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: The Padres called up 3B prospect Chase Headley from Double-A San Antonio on Friday and immediately inserted him into the lineup. He's worth a flier in NL-only leagues as he was batting .357 with 13 homers and 42 RBI in the minors, but Kevin Kouzmanoff (back) is still the clear choice at third in San Diego. ... Phillies 1B Ryan Howard has eight home runs since his return from the disabled list on May 25th. ... After hitting no home runs in May, Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins has four in his last nine games. ... Mariners OF Ichiro Suzuki was on a 10-game hitting streak entering Saturday, his 24th career double-digit streak. That's the most by any active major leaguer. ... Astros 2B Craig Biggio collected three hits on Friday night, leaving him 12 shy of 3,000. ... Devil Rays OF Elijah Dukes was not in the starting lineup Friday night, but manager Joe Maddon said it was just to give his young outfielder a day off. We think there is more to it. ... Devil Rays OF Rocco Baldelli (hamstring) is not expected back for another week. ... Braves OF Matt Diaz is hitting .385 (10-for-26) during his last six games. ... Indians OF Grady Sizemore is just two steals shy of his career high (20) set in 2005 and matched last season. ... Twins 2B Luis Castillo entered the weekend hitting .382 vs. lefties, the best in the majors. ... Reds OF Ryan Freel (concussion, neck) has been cleared to begin working out, but is not expected back until at least Fantasy Week 13 (June 25-July 1).Projections are for June 18-24 games. All stats are through Friday's games.
| This week's matchups | |||
| Intl early | Intl early | Intl late | Intl late |
| PHI@CLE | DET@WAS | LAD@TB | CLE@WAS |
| FLA@CHW | BOS@ATL | CHC@CHW | DET@ATL |
| CIN@OAK | MIN@NYM | NYY@SF | MIN@FLA |
| HOU@LAA | KC@STL | PIT@LAA | KC@MIL |
| LAD@TOR | TB@ARI | COL@TOR | BAL@ARI |
| CHC@TEX | NYY@COL | HOU@TEX | OAK@NYM |
| PIT@SEA | BAL@SD | CIN@SEA | BOS@SD |
| SF@MIL | PHI@STL | ||
| There are no four-game series this weekend. | |||
| The Giants are at Milwaukee early in the week, and the Phillies are at St. Louis later in the week for the only two NL series this week. | |||
| No teams play seven games this week. | |||
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: Minnesota at Florida (60 percent chance) on Saturday and Minnesota at Florida (60) on Sunday.
| B E S T H I T T I N G S C H E D U L E | ||||||
| ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS | ||||||
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
|
TB Jackson |
TB Howell |
TB Shields |
-- |
BAL Burres |
BAL Cabrera |
BAL Trachsel |
| ' 06 Stadium stats: Chase Field, 10.3 RPG (7th). | ||||||
| TB pitching: 5.61 ERA overall (30th), 6.06 Road ERA (30th), 5.98 June ERA (28th). | ||||||
| BAL pitching: 4.22 ERA overall (12th), 3.71 Road ERA (20th), 5.09 June ERA (26th). | ||||||
| The Devil Rays have a horrible staff on the road, and Baltimore's ERA is over a run higher away from Camden Yard | ||||||
Five other favorable hitter schedules
- Cleveland Indians -- vs. PHI (3), at WAS (3)
- The Tribe face two of the bottom-four pitching staffs in the NL this week.
- The Phils are on the road, but they get three games against the worst pitching staff in the NL (STL).
- The Jays have six home games -- three of which are against a lower-echelon pitching staff in Colorado.
- They have six road games, but both series are at hitting parks and against subpar pitching staffs right now.
- The M's get six home games against a Pirates staff with a June ERA over 5.00 and a Reds team that has been up and down.
| 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: | ||||||
| Jason Kendall, C, Oakland: Kendall is hitting over .300 over the past couple of weeks, bringing his batting average up to .219 on the season. | ||||||
| Xavier Nady, 1B, Pittsburgh: He has four homers and 12 RBI, while hitting .300, since June 1. | ||||||
| Mark Ellis, 2B, Oakland: Only Brendan Harris has outpointed Ellis in Head-to-Head play over the past couple weeks. | ||||||
| Michael Young, SS, Texas: The two-time batting champion is finally coming around. Since the first of the month, he's hitting .407 with 11 RBI. | ||||||
| Chone Figgins, 3B/OF, L.A. Angels: Those owners that remained patient with the speedster are finally smiling. Figgins is hitting .431 with 14 runs scored and nine stolen bases since June 1. | ||||||
| Corey Hart, OF, Milwaukee: He has four homers and eight RBI over the past two weeks of play. | ||||||
| Jose Bautista, 3B/OF, Pittsburgh: He has six multi-hit games in June and he's batting .316 this month with two homers and 10 RBI. | ||||||
| Juan Encarnacion, OF, St. Louis: The Cardinals' right fielder is hitting .333 this month, with four homers and seven RBI. | ||||||
| W O R S T H I T T I N G S C H E D U L E | ||||||
| BALTIMORE ORIOLES | ||||||
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
| -- |
@SD Peavy |
@SD Germano |
@SD Wells |
@ARI Johnson |
@ARI Webb |
@ARI Hernandez |
| ' 06 Stadium stats: Petco Park, 8.0 RPG (30th); Chase Field, 10.3 RPG (7th). | ||||||
| SD pitching: 3.14 ERA overall (3rd), 2.36 Home ERA (1st), 3.14 June ERA (3rd). | ||||||
| ARI pitching: 3.85 ERA overall (9th), 3.81 Home ERA (10th), 3.85 June ERA (9th). | ||||||
| This one's not even close. The O's face the top two pitching staffs in the NL and they are on the road all week. | ||||||
Five other below-average hitter schedules
- Pittsburgh Pirates -- at SEA (3), at LAA (3)
- The Bucs are on the road for six, three of which are against the second-best road staff in the AL (LAA).
- The Rays draw two of the top of the top five pitching staffs in the NL this week.
- Both of the Brewers' opponents happen to have solid staff ERAs in the month of June.
- The Braves are pretty good at home pitching-wise, and the Padres are tops in the league at Petco Park in staff ERA, under 2.50.
- The Braves have six games at Turner Field, but the Red Sox and Tigers' staffs are pretty good.
| 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: | ||||||
| Joe Mauer, C, Minnesota: The reigning AL batting champion is hitting only .154 with one RBI since June 1. | ||||||
| Nick Swisher, 1B/OF, Oakland: He has only six RBI in the first half of June, while batting .245 and he hasn't homered since May 27. | ||||||
| Brian Roberts, 2B, Baltimore: The O's leadoff man has just 13 hits over his past 50 at-bats (.260) and he has just three extra base hits that came in one game. | ||||||
| Felipe Lopez, 2B/SS, Washington: Lopez has just six hits in his past 46 at-bats (.130). | ||||||
| Mark Reynolds, SS/3B, Arizona: Reynolds has gone cold as quick as he went hot. With Chad Tracy healthy again -- and two upcoming series without the DH -- Reynolds is in danger of losing at-bats. | ||||||
| Carlos Lee, OF, Houston: He has just one homer and six RBI, with a .235 batting average, in the month of June. | ||||||
| Jason Bay, OF, Pittsburgh: The streaky hitter is currently on a bad one, hitting only .128 over the past two weeks. | ||||||
| Jeremy Hermida, OF, Florida: In his past 42 at-bats, Hermida is batting just .167 with two homers and seven RBI. | ||||||
