Fantasy Baseball Today - Weekend Waiver Wire Adds! White Sox Promoting Noah Schultz! (4/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: April 13, 2026The White Sox are promoting one of their top pitching prospects, Noah Schultz, and they might be promoting Sam Antonacci! Jakob Junis is the latest pop-up closer. Who are some outfield replacements? ... 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The White Sox are calling up Noah Schultz.
Let's talk about it on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Monday, April 13th.
I am, for example, joined by the returning Chris Towers.
And let's talk waiver wire ads from the weekend.
The big name here, Chris.
The White Sox are calling up Noah Schultz,
who will make his Major League debut on Tuesday,
22 years old, first round pick back in 2022.
And past couple of years, he struggled with control,
some injury type things and his innings have been limited,
but so far to start the season three starts at AAA,
he has been gangbusters.
What are your thoughts here on Noah Schultz?
Is he a must add in fantasy?
Yeah, you might look at the minor league track record
and see the results last year in particular
and think there's not much to get excited about here.
It was a 468 ERA.
It was a 14% walk rate in 2024 with actually kind of not great strikeout numbers.
He was pitching through,
a knee injury for much of the season.
I think that was clearly affecting him.
But Noah Schultz is someone with a lot of prospect pedig.
Former first round pick was a highly touted prospect before 2024.
Still a top 100 guy, even after last year, which tells you how good this stuff is.
I think it is the kind of talent that's worth getting excited about in basically any kind of league.
There are going to be likely limitations on the workload.
The White Sox are not a team that is likely to provide him much offensive.
or defensive help, if we're being honest.
But no Schultz has the kind of talent to overcome that.
He is a 6'10 lefty who pitches from a low arm slot.
There are not a lot of pitchers who give you a look like this.
He has a big fastball, a great slider.
Even with the limitations and the workload concerns and the defense and the control
and everything that you can point at to say,
here's why it might not work.
The upside is such that I think it's worth taking a chance on Noah Schultz anyway,
just in case because it's one of those situations where if the median outcomes aren't so impressive for fantasy,
the high-end ones could be really special.
I view it a lot like Jacob Mizirowski last year when he got called up,
except at least in theory, Noah Schultz has more projectable control
because small sample size this year, control's been very good,
Last year it was terrible.
2024, his control was excellent, actually.
His walk rate was 6.7% in 2024.
So if you chalk up the struggles last year to the injury,
No Schultz profile looks pretty good.
So I'd say almost every team has a pitcher they should be able to deem dispensable.
You know, even if it's a useful pitcher,
but someone without much upside,
drop them for Noah Schultz just to see if the upside turns into something.
His breaking pitches are disgusting.
I was watching some highlights earlier.
Just really, really filthy stuff there with the slider and the curveball.
Very high spin rates on those pitches as well.
Just to give people some perspective of the hype around Noah Schultz
in my Tout Wars League earlier on Sunday night,
he went for $256 out of a $1,000 budget.
So very, very excited about Noah Schultz getting called up.
There was also a report that Sam Antinachi was getting called up by the White Sox,
than a conflicting report on Sunday that said the white talks have discussed it.
They haven't actually decided whether or not they're going to promote him.
But the fact that they're having these conversations, Chris tells me that Antinacci will probably be up pretty soon.
He's only 16% rostered.
Are there any, like what size leagues would you be looking to add Antinacci right now, if any?
I don't think in your points leagues, which tend to be your shallower formats, that you need to jump the line on Sam Antanachi.
but this is a really interesting profile that he's got because it is really good combination of contact skills and patience.
Last season, it was very close to a one-to-one-locked strikeout ratio.
He gets on base a lot, potential for a really good batting average.
He also stole a bunch of bases, I think it was 48 bases last season.
The one thing that stands out is the five home runs last year.
But I noticed in reading baseball prospectus is right up of him.
they said the raw power is actually not bad for Sam Antanachi,
and it's one of those situations where he doesn't maximize it.
And in the Arizona Fall League,
he started to turn some of that raw power,
you know, average raw power into some homers.
And if you take what he's done in the Arizona Fall League,
the World Baseball Classic, spring training,
and then so far at AAA,
varying degrees of competition there,
but stay with me.
It's eight homers in his last,
46 games.
If Sam Antanachi's a
8 to 10 homer guy
at the major league level with his on base skills
and his speed, this could be
a Nico Horner type profile.
So I really think
there's something to get excited about with
Sam Atanachi in your Roto leagues.
I did
put in some low dollar bids
where available just to see if I can get out
ahead because I do think Sam Antanachi
if he gets the call could be really
useful in Roto. All right. Let's take a
quick break. We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in the FBT Express, continuing on with WaverWire ads from the weekend.
And our latest pop-up closer here, Chris, Jacob Junis with the Rangers.
He had three saves this past week and seems to be settling into that role there with the Rangers.
Only 22% roster.
I feel like that number needs to be higher for Jacob Junice.
Yeah, Jacob Junice is not a great pitcher.
Yeah, also, what year is it, you know?
Yeah, I mean, there's, there's.
This was a guy who had some vague appeal as a starter about a decade ago and has been an okay middle reliever for the past couple of seasons last year.
297 ERA.
Very low strikeout rates.
Good command, good control.
I don't think this is like the next great relief pitcher or anything.
And if we're talking about Jacob Junus losing this job in two weeks, I would not be at all surprised.
but the Rangers have been hesitant to give anyone the closer role,
except for Jacob Junice seemingly lately.
So I'm willing to give him a look where I need saves.
I picked him up in TGFBI.
I think my bid to win him was $11.
The backup bid was $78, so I did go overboard a little bit.
But we were talking about it.
I think Scott and his TGFBI league, these are 15 team leagues.
His was the winning bid was $1.41.
So, you know, if you go over 100, you have a decent chance to get him.
I don't know if I'd be pushing like 150 or anything because I don't think there's a ton of upside here.
But it's potential closer on a good team.
Yeah, I don't think he's great either.
But the past two years before this one, 283 ERA 104 whips, so he has found a way to make things work and has, you know, been decently viable the past couple of years as a reliever.
and for what it's worth, Skip Schumacher with the Rangers
when he was previously the manager of the Marlins.
He really did just have like one set closer that he would go to.
So that could wind up being a pretty good thing here for Jacob Junus as well.
We had a bunch of outfield injuries,
just a bunch of injuries in general this weekend.
So people might be looking for outfield replacements.
Some names that have popped up recently.
Evan Carter, Jorge Saler, Anhele Martinez, Jake Bowers.
Can I interest you in any of those names, Chris?
Carter, Saler, Martinez, Bowers.
It's a lot of
So on Hill Martinez
I just don't think there's anything there
He had a stretch early last season where he was pretty useful
There's some speed
There's a very very limited amount of pullside pop
But I think on the whole
This is a flash in the pan
Soler would be the most interesting of these guys
Because he is an everyday player
Doesn't have the platoon issues that Evan Carter and Jake Bowers do
But he's facing a seven game suspension
That could come down at any time
He's facing the appeals process right now.
Maybe he plays all week and then misses next week.
Maybe he gets suspended on Monday and you take a lineup dud.
So that's what's tough with Solair.
But in theory, riding the hot hand with him would make sense.
If you're scared off of that, kind of think I like Bowers, the best of these guys.
He's been pretty productive for the brewers.
He had big spring.
There were some swing changes there.
Only one lefty on the schedule this week.
so we should get five, maybe six starts out of him.
So I like Jake Bowers a bit.
And one name in deeper leagues, if you need an outfield replacement,
keep an eye on Carlos Cortez of the Athletics.
He hit a three-run homer off of Kodi-Senga on Saturday.
Brent Rooker went on the aisle this weekend,
and my guess is that Carlos Cortez will play
against right-handed pitching moving forward.
And interesting numbers in the minors last year hit 32,
17 home runs, OPS over 1,000,
did all of that in just 71 games.
The athletics have seven home games this week,
great environment to hit in in Sacramento,
and only one lefty on the schedule.
So a deep league name there is Carlos Cortez.
For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage,
listen to our full-lane podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today,
on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found.
Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express,
and we'll be back again later this week.
Bye-bye.