The best laid plans often go to waste. Thousands of fantasy baseball players put their hopes in Kyle Schwarber to help bring their team to the promised land. Prognosticators had him hitting 30 or more home runs this season while playing every day in left field. His season lasted less than a week as he tore his ACL and LCL because of a collision with Dexter Fowler. Keep an eye on the site as we offer some advice next week on how to deal with his loss.

If you read only one thing

 What Trevor Story is doing is unprecedented. In just four games, he has already hit six home runs. He has two multiple home run games and he’s hit at least one in each of his games this season. Of course, his heroics occurred in a losing effort. Pitching will probably always be scarce in Denver, but he is just another in a long line of exciting young shortstops in the game today. Following play today, he is hitting .368 with six home runs and 11 RBI. That is a ridiculous place to be following four games.

Not to be outdone, his partner in crime on the pivot is quietly getting off to a great start. D.J. LeMahieu is hitting .571 with two home runs and four RBIs through four games. He also has added six runs scored in the early going. Both players likely didn’t start in the regular lineup of any fantasy player, but they should be on everyone’s radar now.

We probably could have predicted….

Jacob DeGrom and Jordan Zimmermann both got their seasons off to good starts. DeGrom was yanked early because of some tightness in his lat muscles. Still, he managed to give up one run in six innings and earned his first victory of the season. The 100+ million dollar man pitched seven shutout innings in Detroit as the Tigers have gotten off to a 3-0 start this season. Additionally, Danny Salazar also turned in a nice outing to prove that the demise of pitching may be greatly exaggerated.

But we didn’t see this coming

The season rarely starts with pitchers and hitters both being equally ready for the season. Some seasons the pitchers dominate early. Given the trends from the last several seasons, we probably could have expected the pitchers to continue their dominance, but that hasn’t been the case. Relievers have gotten the bulk of the barrage as a few high profile closers have already had epic melt downs. On Friday night, the most exciting game was likely the Red Sox and Blue Jays going back and forth in a 8-7 slugfest. Both Josh Donaldson and Brock Holt hit grand slams for their respective teams.

Save Opportunities

• Jeremy Jeffress (converted)
• Craig Kimbrel (converted)
• Mark Melancon (converted)
• Trevor Rosenthal (converted)

Key Injuries

The fantasy world was rocked by the news that Kyle Schwarber is lost for the season with a torn ACL and LCL. The loss is a big one for the Cubs, but they do have depth on their side. Jorge Soler will take Schwarber’s place in left field as the injury does alleviate a temporary logjam that the Cubs had in the outfield.

The Mets pulled Jacob DeGrom after just 76 pitches in his opening start. The hurler complained of pain in his lat muscle, so the Mets were just being cautious. DeGrom is officially listed as day to day as they haven’t even planned to have an MRI done as yet. Still, his situation bares watching

Atlanta Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte left game earlier complaining of a hamstring issue. He is being labeled as day to day and no one seems to think it would be a serious issue. It appears that Drew Stubbs would be the temporary option while Inciarte recovers.

Hyun-jin Ryu pitched a 20 pitch simulated game today for his first action on the mound in quite some time. Obviously, he is still a ways away from being an option for the Dodgers, but if he continues on this track he could end up being back in June. Ryu would appear to be a good waiver wire option for pitching hungry fantasy owners at that point.