Greetings, friends, and welcome to Week 21 of the Fantasy Baseball Quick Grades. We’ve reached the point where you need to be viewing your rosters as week-to-week decisions. There is no longer time to wait for players to turn things around or perform to their expected statistics. At this point, they are either performing or they aren’t. That may mean having to make some difficult decisions in redraft leagues, especially in H2H formats. But that’s ok. That’s why we have weekly grades.

I went over how the grades for this series are calculated in Week 1, and I’ll link to that breakdown every week rather than filling this space with a lengthy explanation every time. If you’re interested in knowing my process or just want to talk baseball, feel free to reach out on Twitter @mikeMaher. I reply to Tweets, and my DMs are open. Here’s a link to the Week 1 piece with the full Quick Grades breakdown:

Week 1 Quick Grades (2021 Fantasy Baseball)

Now, let’s get to the Week 21 grades and notes.

Week 21 Hitter Grades

Note: This table is multiple pages (see the button on the top right) and is sortable and searchable, so feel free to look around!

Team Streams

• The Diamondbacks, White Sox, Royals, Pirates, and Blue Jays all play seven games this week. Of that group, the Diamondbacks have the best Matchups grade, at 19.50. The Royals, on the other hand, have one of the worst Matchups grades.
• The best Matchups grade of 25 this week belongs to the Mariners.
• Other teams with strong Matchups grades: Astros, Angels, Cardinals, Dodgers, Red Sox.

Fades of the Week

• The Braves, Tigers, Angels, Padres, and Rays play five games this week.
• The Reds, Royals, and Braves have the worst Matchups grades this week.

Notes

• Only three 90.o+ grades this week: Jose Ramirez, Shohei Ohtani, and Paul Goldschmidt.
• Frank Schwindel has been on an absolute heater of late. Will it continue? Hard to say. Definitely not continually. But in the short-term? Sure, why not? He is getting premium lineup placement and is delivering. Stream away.
• Ty France is batting .354 with six home runs, 23 runs scored, and 19 RBI through 32 games in the second half. Our boy is back!

Ty France is batting .354 with six home runs, 23 runs scored, and 19 RBI through 32 games in the second half. Our boy is back!#SeaUsRise

— mike Maher. (@mikeMaher) August 22, 2021

• Brandon Lowe has seven home runs in 18 games in August. Fantasy managers who were patient through those first few cold months are finally being rewarded.

Week 21 Pitcher Grades

Below, you'll see a grid of probable starters, their matchups, and their grades. The grade is on a scale of 0-100, and here's what those numbers mean.

These grades assume you are in 10 leagues of varying size and format, with a good mix of shallow, deeper, scoring, and roster/lineup sizes. The score for all of these players corresponds to how many leagues I would start a pitcher in if I had him in every league. So, a pitcher with a score of 100 means I would start him in all 10 leagues. A pitcher with a score of 50 means I would start him in five leagues. Zero, zero leagues. Got it? Great.

Note: The starters below are grouped alphabetically by team and schedule, and the table is two pages to keep the length manageable (you can click to see the second page on the top right).

Notes

• The Braves only play five games this week and are strangely off on both Wednesday and Thursday.
• Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill have both been excellent lately. McKenzie has now tossed four quality starts in a row, allowing just six earned runs over 28 innings. Quantrill just had his own streak of five straight quality starts stopped.
• I'm a little nervous about starting Dylan Cease against the Blue Jays, but he gets two starts this week, with the second start coming against the Cubs. That cushions the blow at least a little bit.
• The Angels only play five games this week, and Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to start one of them. Ohtani is a better hitter than he is a pitcher right now, but that gap is shrinking. I have him as a 60 here, but it will be really hard to take him out of my lineup in most weekly H2H leagues.
• I was out on John Means earlier in the season, so I missed those first months where he was excellent. But I can't say I regret that decision too much based on what we have seen from him since he returned from the injured list. For whatever reason (be it rust, health, or sticky stuff), Means just isn't the same pitcher right now. He posted a 5.09 ERA in July and has a 7.43 ERA through 13 1/3 innings in August.
• Anthony DeSclafani left his last start with an ankle injury but is scheduled to make two starts this week. He hasn't been pitching as well lately as he was earlier in the season, but he gets a bump here.
• Jack Flaherty sure looks like he is back. Two starts vs. Detroit and Pittsburgh make him an easy 100 this week.
• I struggled with the Alek Manoah grade for a number of reasons. For starters, he is on the bereavement list and isn't a lock to return for his first start (I THINK he is?). That first start is also against the White Sox, which isn't the matchup you want after struggling against the Nationals (though Angel Hernandez contributed to that rough outing by, well, being himself). Anyway, Manoah gets a 100 because, let's be honest, I'm starting him in all of my leagues. Even if he misses the first start, he'll be back for the second one.

Ugh, was just searching for Alek Manoah news and hate that I came across this Angel Hernandez umpire scorecard from his last start. So, so, so bad. https://t.co/5630jqhnb0

— mike Maher. (@mikeMaher) August 22, 2021

That's it for this week. Again, if you have any questions, feedback, or requests, hit me up on Twitter!

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Mike Maher is an editor and featured writer at FantasyPros and BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive, follow him on Twitter @MikeMaher, and visit his Philadelphia Eagles blog, The Birds Blitz.