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: Alejandro De Aza gets first crack at the center field job in Florida. He had four steals this spring, making him a nice Rotisserie option for now ... Stephen Drew tweaked his quad muscle earlier this week, but he should be fine for the opener at Coors Field ... Erubiel Durazo wins the first baseman's job in Oakland by default now that Dan Johnson is sidelined for up to three months with torn cartilage in his left hip ... Kevin Millar will receive a decent amount of at-bats early on this month while Jay Payton (hamstring) heals on the 15-day disabled list ... Jim Edmonds (shoulder, toe) could be ready for opening day after getting some at-bats in this past week.

Projections are for April 1-8 games. All stats are through Thursday's spring training games.

This week's matchups
AL early NL early AL late NL late
TB@NYY ATL@PHI BOS@TEX PHI@FLA
TOR@DET FLA@WAS SEA@CLE COL@SD
CLE@CHW LAD@MIL TOR@TB CHC@MIL
BOS@KC CHC@CIN DET@KC PIT@CIN
OAK@SEA ARI@COL OAK@LAA ARI@WAS
BAL@MIN PIT@HOU BAL@NYY STL@HOU
TEX@LAA NYM@STL MIN@CHW NYM@ATL
SD@SF LAD@SF
N.Y. Mets at St. Louis begins their three-game series Sunday.
Bold denotes a four-game series.
The following teams play seven games this week: Arizona, L.A. Angels, Oakland and Washington.

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: Florida at Washington (60 percent), Tampa Bay at N.Y. Yankees (60), Atlanta at Philadelphia (60) on Wednesday, Detroit at Kansas City (60) on Friday; Detroit at Kansas City (60) on Saturday and Seattle at Cleveland (60), Baltimore at N.Y. Yankees (60), N.Y. Mets at Atlanta (60), Philadelphia at Florida (60), Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (60), Boston at Texas (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
TB
Kazmir 		-- TB
Seo 		TB
Shields 		BAL
Loewen 		BAL
Trachsel 		BAL
Bedard
' 06 Stadium stats: Yankee Stadium, 9.9 RPG (12th).
TB pitching: 4.96 ERA overall (27th), 5.26 Road ERA (27th), 5.11 Sept. ERA (25th).
BAL pitching: 5.35 ERA overall (29th), 6.01 Road ERA (30th), 5.44 Sept. ERA (26th).
Not like you were planning on sitting any of your Yankees to begin with. But this opening week schedule is just too good to not make note of. They face two of the three worst AL staffs from a season ago -- and all six games are at Yankee Stadium.

Five other favorable hitter schedules

  1. Arizona Diamondbacks -- at COL (3), at WAS (4)
  • The D-Backs have seven games this week -- three at Coors Field against a team that had the worst ERA last September (6.38) and four against a Nationals staff that was the worst in the NL a year ago
  • Boston Red Sox -- at KC (3), at TEX (3)
    • Disregard the six road games, Boston faces the worst AL staff in the majors from '06 (KC) and the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (formerly Ameriquest Field) allowed 10.3 RPG last season.
  • Cincinnati Reds -- vs. CHC (3), vs. PIT (3)
    • The Redlegs have six home games at the Great American Ballpark.
  • L.A. Angels -- vs. TEX (3), vs. OAK (4)
    • The Halos get seven home games to start the season, four of which come against an A's staff without Barry Zito.
  • L.A. Dodgers -- at MIL (3), at SF (3)
    • The Dodgers travel on the road, but they face two staffs that averaged a 5.55 ERA last year.
    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:
    Johnny Estrada, C, Milwaukee: He led all catchers this spring with 18 RBI, while hitting .444 (24-for-54).
    Derrek Lee, 1B, Chicago Cubs: The bad wrist? History. Lee is ready for a huge rebound season. He leads all hitters this spring with 30 hits in 64 at-bats (.469) and 19 RBI.
    Brandon Phillips, 2B, Cincinnati: Last year's breakout continues for Phillips -- he is hitting .349 with six homers and 12 RBI this spring.
    Khalil Greene, SS, San Diego: He leads all shortstops with 42 total bases so far this spring. Don't forget he hit four homers in the first six games last year.
    Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washington: He leads all third basemen with 26 hits this spring.
    Josh Hamilton, OF, Cincinnati: Hamilton has more hits this spring than all but two batters. He could start in place of Ken Griffey Jr. (hand) this week if the veteran doesn't get enough at-bats.
    Scott Hairston, OF, Arizona: With Carlos Quentin (torn labrum) injured, Hairston will start in left field, with Eric Byrnes moving over to right. Hairston is hitting .431 with six homers and 17 RBI. He also leads all hitters this spring with 54 stolen bases.
    Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore: The O's new star hitter is batting .348 with three homers and 11 RBI this spring. In the second half of last season, he hit .311 with 14 HR and 41 RBI.
    W O R S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
    KANSAS CITY ROYALS
    MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
    BOS
    Schilling     		-- BOS
    Beckett     		BOS
    Matsuzaka     		DET
    Verlander     		DET
    Maroth     		DET
    Durbin
    ' 06 Stadium stats: Kauffman Stadium, 11.4 RPG (1st).
    BOS pitching: 4.83 ERA overall (26th), 4.96 Road ERA (23rd), 4.80 Sept. ERA (21st).
    DET pitching: 3.84 ERA overall (1st), 3.78 Road ERA (1st), 4.30 Sept. ERA (13th).
    Sure, six home games are nice, but they'll face Daisuke Matsuzaka in his debut, then they'll get to worry about facing the AL champion Tigers staff.

    Five other below-average hitter schedules

    1. St. Louis Cardinals -- vs. NYM (3), at HOU (3)
    • The Mets will be looking for revenge against the team that beat them in the NLCS last year. Houston had the NL's best pitching staff a year ago, although there are some new faces in '07.
  • Seattle Mariners -- vs. OAK (3), at CLE (3)
    • The M's open the season against an Oakland staff that had a 4.21 ERA last year, good enough for seventh in the majors. The Indians have an improved bullpen and a solid starting staff.
  • Colorado Rockies -- vs. ARI (3), at SD (3)
    • The Diamondbacks had a surprisingly good pitching staff last season and the Padres were second in team ERA (3.87) only to Detroit (3.84).
  • Baltimore Orioles -- at MIN (3), at NYY (3)
    • Only the Tigers had a better staff ERA than the Twins last season and while the back of the Yankees' rotation isn't a great one, they did have a home ERA under 4.00 last year at Yankee Stadium.
  • San Francisco Giants -- vs. SD (3), vs. LAD (3)
    • While they have six home games, both staffs they face were ranked among the top four in the NL last year.
    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:
    Miguel Olivo, C, Florida: He hit only .200 (10-for-50) with one homer and five RBI this spring.
    Lyle Overbay, 1B, Toronto: Overbay is hitting only .204 with one HR and seven RBI so far this spring.
    Dustin Pedroia, 2B, Boston: He's in a great situation as Boston's starting second baseman, but he hit only .211 this spring.
    Felipe Lopez, SS, Washington: Lopez is batting only .200 this spring and the Nationals are expected to have a low-scoring offense this year.
    Wilson Betemit, 3B, L.A. Dodgers: Betemit held onto his job, but he only hit .216 this spring -- luckily, Andy LaRoche hit only .185.
    Aaron Rowand, OF, Philadelphia: Rowand hit only .185 with one homer and eight RBI in 22 spring games.
    Josh Willingham, OF, Florida: The Marlins' left fielder started spring slowly, batting .183 with no homers and only four RBI.
    Johnny Damon, OF, N.Y. Yankees: The Yankees' leadoff man is batting only .204 this spring with one homer and four RBI.

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