Greetings, friends, and welcome to Week 22 of the Fantasy Baseball Quick Grades series. If you are still reading fantasy baseball articles at the end of August/beginning of September, congratulations. You made it. You’re either really committed to not embarrassing yourself by coming in last place, or you are trying to finish in the money or make the playoffs in H2H formats. We’ve been in week-to-week mode for at least a few weeks now, and that is all the more true as we head into H2H playoffs.
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 22 grades and notes.
Week 22 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
- Nine teams are scheduled to play seven games this week: Braves, Red Sox, Rockies, Tigers, Marlins, Brewers, Giants, Nationals, and Rays.
- The Mets are scheduled to play EIGHT games.
- Teams with the best matchups: Cubs, White Sox, Blue Jays, and Mets.
Fades of the Week
- Although they have good matchups, the White Sox are the only team projected to play just five games this week.
- The Brewers have the worst matchups, followed by the Astros, Cardinals, Orioles, Giants, and Angels.
Notes
- There are four 90.0+ grades this week: Jose Ramirez, Aaron Judge, Teoscar Hernandez, and Frank Schwindel.
- The Adam Frazier era in San Diego is not off to a great start. Frazier is batting just .227 with a .272 OBP and .268 SLG since joining the Padres, and his 48.48 grade for next week is the worst among more than 240 qualifying hitters.
- Giancarlo Stanton is absolutely locked in right now. This is what you get when you roster Stanton. He's hot. He's cold. He's the hottest hitter in baseball. He's ice cold. This is who he is, and this is what he does. He's hot now, so ride it.
- The Red Sox completely bungled the trade deadline, but Kyle Schwarber (their big acquisition who was on the injured list at the time) is batting .353 with a 1.081 OPS over his last 11 games. Schwarber has started appearing in games at first base and could gain eligibility there in some formats as early as this week.
- Myles Straw was traded to Cleveland and has been playing every day. In 26 games since the trade, Straw is batting .280 with two home runs and four stolen bases while scoring 20 runs. He is still available in roughly 50% of leagues and could be valuable down the stretch.
Week 22 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
- Cal Quantrill should have a higher grade. He has been fantastic and has earned more than a 20. I will freely admit that. But something about him facing this same Red Sox lineup for the second time in a row, this time in Fenway Park, doesn't sit right with me. I am starting him in deeper leagues and, admittedly, should be starting him pretty much everywhere at this point. But I am letting my gut interfere with what the numbers are telling me with this decision. Feel free to disagree with me.
- Jon Gray has lost four straight starts. In those four starts, he has allowed 15 earned runs over 20 innings. This week, he gets the Braves at home (at Coors Field). I dropped him down to a 20 because, at this point in the season, I'm only starting him in leagues where I'm desperate.
- Corey Kluber is set to return from the injured list on Monday against the Angels. If all goes well, he lines up for a two-start week. He is reportedly going to be followed by Andrew Heaney on Monday and isn't expected to pitch deep into the game. That makes Monday's start a wash for fantasy purposes, even if you're willing to roll the dice. In daily leagues, I'm sitting him on Monday and waiting to see what my options are for his second start. In weekly leagues, I'm leaving him on the bench for the week.
- Blake Snell gets two starts this week. One is on the road against the Diamondbacks, and the other is at home against the Astros. That Astros start is enough to give me pause, even though it's at home.
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.
