he walks, and has an OBA of .234. He’s a better pitcher than Doug Davis, and should keep that ERA under 4 over the course of the season. He’s a good bet for 150 Ks, and if he can keep the BBs down there’s no reason he can’t post a 1.30 WHIP.

Kip Wells: After his terrible ’04 when his velocity and command fell off the map you would have been crazy to even consider drafting Wells coming into ’05. Well he’s regained a bit of that heat (he’ll hit 94, but he used to top out at 97), but his command, which was never good to begin with, is still pretty damn bad. He’s walked 33 in 65 IP this year, but his ERA’s only 3.60. Guys aren’t hitting Wells, but he’s finding ways to put them on base. His OBA is .224, meaning his WHIP should be somewhere around 1.20. Instead it’s 1.32 and you can’t realistically expect that number to go any lower. In fact it should creep up. It looks like Kip’s going to pull a repeat of his 2003 season, and that’s probably his ceiling. If the Pirates can score some runs he’ll probably win 13 games while striking out 150 and keeping the ERA in the mid-high 3s. If he could have kept that 96 mph heat we’d be talking about the next Jason Schmidt, or Ben Sheets.

Felipe Lopez: Back when he was coming up with the Blue Jays, Felipe Lopez drew comparisons to Miguel Tejada. He’s nowhere near as big as Miguel, but he does have tremendous power potential for a MI with the ability to steal a few and hit .285+. He’s sitting at 7 HR on the year, more than a few of which have been opposite field shots. He doesn’t swing very hard, but the ball absolutely jumps off his bat. He’s going yard every 17 at bats, a rate he won’t maintain. He’s a good bet for at least .285/20/75 this year, and probably more down the road. People might not know that Felipe was a former 1st rounder (8th overall). He’s been around forever, but he’s only 25 years old. The knock on F-Lo is that he’s always been unwilling to invest the effort to build on his natural ability.

Jody Gerut: Gerut’s a former second round pick who, during his ‘03 rookie season, produced on par with Jason Bay before losing it during a sophomore slide. Lost in that ‘04 grind was the fact that his BB/K rate hoverered around 1:1 while his avg. and power numbers slipped into oblivion. The fact that he actually put the ball in play and took his walks is a sign of very good things to come.

He absolutely crushed the ball on his AAA rehab stint and he’s back hitting at the MLB level. Two years down the road we’ll be talking about Gerut and Laynce Nix as the newest members of the .290/25/100 club in the AL. He might lose some PT to Juan Gone, but with Blake headed to the bench and Crisp out for a couple weeks it’s looking like Gerut/Sizemore/Gonzalez is the Indians’ OF of the near future.