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: Vernon Wells will finally have surgery Tuesday for a cyst and a torn labrum on his left shoulder. He's been placed on the 60-day disabled list and he's done for this year, but keeper league owners can expect him to be ready for spring training. He had an off-year, but you can blame much of that on the injury ... Josh Willingham left Friday's game against the Mets because of a stiff back, and he didn't start Saturday's game. Todd Linden started in left field in his place ... The Cubs have bashed 36 home runs in the first three weeks of September after hitting just 106 homers in the first five months. Aramis Ramirez (seven) and Alfonso Soriano (10) are two of the major reasons for the HR boost this month ... Lastings Milledge dropped his appeal of a three-game suspension and began serving it Saturday at Florida. He should be available to play again on Tuesday against the Nationals ... Jack Cust leads the A's in homers (25) and RBI (80) despite spending the first month of the season in the minors. But Head-to-Head owners know that he also has 153 strikeouts on the season (after striking out three times Friday) in just 117 games. He's fifth in the majors in the whiff category ... Chone Figgins starts against a left-hander Friday for the first time since Aug. 21. The Angels have been fearful that he would get hit in his sore wrist, which would cost him at-bats in the playoffs ... A.J. Pierzynski has played in 133 games this season and the White Sox are ready to rest him a bit. Toby Hall and Donny Lucy will share starts with Pierzynski over the final week of the season ... The Devil Rays might be without second baseman Brendan Harris (left lat muscle) until Tuesday, when they host the Yankees. Jorge Velandia has been starting in his absence -- and he has hit safely in all six games that he has played in since getting called up ... Carlos Delgado (hip) not only returned to play at Florida Friday for the first time since Sept. 4, but he homered as well ... Carl Crawford (groin) might be able to play before the season ends, but a speedster with a sore groin should be reserved in most Fantasy leagues in the final week ... Carlos Beltran left Friday's game with a bruised left knee, but he was able to start Saturday's game at Florida.
Projections are for Sept. 24-30 games. All stats are through Friday's games.
| This week's matchups | |||
| AL early | NL early | AL late | NL late |
| TOR@BAL | WAS@NYM | TB@TOR | WAS@PHI |
| KC@CHW | STL@MIL | CLE@KC | STL@PIT |
| MIN@DET | SD@SF | DET@CHW | SD@MIL |
| LAA@TEX | ARI@PIT | LAA@OAK | SF@LAD |
| OAK@BOS | ATL@PHI | MIN@BOS | ATL@HOU |
| NYY@TB | CHC@FLA | NYY@BAL | FLA@NYM |
| CLE@SEA | HOU@CIN | TEX@SEA | CHC@CIN |
| COL@LAD | ARI@COL | ||
| On Wednesday, the Indians play at Seattle for a double-header to makeup a snow-out of an April 9 game. | |||
| Bold denotes a four-game series. | |||
| Italics denotes a two-game series. | |||
| The Blue Jays will wrap up their weekend series with the Yankees on Monday, giving each team seven games this week. | |||
| The Royals will play a game in Baltimore on Monday as a makeup game for an April 15 rainout. | |||
| The following teams play seven games this week: Baltimore, Cleveland, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minnesota, N.Y. Mets, N.Y. Yankees, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis and Toronto. | |||
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: Chicago Cubs at Florida (60 percent chance) on Tuesday; Cleveland at Kansas City (60), St. Louis at Pittsburgh (60) and Minnesota at Boston (60) on Sunday.
| B E S T H I T T I N G S C H E D U L E | |||||||
| N.Y. YANKEES | |||||||
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | |
|
TOR Burnett |
@TB Hammel |
@TB Howell |
@TB Kazmir |
@BAL Leicester |
@BAL Cabrera |
@BAL Zambrano |
|
| TOR pitching: 3.91 ERA overall (3rd), 4.21 Road ERA (6th), 3.70 Sept. ERA (6th). | |||||||
| TB pitching: 5.54 ERA overall (30th), 4.94 Home ERA (27th), 4.89 Sept. ERA (19th). | |||||||
| BAL pitching: 5.04 ERA overall (29th), 5.15 Home ERA (30th), 6.69 Sept. ERA (30th). | |||||||
| The Yankees will get seven games, including one on Monday against Toronto, this week. They'll get to tee off on the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg, which is like a second home to the Bombers, and they'll have three games against the Orioles, who have an ERA above 6.50 in September. | |||||||
Five other favorable hitter schedules
- N.Y. Mets -- vs. WAS (3), vs. STL (1), vs. FLA (3)
- The Mets have a nice hitting week ahead of them, facing the worst NL staff (FLA) and they'll get seven home games.
- The Jays have seven games and the Orioles and Devil Rays have the two worst pitching staffs in the majors this season.
- The Cubs face the worst NL pitching staff and they travel to play at one of the best home run-hitting parks at Great American Ballpark.
- The Mariners' September ERA is too close to 6.00 for comfort, and the Indians get seven games this week.
- The Reds have hit more home runs at home than any other team in the majors -- and they get six home games this week.
| 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: | ||||||
| Ronny Paulino, C, Pittsburgh: Only Jorge Posada and Gregg Zaun have more basic Head-to-Head points this month than Paulino (.365-2-14-15-0). | ||||||
| James Loney, 1B, L.A. Dodgers: Only four hitters have more Fantasy points this month than this rookie 1B. He is hitting .377 with six homers and 23 RBI so far. | ||||||
| Mark Ellis, 2B, Oakland: He recently set the A's team record for homers in a season with his 18th, and he leads the position in September with 17 RBI. | ||||||
| Juan Uribe, SS, Chicago White Sox: He's batting .309 with five homers and 10 RBI this month. | ||||||
| Edwin Encarnacion, 3B, Cincinnati: He's a streaky hitter and he's batting .377 with four homers and 16 RBI in September. | ||||||
| Raul Ibanez, OF, Seattle: Despite the Mariners' struggles, Ibanez is hitting .329 with five homers and 20 RBI this month. | ||||||
| Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, Boston: He's batting .388 with 15 runs scored, and seven stolen bases this month. He also has four steals in his past seven games. | ||||||
| Moises Alou, OF, N.Y. Mets: You can't get any hotter than an active 25-game hitting streak. He's hitting .435 this month. | ||||||
| W O R S T H I T T I N G S C H E D U L E | ||||||
| OAKLAND ATHLETICS | ||||||
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
| -- |
@BOS Schilling |
@BOS Lester |
-- |
LAA Escobar |
LAA Lackey |
LAA Santana |
| BOS pitching: 3.86 ERA overall (2nd), 4.18 Home ERA (16th), 4.42 Sept. ERA (10th). | ||||||
| LAA pitching: 4.19 ERA overall (12th), 4.54 Road ERA (15th), 4.60 Sept. ERA (16th). | ||||||
| Oakland has only five games this week and two of them are on the road. At different times this season, the Red Sox and Angels have ranked among the leaders in pitching, and Boston will be scratching and clawing to win the AL East. | ||||||
Five other below-average hitter schedules
- San Diego Padres -- at SF (3), at MIL (4)
- The Giants have the second-best home ERA in the NL, and Milwaukee has a very nice September ERA.
- The White Sox and Indians have the two best pitching staffs for the month of September so far and the Royals are already the lowest scoring team on the road in the majors.
- The Halos are the worst road scoring team in the AL and they are away for six games this week.
- Granted, the Rangers don't pose much of a threat on the mound, but the Indians lead the majors in ERA for the month of September.
- The Padres and Dodgers rank among the top six in staff ERA among NL teams in the month of September.
| 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 just .257 in September, with a homer, four RBI and four runs scored. | ||||||
| Nomar Garciaparra, 1B/3B, L.A. Dodgers: He's not starting daily anymore and injuries have taken their toll. He has just one homer in his past 33 at-bats. | ||||||
| Jose Lopez, 2B, Seattle: He's hitting under .208 for the month of September, with only five runs scored. | ||||||
| Miguel Tejada, SS, Baltimore: He has just one homer in September, and he's hitting.254 this month. | ||||||
| Mark Teahen, 3B, Kansas City: He's hitting .268 with one homer and five RBI over his past 56 at-bats. | ||||||
| Alex Rios, OF, Toronto: He has just two homers this month while hitting .203. | ||||||
| Michael Cuddyer, OF, Minnesota: He has just four RBI over his past 68 at-bats, hitting only .235 in that span. | ||||||
| Andruw Jones, OF, Atlanta: Jones has dropped back down to earth after a good midseason, and now, the free agent-to-be is hitting just .180 with two homers in September. | ||||||
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