The Fantasy Baseball Hitting Planner is the essential guide to setting your lineup for the upcoming week. Every Saturday, we provide you with favorable hitting matchups for teams, as well as which hitters are hot or not. The Pitching Planner, complete with upcoming two-start pitchers, will be posted on Sunday.

Taking BP: Once again, we're entering a scoring period that will have interleague matchups over the weekend. All American League teams traveling to play in National League parks will lose their designated hitter spots and be forced to use their pitchers at the plate. Here are the hitters that will likely lose the most at-bats because of this rule: Boston (Mike Lowell), Cleveland (Ryan Garko), L.A. Angels (Shea Hillenbrand), Oakland (Jack Cust), Seattle (Jose Vidro), Tampa Bay (Greg Norton) and Toronto (Frank Thomas). And all of the NL teams traveling to AL parks will get to add a designated hitter to their batting orders. Here are the most likely beneficiaries of extra at-bats: Colorado (Jeff Baker), Houston (Mark Loretta), Milwaukee (Tony Gwynn), N.Y. Mets (Ben Johnson), Philadelphia (Greg Dobbs), Pittsburgh (Ryan Doumit) and Washington (Ronnie Belliard) ... The Cubs play a four-game series at Atlanta for the only non-interleague matchup of the weekend ... Jason Giambi (foot) is sidelined for at least the next five weeks, and possibly the season ... The Reds are expected to activate Josh Hamilton (stomach ailment) off of the 15-day disabled list Tuesday. With Ryan Freel (neck) sidelined after a gruesome collision in the outfield earlier this week, Edwin Encarnacion will stay at third base. But Norris Hopper will no longer be a regular starter.

Projections are for June 4-10 games. All stats are through Friday's games.

This week's matchups
AL early NL early Intl late Intl late
KC@CLE SF@PHI PHI@KC BOS@ARI
NYY@CHW LAD@PIT PIT@NYY SEA@SD
MIN@LAA CHC@MIL WAS@MIN OAK@SF
BOS@OAK CIN@STL HOU@CHW CLE@CIN
BAL@SEA PIT@WAS COL@BAL LAA@STL
TB@TOR HOU@COL MIL@TEX TOR@LAD
DET@TEX SF@ARI NYM@DET TB@FLA
FLA@ATL CHC@ATL
Bold denotes a four-game series.
Florida and Atlanta will play a double-header on June 5 as a makeup game from an April 14 rainout. That gives the Braves two four-game series, totaling eight games this week.
The following teams play seven games this week: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City, L.A. Dodgers, N.Y Yankees, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Tampa Bay.

Taking into account all games with at least a 50 percent chance of precipitation according to the Weather.com, the following might be threatened by poor weather: Pittsburgh at N.Y. Yankees (60 percent), Houston at Chicago White Sox (60), N.Y. Mets at Detroit (60), L.A. Angels at St. Louis (60), Colorado at Baltimore (60), Cleveland at Cincinnati (60) on Saturday; Chicago Cubs at Atlanta (60), Pittsburgh at N.Y. Yankees (60) and Milwaukee at Texas (60) on Sunday.

B E S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
ATLANTA BRAVES
MON TUE TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
FLA
Mitre 		FLA
Olsen 		FLA
Obermueller 		FLA
Kim 		CHC
Hill 		CHC
Marshall 		CHC
Marquis 		CHC
Lilly
' 06 Stadium stats: Turner Field, 9.9 RPG (11th).
FLA pitching: 4.45 ERA overall (17th), 4.29 Road ERA (15th), 3.76 May ERA (5th).
CHC pitching: 4.15 ERA overall (13th), 4.28 Road ERA (14th), 4.54 May ERA (16th).
The Braves get eight -- count 'em EIGHT! -- home games this scoring period. And the Marlins' staff is battered and bruised right now.

Five other favorable hitter schedules

  1. Cleveland Indians -- vs. KC (3), at CIN (3)
  • The Tribe gets to face the two worst pitching staffs for the entire month of May.
  • Florida Marlins -- at ATL (4), vs. TB (3)
    • The Fish get seven games this week thanks to a rainout and three are at home against the worst staff in the majors.
  • N.Y. Yankees -- at CHW (4), vs. PIT (3)
    • The Bombers are without Giambi, but they'll face two of the bottom-10 staffs in the majors for the month of May.
  • Milwaukee Brewers -- vs. CHC (3), at TEX (3)
    • The Rangers' staff is currently the second-worst in the majors with a 5.27 ERA this season.
  • Houston Astros -- at COL (3), at CHW (3)
    • They'll be on the road all week, but they'll face two weak staffs in solid hitting parks.
    H O T   H I T T E R S
    We aren't suggesting you start these players no matter what, but you might consider starting them over struggling stars. The following eight hitters have extremely favorable matchups and/or are in the midst of hot streaks:
    Paul Lo Duca, C, N.Y. Mets: He hit .396 over the past two weeks, but he has no homers and only one RBI to show for it. Still, he can help a Rotisserie squad's batting average right now.
    Adam LaRoche, 1B, Pittsburgh: He's finally starting to hit for the Bucs. Over the past couple weeks, he is hitting .302 with two homers and 12 RBI.
    Ty Wigginton, 1B/2B/3B, Tampa Bay: Only Dan Uggla (5) has more homers than Wiggy (4) over the past two weeks among 2B-eligible players.
    Orlando Cabrera, SS, L.A. Angels: Cabrera's batting .419 with two homers, 10 RBI and 11 runs scored since May 15.
    Edwin Encarnacion, 3B, Cincinnati: Since returning from the minors, Encarnacion is batting .333 with two homers and seven RBI.
    Michael Cuddyer, OF, Minnesota: Cuddyer is heating up again, hitting .352 with four homers and 13 RBI in the second half of May.
    Alex Rios, OF, Toronto: He's hit .361 after May 15, but strangely he only had eight RBI to go with five homers.
    Mike Cameron, OF, San Diego: He's having a nice couple of weeks from a Fantasy perspective: .333, four homers, 12 RBI, 11 runs scored and three stolen bases.
    W O R S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
    BOSTON RED SOX
    MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
    @OAK
    Haren     		@OAK
    DiNardo     		@OAK
    Kennedy     		@OAK
    Blanton     		@ARI
    Hernandez     		@ARI
    Davis     		@ARI
    Owings
    ' 06 Stadium stats: Oak-Ala County Stadium, 8.9 RPG (28th); Bank One Ballpark, 10.3 RPG (7th).
    OAK pitching: 3.43 ERA overall (3rd), 3.11 Home ERA (3rd), 3.71 May ERA (3rd).
    ARI pitching: 3.63 ERA overall (5th), 3.86 Home ERA (11th), 3.83 May ERA (7th).
    The Red Sox have a tough road to hoe. Seven road games against two of the top five pitching staffs in the majors.

    Five other below-average hitter schedules

    1. San Francisco Giants -- at ARI (3), vs. OAK (3)
    • The Giants face two of the top five pitching staffs in the majors this week, three games of which are in an extreme pitcher's park.
  • Oakland Athletics -- vs. BOS (4), at SF (3)
    • The Giants and Red Sox currently rank among the top eight staffs in the majors with ERA's under 3.85.
  • Arizona Diamondbacks -- vs. SF (3), vs. BOS (3)
    • Sure, they get six home games, but they're up against two solid pitching staffs.
  • Seattle Mariners -- vs. BAL (3), at SD (3)
    • The M's face the top pitching staff in the majors and a surprisingly good O's staff right now (top 10 in ERA).
  • Pittsburgh Pirates -- at WAS (3), at NYY (3)
    • Six road games for the Bucs. Granted, the opponents aren't world beaters, but both have had decent Mays, with ERAs averaging 4.24.
    C O L D   H I T T E R S
    We aren't suggesting you sit anyone, but take a look at your roster to see if you have a better alternative. The following eight hitters have poor matchups and/or are in the midst of cold streaks:
    Ryan Doumit, C, Pittsburgh: He's hitting only .194 since May 15 and he's just now getting back in action after getting a bat across the temple earlier in the week.
    Lance Berkman, 1B, Houston: With only eight hits in the last two weeks of May, he was hitting just .148 with one homer.
    Julio Lugo, 2B/SS, Boston: He's starting to slow down, hitting only .132 over the last two weeks of May.
    Bill Hall, SS, Milwaukee: Hall is hitting only .192 with one homer and only three RBI over the past couple weeks.
    Melvin Mora, 3B, Baltimore: After a hot April, Mora is hitting only .192 with one homer and four RBI over the last two weeks of May.
    Sammy Sosa, OF, Texas: He's batting only .195 with one homer and nine RBI over the past two weeks.
    Barry Bonds, OF, San Francisco: Your next HR king is batting just .172 with one homer and three RBI in his past 29 at-bats.
    Vernon Wells, OF, Toronto: Wells is as cold as Rios is hot. Over his past two weeks of games, Wells is hitting just .185 with one home run and seven RBI.

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