It’s a new week, and with it comes a slightly different looking Fantasy Baseball Weekly Planner. In the interest of providing more options and insight for gamers, the format has been tweaked. The Playing Platoons and Chasing Steals sections have been removed, but I’ll often highlight platoon options and stolen-base chasing options in the new Hitter Notes section. Like the Pitcher Notes section, it will have a bit of a Wild West feel where anything goes. Anyway, let’s move on to fantasy coverage for the upcoming week.
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Notable Matchups
Rockies vs. Mariners (2), @ Mariners (2), @ Padres (3)
The Rockies start next week with two home games before playing five on the road to conclude the week. At home, they have posted an .810 OPS, per FanGraphs. Only James Paxton on Wednesday at Seattle (if he remains on track to be activated from the disabled list) stands out as a bad matchup, so even with five road games, there’s stuff to like about the bats. Add in that they’re playing a game every day next week, and that’s good, too.
Diamondbacks @ Pirates (3), @ Marlins (4)
The pitching matchups are favorable for Arizona’s hitters, but being on the road is not. They rank 28th in wRC+ (75) on the road this year and have a .223/.296/.363 slash away from home.
Reds @ Blue Jays (3), vs. Braves (3)
Three road tilts in an American League park will award the Reds a designated hitter. Rogers Centre is a decent venue for hitting, too. They round out the week with three home games against the trio of Mike Foltynewicz, R.A. Dickey, and Julio Teheran. All three pitchers are coughing up homers at an exploitable rate, as you can see here, and those homer issues will be exacerbated at Great American Ball Park.
Braves @ Angels (3), @ Reds (3)
Speaking of the Braves, they will get a lineup boost with a designated hitter in three games at Angel Stadium of Anaheim before getting park factor boosts at “Great American Small Park.”
Blue Jays vs. Reds (3), vs. Yankees (4)
In addition to a full complement of games next week for the Blue Jays, all will be in Toronto. They’ve struggled this year offensively, even in their home confines, but reinforcements for the offense are on the way over the weekend (more on that to come).
Athletics @ Indians (4), vs. Nationals (3)
The Athletics are slated to face no left-handed starters next week. That’s bad news for Rajai Davis, but good news for Matt Joyce, Jed Lowrie, Yonder Alonso, and Stephen Vogt.
Hitter Notes
Josh Donaldson (TOR)/Troy Tulowitzki (TOR)/Devon Travis (TOR)
As I noted above, reinforcements are expected for Toronto’s lineup in advance of next week. Both Donaldson and Tulowitzki are expected to be activated from the disabled list this weekend. They should add a spark to the lineup. Jose Bautista is grabbing most of the headlines discussing a hot bat north of the border, but Travis has turned it on after a slow start. I suggested adding Travis a week ago for a piece over at RotoGraphs, and Travis hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down since I gave him an endorsement. This month, he’s hitting .351/.364/.622 with two homers and 14 doubles.
Cameron Maybin (LAA)
I gave Maybin some love as a stolen base streamer in this column last week, and if you clicked the linked article above suggesting gamers add Travis, you saw I also suggested adding Maybin. He scuffled out of the gate this year, but an ugly BABIP was the primary culprit for his struggles. He’s shown exquisite patience walking in a whopping 15.8% of his plate appearances this year, and he’s swiped 10 steals in 11 attempts. The center fielder was excellent in an injury-shortened 2016 with the Tigers. Since last year, he’s hit .293/.377/.400 with seven homers, 22 doubles, five triples, 25 stolen bases, an 11.2% BB% and 17.6% K% in roughly a full season’s worth of work (562 PA). He exited the game early Thursday with knee pain. As long as the injury isn’t serious, Maybin should be a mainstay in lineups for the foreseeable future.
Aaron Hicks (NYY)
Jacoby Ellsbury exited Wednesday’s game with a concussion, and he’s landed on the 7-day DL. Ellsbury’s absence opens the door for everyday work for Aaron Hicks. Never short on tools, Hicks is fully utilizing them this year with eight homers, six stolen bases, an 18.5% BB%, 16.9% K%, and .291/.426/.573 slash. The 27-year-old’s playing time had been maddeningly sporadic of late with all parties in the Yankees outfield healthy. The solution to the playing time crunch seems fairly simple. Can you spot which one of these things is not like the others? If you answered Chris Carter’s putrid hitting numbers, you’re correct! I don’t have a prize for you, but Carter’s prize for his lackluster hitting and poor defense should be a spot on the bench. Matt Holliday has played in five games at first base for the Yankees this year and played in 10 there for the Cardinals last year. Even if he’s a well below-average fielder at first base, it’s hard to imagine him being considerably worse than Carter. Playing Holliday at first base semi-regularly would open up the designated hitter spot for rotating the four outfielders (Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner, Ellsbury, and Hicks) through when all are healthy.
Jed Lowrie (OAK)
I mentioned Lowrie as a beneficiary of the all-righty pitching matchups for the A’s next week. I dove into his numbers for RotoGraphs today and suggested adding him in leagues as shallow as 12-team mixers. Let’s look at his numbers exclusively against righties with next week in mind, though. In 146 plate appearances against righties this year, he’s hitting .315/.384/.554 with six homers, an 8.9% BB%, and 13.0% K%. It looks like he’s playing over his head until you examine his batted ball numbers. Lowrie has joined Alonso in crushing fly balls. His 47.7% FB% against right-handed pitchers this year is his highest since 2012, and his 40.2% Hard% against them is his highest ever. Lowrie should be filled with joy about a four-game series in Cleveland. Progressive Field has left-handed batter ballpark factors of 123 for doubles/triples, 116 for homers, and 126 for runs, according to the three-year rolling averages at StatCorner.
Pitcher Notes
Eduardo Rodriguez (BOS)
I often glance at statistical leaderboards. One of my favorite stats to sort by on the FanGraphs leaderboards is swinging strike percentage (SwStr%). It might surprise some gamers to learn Rodriguez ranks tied for seventh with a 12.9% SwStr%. The young southpaw is available in almost 28% of ESPN leagues and 27% of Yahoo! leagues. At this point, he should be universally owned. The SwStr% has fueled a gaudy 27.8% K%, and big strides in stranding baserunners have helped him fully breakout. He has a good matchup with the Orioles next week in his only start.
Dylan Bundy (BAL)
I’ll use this space to tip my cap to Jeff Zimmerman’s recent piece looking at velocity decliners. As you’ve likely deduced, Bundy’s velocity is down substantially from last year. The young righty’s ERA is sterling, but the time to sell him is now. It will probably be a bumpy road the rest of the way. I don’t have much to add to Zimmerman’s piece, so give it a read.
Archie Bradley (ARI)
Is anyone surprised Fernando Rodney has an ugly 7.13 ERA with suspect control this season? Bradley has emerged as a threat to Rodney for closing duties. Bradley hasn’t made a multi-inning relief appearance since April 26th, and he’s pitched one inning or fewer in eight straight appearances. The 2011 first-round pick in the MLB Amateur Draft has settled in as a dynamic reliever spinning a 1.29 ERA (2.56 FIP, 2.46 xFIP, and 2.27 SIERA), 0.81 WHIP, 6.3% BB%, and 34.2% K% this year. Bradley is owned in under 25% of CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo! leagues. Even if he doesn’t usurp closer duties in the near future, he can help gamers in ERA and WHIP while racking up punch outs in the mean time.
Carlos Rodon (CWS)
Rodon was placed on the disabled list to start the year, and he’s yet to pitch in a game at any level. He did, however, pitch his fourth simulated game recently reaching 60 pitches. A timetable hasn’t been released for the lefty’s return, but according to Daryl Van Schouwen’s linked piece in the Chicago Sun-Times,” after the All-Star break seems to be a reasonable assumption.”
Steven Matz (NYM)
Matz is much closer to a return than the previously mentioned lefty, Rodon. Matz was roughed up a bit ceding five earned runs on five hits, two walks, and four strikeouts in four innings at the Triple-A level in his rehab start on Tuesday. Abbey Mastracco of NJ.com shared some quotes from catcher Travis d’Arnaud regarding how Matz looked in the rehab start. d’Arnaud was on a rehab assignment himself, and he caught Matz in that turn. The catcher specifically said, “his fastball command was a little off but his curveball was sharp and his changeup looked good.” CBS Sports reports Matz increased his pitch count to 78 pitches in his most recent rehab turn. Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com indicates the Mets are likely to give Matz another minor-league start before activating him.
Edwin Diaz (SEA)
Wow. That didn’t take long. Diaz was recently removed from the closer role for the Mariners, and after two low-leverage situations spanning three innings, he’d earned the trust of his manager to reclaim ninth-inning duties. Diaz recorded a save Thursday against the Nationals in a game the Mariners won by two runs.
Below you’ll find a list of the 30 teams’ total number of scheduled games, the handedness of the pitchers they’ll face, easy to use toggling to highlight home games, away games, high-ranked pitchers, and low-ranked pitchers.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.
