2019 Fantasy Baseball Weekly Planner: April 15-21

It’s virtually impossible to see some things coming, but by preplanning for each and every week of the Fantasy Baseball season, you can often get a jump on the trends that are brewing around the league. Let’s take a look at how the upcoming week of the MLB campaign is shaping up.

MLB Schedule Breakdown

Who’s Hot

Austin Meadows - After a slow start, Meadows is hitting .632/.708/1.368 with four home runs and a stolen base over the last week. Meadows is a former top prospect and being given not only full run, but hitting at the top of the lineup versus right-handed starters.

Jurickson Profar - What a difference a week makes. Last week, Profar was in the “ Who’s Not” section of this piece and I told you not to freak out and that he would turn it around. Since then he is hitting .421/.429/.789 with two home runs and a stolen base. He obviously won’t keep that up, but he is hitting now at least. This is further proof why we don’t freak out over early numbers.

Caleb Smith - Smith has been fantastic to start the season. He has a ton of great skills, but struggles with giving up home runs. Thankfully, he plays in Miami where the park nullifies a lot of those worries, but as we saw in his second start, when he is on the road he will have problems.

Who’s Not

Jung Ho Kang - Kang is mired in a season long slump, hitting .105/.190/.237 with one home run. After a fantastic spring that reminded many that he was once a very good player, Kang can’t seem to hit anything.  If he cannot turn it around soon, he will find himself on the bench in favor of Colin Moran or possibly top prospect Ke'Bryan Hayes, who has started off hot in Triple-A.

Carlos Carrasco - Carrasco has been awful in two of his first three starts and the other start wasn’t good by any means. Carrasco has had incrementally decreasing velocity the last six seasons, but now the fastball is 93 instead of 96. The main issue is the secondary offerings haven’t been as good and he isn’t throwing them as much. Hopefully there isn’t an injury being hidden, but I am very concerned.

José Ramírez - J-Ram is struggling at the plate, but this is one that doesn’t worry me in the slightest. He still is hitting the ball hard and putting it in the air. Right now it seems like he is just pressing and that will resolve itself in time in the same way it did last year for Paul Goldschmidt . Right now is the time to buy low or hold tight.

Interleague Outlook

Top-25 SP Rankings

On the Rise

Patrick Corbin (SP #13)

Clayton Kershaw (SP #17)

On the Decline

Carlos Carrasco (SP #19, CLE)

Zack Wheeler (SP #25, NYM)

SP Rankings 26-50

On the Rise

Shane Bieber (SP #26, CLE)

Tyler Glasnow (SP #33, TB)

On the Decline

Zack Greinke (SP #40, ARI)

Jon Gray (SP #50, COL)

SP Rankings 51-75

On the Rise

Caleb Smith (SP #60, MIA)

Max Fried (SP #74, ATL)

On the Decline

Nathan Eovaldi (SP #52, BOS)

Yu Darvish (SP #64, CHC)

Rick Porcello (SP #71, BOS)