Fantasy Baseball Today: Top waiver targets, MacKenzie Gore's debut plus more from the weekend – CBS Sports
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Happy Monday, everyone! It was a great weekend in baseball unless you’re a Los Angeles Angels fan because then it was bittersweet. Yeah, your Angels won three in a row but you also got a scare you had no interest in putting yourself through on Easter Sunday when Mike Trout was hit by a pitch on his left hand. The good news — X-rays were negative and Trout is day to day. He is not expected to be in the lineup on Monday. What’s most frustrating about the hit-by-pitch was that after the game Trout told reporters it was because he couldn’t see the ball due to the stadium shadows and would’ve otherwise taken the pitch into his body.
It was another frustrating weekend for New York Yankees fans (Baltimore Orioles — come on ) and just so I’m not accused of any kind of bias toward the Bronx Bombers I’ll also include the Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers and Cleveland Guardians — the latter of whom have dropped three straight after a 4-1 start. On the flip side, two of baseball’s winningest teams in 2021 are on fire again to start 2022 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants winners of six and five in a row.
We’ll dive into all of the weekend’s Fantasy Baseball action including my top waiver wire pitcher and hitter target, more targets to consider, top prospect MacKenzie Gore’s debut, what to make of Zach Wheeler’s blow up and more. Be sure to check back on CBSSports.com/Fantasy/Baseball this morning to check out Scott White’s full waiver wire column and more. And in case you missed it from Friday, Scott delivered his Week 3 sleeper hitters, sleeper pitchers, two-start pitcher rankings and Chris Towers dove into the potential upside of a healthy Luis Severino.
And of course, as always, you can follow to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify.
Owen Miller, 2B, Guardians (64% rostered)
Miller is my favorite waiver wire hitter target from the Week 2 cycle and it’s really simple for me — he keeps hitting and he keeps walking. Miller’s patience at the plate has been what has impressed me so much about his surprising start to the season. This weekend he cracked another couple of doubles and picked up three more walks. Your league-mates may still be nonbelievers and that’s fine, but take advantage of Miller’s seven games (three at Yankee stadium) on the Week 3 slate if you need middle infield help.
For a full in-depth breakdown of the top waiver wire pitchers to target, you can find Scott’s complete breakdown here. Here are a few more hitters to get on your radar:
Andrew McCutchen, OF, Brewers (37%)
McCutchen is starting to warm up a bit and he picked up his second stolen base this weekend to go along with his .282 batting average in the early going. He has just one game against a left-handed pitcher in Week 3.
If you need catcher help: Sean Murphy, C, Athletics (44%)
Murphy has racked up multiple hits in three of his last five games, and two of those have been home runs. If you’re in need of catcher help, that’s all you needed to hear.
Jurickson Profar, 1B/OF, Padres (42% rostered)
It’s easy to be skeptical of Profar — I get it — but he keeps on hitting the ball. He went yard on Saturday and now has three homers on the year. He’s hitting the ball a lot harder now that he’s pulling everything.
For shallower leagues: Jeremy Pena, SS, Astros (74% rostered)
Pena went 3-for-3 on Saturday and the exciting middle infielder is making great contact in the early season. It was his third three-hit game of the year.
For deeper leagues: Seth Beer, 1B, Diamondbacks (26% rostered)
The opening day walk-off home run hero is batting .400 in the early going after going 3 for 3 on Saturday. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he was back to the bench on Sunday and has not been playing every day.
Bailey Ober, SP, Twins (46% rostered)
Ober might not be the most popular pitcher target on the waiver wire, but I see him as the best combination of win for me now win for me later. I trust Ober’s talent and the upside it brings him over some of the other popular pitchers on waivers. And that talent and upside were both on display Sunday against a tough Red Sox lineup. Ober went six strong innings and allowed just two unearned runs on four hits and one walk. He only struck on three in this one but made up for it with 11 swinging strikes on 70 pitches. His fastball is a weapon.
For a full in-depth breakdown of the top waiver wire pitchers to target, you can find Scott’s complete breakdown here. Here are a few more hitters to get on your radar:
Nestor Cortes, SP, Yankees (58% rostered)
Cortes’ last outing was bonkers — five shutout innings with 12 strikeouts! He has a 39% called plus swinging strike rate overall.
Andrew Heaney, SP, Dodgers (54% rostered)
Pitching for the Dodgers should be enough to get on the radar right away but Heney’s last outing was eye-opening: six shutout innings, one hit allowed, 11 strikeouts.
Brad Keller, SP, Royals (35% rostered)
Keller has nearly doubled his changeup usage from last season and thus far he’s generating a lot of ground balls and very little hard contact. That’s a profile that can be a Fantasy asset if he can keep it up.
For shallower leagues: MacKenzie Gore, SP, Padres (74% rostered)
If you’re in shallower leagues, don’t let Gore sit another day on the waiver wire. He flashed the big-time upside we knew he had in his debut, and he has the Padres backing him up. Gore struck out three over 5 1/3 and allowed just two earned runs, five hits and no walks against the Braves. The most impressive number — he induced 12 swinging strikes on 92 pitches.
For deeper leagues: Michael Wacha, SP, Red Sox (10% rostered)
No one is going to get excited about Wacha at this stage — hence his rostership — but he dropped another five shutout innings on Sunday with just one hit and two walks allowed. He has now allowed just one earned run over 9.1 IP this season and has a nice offense backing him up.
Every night the Fantasy Baseball Today team dives into all of the happenings around the MLB from top performers to injuries, trades and more. The podcast is a must listen for any diehard, if I do say so myself. Tune into the podcast to hear the FBT crew expand on the news and notes below.
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