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: Bobby Crosby's back is giving him problems again, so you might want to consider an alternative among shortstops for this scoring period. Manager Bob Geren plans on resting Crosby some for the rest of this month anyway ... If you are desperate for a No. 2 catcher, look no further than Kelly Shoppachwith Cleveland. If Victor Martinez (strained quadriceps) lands on the 15-day disabled list, Shoppach will start for one of the top offenses in the majors ... Paul Bako will likely get more starts in Baltimore as well, with Ramon Hernandez (oblique) possibly going on the DL ... Elijah Dukes is off to such a great start (.364-2-2) that the Devil Rays plan to use him at DH once Rocco Baldelli (hamstring) returns. That essentially hurts Jonny Gomes chances of seeing at-bats as well.

Projections are for April 9-15 games. All stats are through Friday's games.

This week's matchups
AL early NL early AL late NL late
DET@BAL PHI@NYM DET@TOR HOU@PHI
NYY@MIN STL@PIT NYY@OAK SD@LAD
KC@TOR HOU@CHC KC@BAL CIN@CHC
TB@TEX COL@LAD TB@MIN COL@ARI
CHW@OAK MIL@FLA TEX@SEA MIL@STL
SEA@BOS CIN@ARI LAA@BOS FLA@ATL
LAA@CLE SF@SD CHW@CLE SF@PIT
WAS@ATL WAS@NYM
Seattle and Cleveland wrap up a four-game series from Week 1 on Monday.
Bold denotes a four-game series.
The following teams play seven games this week: Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Minnesota, Seattle, Tampa Bay 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 White Sox at Cleveland (60 percent), Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (60), Milwaukee at St. Louis (60), Florida at Atlanta (60) on Saturday; Chicago White Sox at Cleveland (60 percent), Washington at N.Y. Mets (60), Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (60), Houston at Philadelphia (60), Kansas City at Baltimore (60), San Francisco at Pittsburgh (60) on Sunday.

B E S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
CLEVELAND INDIANS
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
SEA
Washburn 		LAA
Santana 		LAA
Saunders 		LAA
Moseley 		CHW
Vazquez 		CHW
Contreras 		CHW
Garland
' 06 Stadium stats: Jacobs Field, 9.9 RPG (13th).
SEA pitching: 4.33 ERA overall (20th), 4.96 '06 Road ERA (22nd), 5.49 '06 Sept. ERA (27th).
LAA pitching: 2.20 ERA overall (3rd), 4.33 '06 Road ERA (6th), 3.15 '06 Sept. ERA (3rd).
CHW pitching: 7.33 ERA overall (30th), 4.82 '06 Road ERA (18th), 4.76 '06 Sept. ERA (20th).
The Indians wrap up a four-game series with Seattle Monday, so they are one of only eight teams with seven games on their schedule. The Angels are a tough staff, but the White Sox had a 7.33 ERA in Week 1.

Five other favorable hitter schedules

  1. L.A. Dodgers vs. COL (3), vs. SD (3)
  • Six home games at Chavez Ravine should help this lineup out
  • Minnesota Twins vs. NYY (3), vs. TB (4)
    • The Twinkies get seven home games -- four of which will come against one of the worst pitching staffs from Week 1.
  • Atlanta Braves vs. WAS (3), vs. FLA (3)
    • The Braves get six games at Turner Field, three of which will be against a brutal pitching staff.
  • Detroit Tigers at BAL (3), at TOR (4)
    • The Tigers have seven road games, but the O's pitching staff is still struggling and the Jays had a 6.08 ERA in Week 1.
  • N.Y. Mets vs. ATL (3), vs. WAS (3)
    • The hottest team in baseball gets six home games against divisional rivals. Washington's pitching staff is still trying to shape itself -- they have a 6.20 ERA after one 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:
    Paul Lo Duca, C, N.Y. Mets: The Mets' backstop has more hits (8) than any other catcher in the majors right now.
    Dmitri Young, 1B, Washington: Young currently leads all first baseman in extra-base hits (four) and basic Head-to-Head scoring.
    Mark DeRosa, 2B, Chicago Cubs: He has hit safely in every game so far this season, and his five RBI are second only to Mark Ellis' eight RBI among second basemen.
    Tony F. Pena, SS, Kansas City: The Royals' new shortstop has three triples already this year.
    Akinori Iwamura, 3B, Tampa Bay: The Japanese free-agent signee is batting .636 through three games so far, with a homer and a double.
    Eric Byrnes, OF, Arizona: He's starting off 2007 strong with a homer, two stolen bases and a .381 batting average.
    Gary Matthews, OF, L.A. Angels: What controversy? What slump after a contract year? He's hitting .467 after 16 at-bats.
    Ryan Church, OF, Washington: Church has hit safely in his past four games, including two homers. He is tied with Vlad Guerrero for most extra-base hits (five) among outfielders so far.
    W O R S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
    WASHINGTON NATIONALS
    MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
    == @ATL
    Hudson     		@ATL
    James     		@ATL
    Redman     		@NYM
    Hernandez     		@NYM
    Maine     		@NYM
    Perez
    ' 06 Stadium stats: Turner Field, 9.9 RPG (11th); Shea Stadium, 9.2 RPG (22nd).
    ATL pitching: 3.92 ERA overall (14th), 4.35 '06 Sept. ERA (T-14th).
    NYM pitching: 0.75 ERA overall (1st), 4.35 '06 Sept. ERA (T-14th).
    Only six games this week -- all on the road, and against two of the top-15 pitching staffs in the majors right now.

    Five other below-average hitter schedules

    1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Texas (3), at Minnesota (4)
    • While seven games are nice, they still have to face the Twins' staff, which ranks among the top in the AL still.
  • Houston Astros at CHC (3), at PHI (3)
    • Six games on the road are tough and both opposing staffs should be improved this year.
  • L.A. Angels at CLE (3), at BOS (3)
    • The Halos face two tough staffs on the road for six games only.
  • Philadelphia Phillies at NYM (3), vs. HOU (3)
    • The Mets have a 0.75 ERA through Friday and the Astros' staff ranks among the top 10 in the majors so far.
  • N.Y. Yankees at MIN (3), at OAK (3)
    • It's tough to sit any Yankee, agreed. But they do have two tough series on the road this week. I'm just letting you know!
    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:
    Rod Barajas, C, Philadelphia: Barajas doesn't have any hits yet this season and backup Carlos Ruiz has hit safely in all three of his games.
    Ryan Shealy, 1B, Kansas City: Shealy still hasn't recorded a basehit in the 2007 season.
    Rickie Weeks, 2B, Milwaukee: Weeks has only two hits so far on the young season.
    Michael Young, SS, Texas: Young has multiple 200-hit seasons but he has only two hits so far this year.
    Alex Gordon, 3B, Kansas City: The phenom hasn't hit his stride just yet he's batting .067 after 15 at-bats.
    Jermaine Dye, OF, Chicago White Sox: The slugger has yet to homer and he's batting only .181.
    Andruw Jones, OF, Atlanta: He sure isn't starting out 2007 like he's in a contract year he's hitting .117 with just one RBI so far.
    Lance Berkman, OF, Houston: The Astros' top hitter is batting only .153 with one RBI after one week.

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