Fantasy Baseball Today: Alex Kirilloff arriving, Cristian Javier wows, don't leave Carson Kelly on waivers

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Happy Alex Kirilloff Day! News broke while we were podcasting that Kirilloff will be recalled by the Twins Friday and will likely be playing first base with Miguel Sano on the injured list. By my count, Kirilloff is the first big prospect to get the call this season and there are many reasons to be excited about him. He's a former first-round pick from 2016 with a plus hit tool and plus power. Throughout his minor-league career, Kirilloff hit .317 with an .863 OPS. Seeing as how he's just 47% rostered, Kirilloff is a must-add in all leagues.

On the rest of the podcast, we focused on a few interesting starting pitchers in Cristian Javier and Ryan Weathers as well as four outfielders who are off to tremendous starts. As he does every Friday, Scott White also helps you prep for Week 5, offering his favorite two-start pitchers as well as sleeper hitters to target. Have a great weekend, enjoy "Mortal Kombat" and we'll see you back here on Monday!

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No shortage of catchers in one-C leagues

The Diamondbacks' Carson Kelly is the latest catcher to catch fire and return massive value to those managers who didn't invest major draft capital in the position but were aggressive and fortunate enough with the timing to play waivers right. Kelly hit his fourth home run on Thursday and has a loaded bat line that includes a .351 average and 1.267 OPS. He has also started 12 of 19 games (a 162-game pace of 102). Kelly is 71% rostered, but if he's sitting there on waivers right now in shallow leagues or in leagues with weekly waivers, it's time to put a priority on scooping him up.

Scott said that everything looks good under the hood with the expected stats. It's starting to look like this is the case of us throwing out what we saw in 2020 because he looks exactly like where he left off in 2019. We knew that there would be some players who we would have to throw out the 2020 shortened season and Kelly might be one of them.

Chris isn't sure he'd make the swap for someone like James McCann, but Scott feels like you should aggressively go after the hot hitters if your league is shallow enough that Kelly is on waivers. He's also confident Kelly can be a top-12 catcher.

OMGG players from Thursday

MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston Astros — USATSI

Scott White's pick: Astros SP Cristian Javier

It's Scott so of course it's a pitcher, and here's why you might want to pay serious attention to Javier. In his return to Houston's rotation after spending the last two weeks at their alternate site, Javier delivered five shutout innings and held the Angels to just three hits and one walk. A look under the hood shows exciting underlying stats as well. What really caught Scott's attention is that Javier had a career-high 21 swinging strikes -- 11 on his slider -- finishing with a 31 percent called strikes plus whiffs rate. Javier had just nearly a strikeout per inning last year with just an 8.7 swinging strike rate, but in the minors he racked them up. His first eight outs were all strikeouts. He did all of this against a tough Angels lineup.

If he is now going to be racking up strikeouts, Javier is incredibly intriguing the rest of season. Still just 24 years old and maybe the next up in the Astros pitching machine, Javier now has a 1.32 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 20/3 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 13 2/3 innings. He also has an excellent matchup coming up next week against the Mariners in Houston on Tuesday. He needs to be moved up all of our rankings, and he will be.

Chris Towers' pick: Diamondbacks OF David Peralta

In the slugfest that was Reds-Diamondbacks, Peralta went 5 for 6 with a homer, a triple and seven RBI. In one game he raised his OPS from .665 to .824. Peralta had four hard hit balls with five over 90 mph. In the past, Peralta was a Fantasy contributor and he has maintained pretty solid batted ball data even in recent seasons were the raw stats weren't up. Chris doesn't consider him a must-roster player, but certainly someone to get on your radar if you need an outfielder due to injuries.

My pick: Padres SP Ryan Weathers

Weathers was brilliant again as his trajectory continues upward and steady drumbeat builds for the 21-year-old. On Thursday, Weathers pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings against the Dodgers allowing just one hit and one walk while delivering six strikeouts and nine whiffs on 80 pitches. Weathers was a first-round pick in 2018 and has a 3.78 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in 29 career starts at the major league level. In 114 career IP, he has 108 K. The lefty had a 33 percent called swinging strike rate on Thursday night -- an elite number -- and he's still only 18% rostered. Scott thinks Weathers could delay the arrival of top Padres SP prospect Mackenzie Gore.

In H2H points leagues, Weathers is a SPARP so he has more value there if you need a relief pitcher with SPARP eligibility.

More news and notes

Angels OF Mike Trout left Thursday's game against the Astros after getting hit by a pitch in his elbow but it looked pretty scary. However, early signs suggest he should be alright.
Twins OF Alex Kirilloff will be recalled on Friday with Miguel Sano headed to the IL with a hamstring issue. Any time a top prospect gets called up, he's worth adding on waivers if anyone dropped him and if he's available in your league. He should also soon get 1B eligibility in addition to OF as he replaces Sano.
Pirates 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes re-aggravated his wrist injury while taking swings in Detroit
SP Dinelson Lamet and RP Keone Kela were both placed on the IL by the Padres. Jayce Tingler told reporters that Lamet was feeling better and will throw Friday. With that positive news in mind, it's best to hold Lamet for now and don't rush to drop him.
Dodgers OF Mookie Betts was back in the lineup on Thursday.
Dodgers 1B/OF Cody Bellinger took batting practice. He's currently on the IL with a hairline fracture in his left fibula.
Dodgers 2B/OF Zack McKinstry was scratched from the Dodgers lineup with back tightness.
The Marlins placed 3B Brian Anderson on the IL with a left oblique strain. Expect Jon Berti to see some increased playing time and he is just 14% rostered. If you need SBs in Roto, Berti had nine in 39 games last season (and he has 2B and OF eligibility). Jose Devers, cousin of Rafael Devers, was recalled by the Marlins.
Phillies SS Didi Gregorious is expected back Friday in Colorado. He was dealing with an elbow injury.
Astros 2B Jose Altuve may return this weekend.
Blue Jays OF George Springer will play center field in an intrasquad game Friday and is nearing his return.
Blue Jays RP Jordan Romano is on track to be activated Saturday.
Giants 2B Donovan Solano was placed on the IL with a right calf strain.
Cubs OF Joc Pederson was placed on the IL with left wrist tendinitis. Nico Hoerner has been recalled and he had a great spring, going 16 for 44 with two HR and three SB. He's only 15% rostered.