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: With rosters expanding on Saturday, teams are bringing up prospects in waves this weekend. Fantasy owners should realize that some teams out of playoff contention are going to start playing more rookies as they begin to make decisions for 2008. With that said, some veterans on those teams will begin to lose at-bats. Keep a close on eye on the playing time these call-ups get initially. And don't forget that some good prospects might not get called up immediately because their minor-league team might still be in the playoffs ... Jack Hannahan has an active 12-game hitting streak. He's starting at third base for Oakland now that Eric Chavez (shoulder, back) is out for the season. He's only owned in one percent of CBSSports.com leagues. He's not a great prospect and is hitting only .268 on the year, but he should be picked up in larger AL-only formats ... Conor Jackson took a hard grounder off his left wrist Friday night against Colorado and had to leave the game. His teammate, Mark Reynolds, also left the game with an elbow injury. Tony Clark and Jeff Cirillo could see more at-bats if these day-to-day injuries linger ... Juan Encarnacion was hit in the face by a foul ball while waiting in the on-deck circle against the Reds Friday night. He was down for a few minutes, with blood dripping from his nose before being helped off the field. Rick Ankiel was already seeing more time in right field before this event, but depending on the severity of the injury, the Cardinals might lean on the former pitcher more ... The Cardinals also acquired Russell Branyan on Friday. He'll help replace Scott Rolen (shoulder) at third base for most of September ... Richie Sexson is sidelined indefinitely with a tight left hamstring. "We're going to have to shut him down for a while and get him strong," manager John McLaren said. Ben Broussard will get the starts at first base until he returns ... Hank Blalock (shoulder, neck) was expected to be activated Saturday. Blalock should be healthy enough to start in a game sometime on the next road trip, which begins Sept. 11 in Detroit ... Josh Barfield was back in the lineup at second base for Cleveland Friday. He was relegated to bench duty recently, with Asdrubal Cabrera getting the starts. Expect manager Eric Wedge to go with the hot bat, whomever has it, over the next month ... Manny Ramirez's MRI had positive results, according to manager Terry Francona. But keeping him reserved through this scoring period is still advised. Eric Hinske has been playing left field for Boston -- and he had four RBI against Baltimore on Friday. He's only owned in one percent of leagues, so consider him for some cheap at-bats in a stellar lineup.
Projections are for Sept. 3-9 games. All stats are through Friday's games.
| This week's matchups | |||
| AL early | NL early | AL late | NL late |
| SEA@NYY | FLA@WAS | NYY@KC | WAS@ATL |
| CLE@MIN | PHI@ATL | MIN@CHW | FLA@PHI |
| TOR@BOS | NYM@CIN | BOS@BAL | MIL@CIN |
| BAL@TB | HOU@MIL | TOR@TB | HOU@NYM |
| KC@TEX | PIT@STL | OAK@TEX | STL@ARI |
| OAK@LAA | SF@COL | CLE@LAA | LAD@SF |
| CHW@DET | LAD@CHC | SEA@DET | CHC@PIT |
| SD@ARI | SD@COL | ||
| Bold indicates a four-game series. | |||
| The following teams play seven games this week: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland, L.A. Angels, L.A. Dodgers, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. | |||
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: Houston at N.Y. Mets (60 percent chance), Florida at Philadelphia (60), Boston at Baltimore (60), Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh (60) on Saturday; N.Y. Yankees at Kansas City (60), Florida at Philadelphia (60), Oakland at Texas (60) on Sunday.
| B E S T H I T T I N G S C H E D U L E | ||||||
| DETROIT TIGERS | ||||||
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
| -- |
CHW Garland |
CHW Floyd |
CHW Buehrle |
SEA Batista |
SEA Weaver |
SEA Hernandez |
| CHW pitching: 5.00 ERA overall (29th), 4.88 Road ERA (23rd), 5.11 Aug. ERA (30th). | ||||||
| SEA pitching: 4.67 ERA overall (21st), 4.81 Road ERA (20th), 4.55 Aug. ERA (21st). | ||||||
| The Tigers get six home games at Comerica Park and the White Sox and Mariners staffs were among the bottom-10 in the majors for August. | ||||||
Five other favorable hitter schedules
- Cincinnati Reds -- vs. NYM (3), vs. MIL (3)
- The Reds get six games at home against two pitching staffs that struggled in the month of August.
- They get six home games against two staffs that are average on the road.
- While six road games are not ideal, their opponents have not pitched well this past month.
- The Jays have a solid pitching staff, but the O's were the worst in the majors in August and the Red Sox have seven total games.
- The Rockies get six home games at Coors Field where grounders in the gap are easy doubles, although their opponents have pretty good road ERAs.
| 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: | ||||||
| Bengie Molina, C, San Francisco: Over the past two weeks, Molina is hitting .378 with seven RBI. | ||||||
| Carlos Pena, 1B, Tampa Bay: He's second in the AL with 33 homers on the season and in his past 48 at-bats, he is batting .354 with seven homers and 15 RBI. | ||||||
| Rickie Weeks, 2B, Milwaukee: He's hitting over .400 over the past couple weeks, including 11 runs scored. | ||||||
| Miguel Tejada, SS, Baltimore: Miggy leads shortstops since mid-August with six home runs. He also has 10 RBI and nine runs scored in that span. | ||||||
| Mike Lowell, 3B, Boston: He leads all third basemen over the past few weeks with a .469 batting average. He only has one homer in that span, but he does have 13 RBI. | ||||||
| Pat Burrell, OF, Philadelphia: Burrell is batting .360 (59-for-164) since July 2, raising his average from .201 to .270. He has 16 of his 24 homers in that span | ||||||
| Jeremy Hermida, OF, Florida: He's batting .408 with four homers and nine RBI in his past two weeks. | ||||||
| Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore: Only Garret Anderson has more RBI among outfielders than Kake's 15 over the past two weeks. | ||||||
| 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 |
|
@LAA Santana |
@LAA Weaver |
@LAA Saunders |
-- |
@TEX TBA |
@TEX Gabbard |
@TEX Loe |
| LAA pitching: 4.13 ERA overall (11th), 3.73 Home ERA (5th), 4.13 Aug. ERA (11th). | ||||||
| TEX pitching: 4.70 ERA overall (24th), 4.30 Home ERA (17th), 3.76 Aug. ERA (4th). | ||||||
| The A's are on the road all week against two teams that have been very solid over the past month. | ||||||
Five other below-average hitter schedules
- Arizona Diamondbacks -- vs. SD (3), vs. STL (3)
- The Padres and Cardinals rank among the top 10 in ERA for the month of August.
- The Rangers have actually been a stellar staff in August, and the Royals will have to deal with a Yankees team that is battling for a playoff spot.
- The Giants might be headed to Coors Field, but the Rockies have the third-best ERA in the NL for August and the Dodgers have the second-best ERA in NL on the road.
- The Twins and Angels were both solid staffs in August, and the Tribe is on the road all week.
- The Fish are on the road for six games this week, granted, the games are against two mediocre staffs.
| 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: | ||||||
| Johnny Estrada, C, Milwaukee: Estrada has only one RBI over the past two weeks of play. | ||||||
| Richie Sexson, 1B, Seattle: He's back to his inconsistent ways, hitting just .200 with just two RBI over the past half of a month, and now he has a hamstring injury. | ||||||
| Geoff Blum, 2B, San Diego: The luster has come off of Blum's hot hitting, and he's batting just .205 since mid-August. | ||||||
| Julio Lugo, SS, Boston: He has only four runs scored and a .204 batting average over the past two weeks. | ||||||
| Brandon Inge, 3B, Detroit: He's batting only .195 over his past 41 at-bats, with just four RBI. | ||||||
| Eric Byrnes, OF, Arizona: He's hitting just .182 with one homer and three RBI over his past 44 at-bats. | ||||||
| Vernon Wells, OF, Toronto: Since mid-August, he's hitting only .196 with one homer and five RBI in the past two weeks, and he's dealing with a bum shoulder. | ||||||
| J.D. Drew, OF, Boston: He has a sore foot and in his past 36 at-bats, he's batting just .167 with one homer and one RBI. | ||||||
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