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.

Projections are for Aug. 21-27 games. All stats are through Friday's games.

This week's matchups
AL early NL early AL late NL late
NYY@SEA PIT@ATL NYY@LAA WAS@ATL
CHW@DET WAS@FLA DET@CLE MIL@FLA
OAK@TOR HOU@CIN KC@TOR HOU@PIT
TEX@TB PHI@CHC OAK@TEX CHC@STL
MIN@BAL LAD@SD TB@BAL SD@COL
CLE@KC ARI@SF MIN@CHW CIN@SF
BOS@LAA STL@NYM BOS@SEA PHI@NYM
COL@MIL LAD@ARI
Bold denotes a four-game series.
The Yankees and Red Sox finish their five-game series on Monday, Aug.21.
The following teams play seven games this week: Arizona, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Colorado, Detroit, L.A. Angels, Milwaukee, N.Y. Mets, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle 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: Washington at Florida (50 percent chance) on Tuesday; Milwaukee at Florida (60) on Thursday; Oakland at Texas (60) on Saturday; Milwaukee at Florida (60) and 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
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
ARI
Hernandez 		ARI
Webb 		ARI
Gonzalez 		CIN
Milton 		CIN
Harang 		CIN
Arroyo 		CIN
Lohse
' 06 Stadium stats: SBC Park, 9.6 RPG (17th).
ARI pitching: 4.61 ERA overall (18th), 4.22 Road ERA (4th), 4.68 Aug. ERA (24th).
CIN pitching: 4.72 ERA overall (22nd), 4.30 Road ERA (7th), 4.75 Aug. ERA (25th).
The G-Men get seven home games this week. The D-Backs have a disappointing 4.68 ERA in August and the Reds are the third-worst NL pitching staff this month.

Five other favorable hitter schedules

  1. Baltimore Orioles -- vs. MIN (3), vs. TB (3)
  • While the Twins certainly bring a tough staff, the Devil Rays are horrible and the O's get six home games.
  • Boston Red Sox -- vs. NYY (1), at LAA (3), at SEA (3)
    • The Red Sox get seven games this week and while they're on the road for six of them, they get to face two AL West pitching staffs that have struggled lately. The Yankees are actually in the same boat.
  • Toronto Blue Jays -- vs. OAK (3), vs. KC (3)
    • The Jays have six home games, three of which are against the worst pitching staff in the majors.
  • Colorado Rockies -- at MIL (3), vs. SD (3)
    • The Rockies get two pitching staffs that aren't in the top half of the majors after the break.
  • Chicago Cubs -- vs. PHI (4), at STL (3)
    • The Cubbies get four at home, seven games overall, and they'll face a Cards staff that has the second-worst August ERA in the NL.
    W O R S T   H I T T I N G   S C H E D U L E
    SAN DIEGO PADRES
    MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
    LAD
    Billingsley     		LAD
    Hendrickson     		LAD
    Penny     		-- @COL
    Francis     		@COL
    Jennings     		@COL
    Cook
    ' 06 Stadium stats: Petco Park, 8.6 RPG (30th); Coors Field, 9.2 RPG (24th).
    LAD pitching: 4.27 ERA overall (8th), 4.01 Road ERA (9th), 3.12 Aug. ERA (1st).
    COL pitching: 4.11 ERA overall (3rd), 3.98 Home ERA (6th), 3.45 Aug. ERA (4th).
    The Padres face two staffs that are ranked among the top four in the NL after the All-Star break.

    Five other below-average hitter schedules

    1. Chicago White Sox -- at DET (4), vs. MIN (3)
    • Detroit leads the majors in staff ERA and the Twins are the top AL staff after the break.
  • St. Louis Cardinals -- at NYM (3), vs. CHC (3)
    • The Mets still have the third-best ERA in the majors and the Cubs' staff has improved some.
  • Milwaukee Brewers -- vs. COL (3), at FLA (3)
    • The Rockies staff has been stellar and the Marlins own one of the best young staffs in the league.
  • Kansas City Royals -- vs. CLE (3), at TOR (3)
    • Both the Indians and Blue Jays have two staffs that rank among the top four in the AL afer the break.
  • Washington Nationals -- at FLA (3), at ATL (3)
    • Six road games ahead for the Nats against two staffs that can be dominant at times.

    You can e-mail your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.