We are back! It is that time of the week when we look at quick grades for hitters for the upcoming week. This article and the grades are designed to help you plan out your upcoming week’s lineups. Sometimes decisions can be tough, so I have done all the work and taken all biases out of the equation. Quick Grades is designed to project the upcoming week and give you an idea of who has the best chance to post a solid performance. What goes into it? Let’s talk about it.

The Quick Grade Series

Each week, I will provide breakdowns of hitters with a grade range from 40 to 100. Think about a school grade (90-100 being an A, 80-89 equaling a B, and 70-79 = C, and so on). Grades are weighted based on several different factors that I discuss below.

Week five covers games for the week of Monday, May 9, through Sunday, May 15.

You can find Week 4’s Quick Grades here.

How It Works

We established that each hitter would have a grade based on four categories that would land them a total score between 40 and 100. Each of the four categories will are graded from 10 to 25, which lands us at that total score. Here is what goes into it:

• Games Played – Let’s start simple. The more games played in a week, the more stats a player can accumulate. Maximizing plate appearances for fantasy baseball is huge. If the player you roster has seven games versus a different player having five games, it is a no-brainer. If a team is scheduled to play seven games that week, the team’s hitter will get 25 points. Six games earn a hitter 22 points, and five games drop you down to 18.
  • *Note this week Oakland plays 9 games. They get bonus points and their games played score has been bumped to 28. Teams that are scheduled to play eight games also get extra credit and bumped to 26 points.
• Ballpark Factors – Is a hitter playing four games in Coors? What about three in Oakland? These things matter. We will use the FantasyPros park factors to help us out there. I have created an algorithm that gives each ballpark a score from 10-25. Then factoring in how many games a hitter plays where each week, a score of 10-to-25 is given.
• Matchups – Does a hitter have strong splits against a left or right-handed pitcher? What if they face three lefties this week with a poor split against lefties. We factor that in. What about facing a murderers’ row of pitchers like Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta. All these factors are taken into account.
• Projections – Finally, we will factor in projections. I will update using FantasyPros projections and scale them down to a weekly projection. It is not perfect, but using projections with the other factors can help project how a player might perform.

Week 5 Hitter Grades (5/9-5/15)

Team to Stream

• Milwaukee Brewers - The Brewers lineup has been getting hot recently and next week is a chance to continue to build on it. The Brewers get three games in Cincinnati getting Luis Castillo's first start back on top of Vladimir Gutierrez and Hunter Greene who have both struggled this year. They then face the Marlins but get a struggling Trevor Rogers and Elieser Hernandez. It is a prime week for Brew crew to stay hot at the plate.

Team to Fade

• Seattle Mariners - The Mariners get some brutal matchups next week. First, they get the Phillies at home and are slated to face Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Kyle Gibson. They then face off with the Mets and even though they are scheduled to avoid Max Scherzer, they still have to face Chris Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco, and Tylor Megill. It's just not a great week upcoming for Mariners' hitters.

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Chris Clegg is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Chris, check out his archive and follow him @RotoClegg.