2019 Fantasy Baseball Weekly Planner: August 5-11

It’s after the trade deadline and time for the last two-month push for the playoffs are trying to make claims to roster spots for next year. With that in mind let’s see how this next week shapes up for fantasy rosters.

Team Schedules

Interleague Outlook

Who’s Hot

Max Kepler , OF MIN – The Twins have needed all the offense they can muster as they try and keep their lead over the Indians in the AL Central and Kepler has been providing it. He’s got a six-game hitting streak going entering Sunday and has hit safely in 12 of 14 games. In those six games, he hit three bombs and scored 10 runs with six RBI and a higher walk rate than strikeout rate. Kepler has been very dangerous against right-handed pitching this year and there are no signs of that slowing down anytime soon.

Starling Marte , OF PIT – Marte has been in the middle of trade rumors since seemingly last year and now without the August trade period, he can settle in and play some baseball for a few months. He slashed .400/.464/.760 with three homers, 10 runs, seven RBI, and three steals in the last six games and 28 PA. The outfielder is playing for a Pirates squad that is just treading water at this point but that doesn’t mean that weeks like this don’t help his fantasy value down the stretch.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. , 3B TOR – Vladito is finally starting to arrive the way we all expected him to with a .500/.536/.962 slash line this past week with three homers, 15 RBI, and five runs scored. The Blue Jays are really trying to show off their young corps of players with he and Bo Bichette up now along with Cavan Biggio and they are all hitting the ball well of late including Bichette, who up till Sunday, had a hit in each of his first six MLB games. They will look forward to ruining some teams Wild Card hopes down the stretch with bats like this in the lineup.

Adam Duvall , OF ATL – Duvall had been putting on a show at Triple-A Gwinnett all year with 29 homers and 80-plus RBI before being recalled to Atlanta last weekend. That bat has traveled to Atlanta where he hit .385/.393/.923 in seven games with four homers, six runs, and six RBI for the Braves as they extended their division lead over the Nationals and Phillies. With Nick Markakis out of action for several more weeks, Duvall should get a bunch of at-bats coming his way.

Who’s Not

Keston Hiura , 2B MIL – The heralded prospect for the Brewers has been seemingly untouchable at the plate so far this year, until this past week. In six games and 25 plate appearances, he slashed .136/.240/.182 with just one run tallied for the counting stats. The Brewers are in the middle of a three-team race for the NL Central division title and the NL Wild Card and will need all the help they can get from the offense with Hiura being a key cog in that. Pitchers will adjust to him and he’ll have to adjust back, something we’ve seen some other rookies have issues with this year already, name Michael Chavis and Austin Riley .

Kris Bryant , 3B CHC – In case you haven’t noticed, the Cubs offense has been slumping the past week as they continue to fight for the NL Central lead. If Bryant wasn’t the choice, it could have been Anthony Rizzo or Willson Contreras or newly-acquired Nicholas Castellanos for some context. Bryant, in six games and 25 plate appearances, hit .120/.120/.120 with two runs total for the stat line. The whole heart of the order is slumping and it will likely take a reemergence from Bryant or Rizzo to get them out of it and to really start putting distance into the NL Central race.

Eloy Jiménez , OF CWS – Across town, Jimenez, freshly off the IL recently, has struggled to get back. He slashed .154/.154/.192 with one run and a 38.5-percent K-rate in the six games this past week. The slugger has been very good in his rookie year this year but he is starting to hit the wall a bit, or taking a bit to get back in the groove after the IL stint. The White Sox aren’t going to compete down the stretch but he is vying for a Rookie of the Year award and will need the last two months to cement his standing in the race.

Bubba Starling, OF KC – The former first-round selection of the Royals has waited a long time to get the call to the bigs and this isn’t how he likely envisioned his time in the majors starting. In five games and 19 PA, the outfielder slashed .111/.111/.111 with one run and one RBI and a whopping 52.6-percent K-rate. Kansas City does want to see what they have in him aside from the feel-good story of him making major leagues and if this keeps up, he will likely go back to Triple-A Omaha.

Match-Up Breakdowns

The left column shows stats for road games and the right column shows home game stats.

Weekend Match-Ups (Thursday/Friday - Sunday)

Early Week Match-Ups (Monday/Tuesday – Wednesday/Thursday)