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: Jason Giambi (foot) took batting practice Saturday and he's aiming at a return in a couple weeks. He's owned in only 32 percent of SportsLine leagues as of now. Once he returns, he could cost Johnny Damon (calves) at-bats ... The Yankees are also rumored to be interested in trading reliever Scott Proctor to Tampa Bay for Ty Wigginton. They faced off Saturday afternoon -- Wiggy flied out to center field in his first at-bat, then Proctor plunked him in his second ... Mets 2B Jose Valentin broke his right shin Friday night and he's likely out until September, which opens up at-bats for Ruben Gotay, as well as prospect Anderson Hernandez ... David Ortiz injured his left shoulder diving headfirst into second base Friday and he didn't start Saturday's game against the White Sox. Check his status throughout the weekend ... Another injured shoulder victim is Nick Swisher, who left Friday's game against Baltimore. Travis Buck replaced him in center field ... Carl Crawford injured his leg at the Yankees on Saturday ... Speaking of speedsters, have you noticed how Corey Patterson and Juan Pierre have both stepped it up a notch recently? Patterson has exploded since the Orioles named Dave Trembley their interim manager last month. He's hitting .380 since the shift in power, and he's in the midst of an eight-game hitting streak. He has six steals in the month of July. And Pierre extended his hitting streak to 13 games on Friday -- and he has 17 steals since June 26.

Projections are for July 23-29 games. All stats are through Sunday's games.

       
This week's matchups
AL early NL early AL late NL late
BOS@CLE MIL@CIN MIN@CLE CHC@CIN
MIN@TOR LAD@HOU TEX@KC LAD@COL
NYY@KC SD@COL NYY@BAL SD@HOU
OAK@LAA FLA@ARI OAK@SEA FLA@SF
TB@BAL ATL@SF BOS@TB ATL@ARI
DET@CHW WAS@PHI TOR@CHW PIT@PHI
SEA@TEX CHC@STL DET@LAA MIL@STL
PIT@NYM WAS@NYM
Bold indicates a four-game series.
The Tigers and White Sox play a doubleheader on Tuesday, as do the Mariners and Rangers. On Saturday, the Brewers and Cardinals play a double-header, as do the Mets and Nationals. That gives the White Sox, Tigers, Mariners and Brewers eight games this week. The Tigers and White Sox actually play a five-game series.
The following teams play seven games this week: Arizona, Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Colorado, Florida, Houston, Kansas City, L.A. Dodgers, N.Y. Mets, N.Y. Yankees, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Texas 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: Atlanta at Arizona (60 percent), Toronto at Chicago White Sox (60), L.A. Dodgers at Colorado (60), Texas at Kansas City (60), Milwaukee at St. Louis (60), Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati (60) on Saturday; Minnesota at Cleveland (60), Toronto at Chicago White Sox (60), Texas at Kansas City (60), Washington at N.Y. Mets (60), Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati (60), Milwaukee at St. Louis (60), N.Y. Yankees at Baltimore (60) on Sunday.

B E S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
SEATTLE MARINERS
MON TUE TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
@TEX
Millwood 		@TEX
Loe 		@TEX
TBA 		@TEX
McCarthy 		OAK
Haren 		OAK
Braden 		OAK
Gaudin 		OAK
DiNardo
' 06 Stadium stats: Ballpark in Arlington, 9.9 RPG (12th); Oak-Ala County Coliseum, 9.9 RPG (12th).
TEX pitching: 4.97 ERA overall (29th), 4.76 Home ERA (24th), 3.39 July ERA (3rd).
OAK pitching: 3.75 ERA overall (2nd), 3.92 Road ERA (6th), 5.01 July ERA (26th).
The M's get eight games this week -- all at Safeco Field. Four are against the second-worst pitching staff in the majors and the other four might be against a tough A's squad, but Seattle is the eighth-best scoring team on the road in both leagues. And the A's have been struggling on the mound after the break.

Five other favorable hitter schedules

  1. Milwaukee Brewers -- at CIN (4), at STL (4)
  • Two road series are tough, but the Reds and Cardinals rank among the worst staffs in the majors, and Great American Ballpark is HR-friendly.
  • Chicago White Sox -- vs. DET (5), vs. TOR (3)
    • The two teams they face aren't shabby on the mound, but eight home games makes the Sox hitters nice starters in Fantasy.
  • Philadelphia Phillies -- vs. WAS (3), vs. PIT (3)
    • The Phillies get six games at home and the best scoring team in the NL will tee off on two staffs that rank in the bottom 10 in the majors.
  • Boston Red Sox -- at CLE (4), at TB (3)
    • Boston has seven road games, but the Indians are ranked 19th in the majors in ERA and the Rays are dead last with a 5.67 ERA.
  • Toronto Blue Jays -- vs. MIN (3), at CHW (3)
    • While they are one of a few teams with only six games this week, the Jays get the Twins at home and three games against the third-worst staff in the AL (CHW).
    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:
    A.J. Pierzynski, C, Chicago White Sox: Since the All-Star break, A.J. is batting .423 with five RBI.
    Ryan Garko, 1B, Cleveland: He's in the middle of a 14-game hitting streak and he's hitting .455 in July with three homers and 10 RBI.
    B.J. Upton, 2B/3B/OF, Tampa Bay: In seven games back after his quad injury, Upton is 11-for-23 with eight runs and seven RBI. He homered again on Saturday.
    Julio Lugo, SS, Boston: He's outscoring all shortstops in Head-to-Head leagues since the break and he has an active nine-game hitting streak going.
    Aramis Ramirez, 3B, Chicago Cubs: He joins Brandon Phillips and Chase Utley as the hitters with the most RBI (13) since the All-Star break.
    Nick Markakis, OF, Baltimore: He has a .396 batting average in July over the past two seasons combined.
    Aaron Rowand, OF, Philadelphia: He's hitting .500 (17-for-34) in the second half, with two homers and eight RBI.
    Billy Butler, OF, Kansas City: Butler is knocking runs in by the handful lately. He's hitting .373 with 21 RBI in his past 22 games.
    W O R S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
    L.A. ANGELS
    MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
    OAK
    Gaudin     		OAK
    DiNardo     		OAK
    Blanton
    Robertson     		DET
    Miller     		DET
    Bonderman
    ' 06 Stadium stats: Edison International Field, 8.8 RPG (29th).
    OAK pitching: 3.75 ERA overall (2nd), 3.92 Road ERA (6th), 5.01 July ERA (26th).
    DET pitching: 4.25 ERA overall (13th), 3.98 Road ERA (8th), 3.02 July ERA (1st).
    The Halos have only six games -- three against the top pitching staff in the AL and three against the best pitching staff in the majors for the month of July.

    Five other below-average hitter schedules

    1. Houston Astros -- vs. LAD (3), vs. SD (4)
    • The Astros have to face two of the top four NL pitching staffs in the coming week.
  • Oakland Athletics -- at LAA (4), at SEA (3)
    • The A's have seven games on the road. The Angels are still a top-10 staff and the M's are eighth in the majors with a 4.01 July ERA.
  • Colorado Rockies -- vs. SD (3), vs. LAD (4)
    • While the schedule is as tough as Houston's, that's offset a little bit by playing seven games at Coors Field.
  • Cleveland Indians -- vs. BOS (4), vs. MIN (3)
    • The Tribe has seven home games, but their opponents rank in the top seven among pitching staffs in July.
  • St. Louis Cardinals -- vs. CHC (3), vs. MIL (4)
    • The World Champs get two series at home -- but they are against the top two teams in the NL Central and the Cubs are the best staff in the NL for July.
    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:
    Paul Lo Duca, C, N.Y. Mets: His second-half swoon has begun. Since July 12, he's batting just .179 with three RBI.
    Richie Sexson, 1B, Seattle: Since the break, he's hitting just .182 with only one RBI.
    Josh Barfield, 2B, Cleveland: Jesse's streaky son is batting just .148 in the second half so far.
    Orlando Cabrera, SS, L.A. Angels: As red-hot as he was earlier this year is as stone-cold as he is now. Since July 12, he's batting just .083.
    Akinori Iwamura, 3B, Tampa Bay: The Japanese rookie is hitting only .228 with one RBI since the break.
    Casey Blake, 1B/3B/OF, Cleveland: He's batting just .194 in his past 36 at-bats after having a big first half.
    Brad Hawpe, OF, Colorado: Since the All-Star Game, Hawpe is hitting just .143 with four RBI.
    Johnny Damon, OF, N.Y. Yankees: His calves are still bothering him and he's hitting just .129 since the break.

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