Fantasy Baseball Today - Lots of Injuries & Lots of Waiver Wire Replacements! (4/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: April 6, 2026Hunter Brown went on the IL with a shoulder strain and Cade Horton has a forearm injury. Who are some waiver wire pitcher replacements? Mookie Betts and Alejandro Kirk also went on the IL. Who are som...e outfielders to target off waivers? Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Lots of injuries, lots of replacements.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Monday, April 6th.
I am Frankstamp.
We'll join by Scott White, lots of injuries this weekend.
Let's start out with the pitchers.
Hunter Brown, out of nowhere.
Sunday, we learned that he is going on the aisle
with a right shoulder strain that is retroactive to April 2nd.
And Cade Horton left his start on Friday.
Turns out he was placed on the aisle due to a right forearm.
strain. So two pretty important pitchers here in Fantasy, Scott. I know that your week three
sleeper pitchers, you have Michael Waka, Jose Soriano, Grant Holmes, Mike Burroughs, Ronaldo Lopez,
Taj Bradley, Max Scherzer, Will Warren, Eric Lauer, and Jameson, Tion. But the name that really
stood out to me this weekend, I think could be out there and some 12 teamers. Grant Holmes,
who had a great starting against the debacks. And we know he had a strikeout stuff. He really
just has to keep those walks in check,
but he has looked good in his first two outings.
He has.
I mean, you pretty much summed it up.
Underrated strikeout ability.
Go back at last year,
look at last year's game log,
count up the number of nine strikeout outings he had.
And you'll come away impressed because it was quite a few.
Great slider,
obviously against the Angels,
the most strikeout prone team in baseball,
makes him a good play.
It's why is this leaper pitcher,
for this week.
But yeah, the whip's probably going to,
if you're thinking long term with Grant Holmes,
the whip's probably going to run high because of all the walks.
Mm-hmm.
Continuing.
By the way,
Michael Waka,
he's at the top of that list because his matchups this week
are the Guardians and the White Sox after having his last start skipped because
of illness.
Yeah.
Less upside long term,
but a great streamer for this week is Waka.
Yeah.
And if anyone even plays in a shaller format,
look,
the names that we've talked a lot about the first couple of weeks of the season,
Jose Soriano,
Parker Messick,
obviously make sure
that those names are rostered
because they would be the most obvious
replacements here for Hunter Brown
and Cade Horton.
Next up we have Mookie Betts
who was diagnosed with a right oblique strain
and Dave Roberts said he is confident
that bets will miss less than the usual
four to six weeks.
On Sunday, the Dodgers had Miguel Rojas
at shortstop, Alex Freeland
at second.
Otto Lopez is a name
that's on your sleeper hitters list for this week.
In shallower leagues, I think Xander Bogartz
and Ezekiel Tovar have good matchups this week.
Other names that could be out there,
look, shortstop, not a great position for depth,
but Andres Jimenez, Josh Smith,
and then some of those deeper leagues,
Chase Midroth, Jose Fernandez of the Debex,
and Nassim Nunez, if you need speed.
But like I said, Scott, if you need,
like there's just not a lot of depth
at the shortstop position.
So hopefully you have,
a shortstop on your bench or one of these names is available for you.
And the smaller lineup leaks like head-to-head, like the CBS head-to-head format,
no extra utility or middle-in field or anything like that.
There's a good chance there is a good shortstop on the waiver wire, at least one.
But you get into anything with more of a roto lineup.
Yeah, it's tough to fill it off the waiver wire.
I would say the Rangers have tough matchups next week or other.
otherwise I might recommend Josh Smith.
Yeah, I think the names you talked up there were fine.
I'll throw an extra, I'll give an extra mention to Jose Fernandez for deep leagues.
He hasn't been an everyday player and he hasn't done much since homering twice in his debut last week.
But he's probably going to play more with Carlos Santano leaving Sunday with a groin injury.
So I don't know that it'll be every day, but in leagues where.
shortstop depth is scarce. He may be the best you could do, Jose Fernandez.
All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in, FBT Express. We're going through the injuries, taking a look at some
replacements as well. At catcher, the Blue Jays placed Alejandro Kirk on the aisle with a left
thumb fracture. He took a foul tip off that thumb on Friday. No timetable just yet for Kirk.
In one catcher leagues, there are lots of names out there, Scott. Who would you rather have
between Francisco Alvarez and Carter Jensen in A1 Catcher League?
I love Jensen.
In fact, he was one of the players I love,
but he really shot himself in the foot by oversleeping on Thursday
and missing his start.
Because he started counting that day when he didn't end up starting.
He started one of the last four games for the Royals.
He was playing every day before then, now just one of the last four.
And the one he played was a double header where obviously they weren't going to have
Salvador Perez catch twice.
So I'm not saying he's on permanent probation,
but he does appear to be on some kind of probation right now,
which would lead me to say,
Francisco Alvarez, who has plenty of upside himself.
Some names in two catcher leagues,
Liam Hicks, Carlos Nervaez,
Danny Jansen, Tyler Heimann for those in the teapest of leagues.
But Liam Hicks, as someone who's off to a good start, Scott,
do you have any interest in him in some of those two catcher leagues?
Yeah, I guess in two catcher leagues.
There aren't quite enough good catchers to fill out every line,
a bit of two-catcher league.
And Hicks plays a lot.
It's off to a good start.
I don't think he's actually that good.
So you've missed a lot of what he's going to do for you this season.
But just the fact that he plays a lot, you know,
in those leagues where I was like talking up Victor Keratini as a second catcher option,
thinking he'd play a lot while he hasn't.
So I think that's a pretty easy swap to make or just anywhere where you know your second
catcher is weak.
All right, let's take a look at some outfielders who got hurt this weekend.
Jordan Lawler placing the aisle with a fractured right wrist
expected to miss six to eight weeks, brutal break there for Jordan Lawler,
no pun intended, who was finally getting an opportunity to play every day here with the debacks.
Juan Soto suffered a minor castrain on Friday.
He did not play Saturday or Sunday.
The Mets are optimistic that he'll avoid the IL.
That is something to watch here on Monday and Tuesday.
Mike Trout left Sunday after taking a fastball off of his left hand.
X-rays came back negative.
But as we learned with Jordan Lawler,
you can still find out more about
an injury like that, you know,
maybe the next day or a couple days after that.
And then South Freelich left Saturday's game
after grimacing after a swing
and could be dealing with an oblique there.
So if you need an outfielder just for this week,
Dailin Lyle, Adoli Scarcia, T.J. Friedel,
Justin Crawford, Jordan Walker,
Kyle Isbell, Jake McCarthy
are some names with good matchups.
but, you know, a couple of names, Scott,
that have stood out early in the season
and have some intriguing upside.
Jordan Walker, Owen Casey, Cam Smith, Ryan O'Hard.
How would you rank those four?
I think they're all decently intriguing here.
Walker, Casey, O'Hern, Cam Smith.
I would definitely put,
I definitely put Jordan Walker at the top of the list.
I think regardless of need,
he's somebody you need to pick up everywhere,
averaging 98 miles per hour on batted balls.
and that can't be sustained,
but doing it even for just a week is eye-opening for sure,
putting the ball in the air, more, striking at less.
He may be breaking through fine lead at age 23.
I'd be willing to roll the dice on that in pretty much any format.
As for the other ones,
I see enough good signs from Ryan O'Hern and Cam Smith.
Probably put Smith over O'Hern
because I think the playing time's a little more stable.
O'Hern looks like he's going to play.
more against lefties than in the past, but he did sit against at least one. So that's still
being sorted out. Neither one of them has hit the ball especially hard, at least not on average
this year. And so particularly in O'Hern's case, that makes the stat line they put up pretty
suspicious. Also O'Hern's pull air rate is in the toilet below 5%, which makes it weird that he's
been so productive. But he has a history, at least as a part-time or being good. Certainly last year,
was. Cam Smith improved bat speed this year. And he's running a lot more. He's fast. He's running more.
Three stolen bases already. So yeah, I think certainly in like a roto context where you got the five
outfield spots. In O'Hern's case, you got that extra corner infield spot. Both of those guys
need to be rostered. A couple other outfield replacements in deeper leagues. Matt Walner, Garrett Mitchell,
Jake Bowers, Hazu Sanchez, all names that are off to solid starts so far.
this year. Scott, Garrett Mitchell already has a home run, 11 RBI, three steals. Interesting power
speed combination, but also striking out a lot. Can I interest you in a Garrett Mitchell?
Yeah, it's striking out close to 40% of the time and we're used to seeing him well in excess of 30.
So it makes it, it's hard to see past that, even if he is putting the ball in the air more,
hitting it harder, you know, that that could be just small sample noise. And even if it isn't,
It's going to be hard to overcome that strikeout rate.
There's the injury history there, too, for Garra Mitchell.
He's more interesting than Matt Walner, Jake Bowers, or Jesus Sanchez,
but clearly less interesting than the previous group.
We talked about the Cam Smith and Ryan O'Hern types.
All right.
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this week. Bye-bye.