2019 Fantasy Baseball Weekly Planner: July 22-28

As I sit here at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, New York awaiting the newest class of MLB Hall of Fame inductees to go in, it’s time to start looking forward. Forward in a relative sense as we look at the next week of the schedule as opposed to full careers on display or who’s going in next year. The dog days of Summer are here to stay and the hard trade deadline just a week and a half away, these games will be pivotal to determining who’s on the move, who’s staying put, and which teams are pushing all in for their shot.

Team Schedules

Interleague Outlook

Who’s Hot

Ramón Laureano , OF OAK - One of the most frustrating fantasy options out there, he had another streaky good week last week and is all over the charts above. On top of that his counting stats were good too with three home runs, 11 runs, three RBI, and two steals. When he’s on fire, he’s a great addition to a fantasy and real-life lineup, but when he’s cold, his defense keeps him on the field which obviously doesn’t help in the fantasy realm.

Oscar Mercado , OF CLE - The mid-year call-up is finally really starting to show how consistently good he can be for an MLB lineup. In the last seven games he slashed .435/.500/.870 with three homers, eight RBI, six runs, and three steals. He was originally known for a decent average and good speed when he came up but the power addition to his game has been nice for fantasy owners. If he keeps this up, he could be one of the best mid-year waiver claims of the year.

Teoscar Hernández , OF TOR - Hernandez’s trip down to the farm seems to have started to show rewards now with the last week he posted. Slashing .368/.455/1.000 is a heck of a start but so is four homers, eight runs, and seven RBI. The Blue Jays seem inclined to give him a long leash in center field at this point so if he has finally figured out the bat that showed flashes last year, it’s a great sign for the Blue Jays and fantasy owners alike.

Brandon Crawford , SS SF - He’s more of an honorable mention for the week given that it was really a double-header in Coors at the start of the week that vaulted his numbers up. Slashing .333/.429/.700 with three homers, 12 RBI, and eight runs is still the best sign of life we’ve seen from him this season at the plate even if it was aided by Coors and it’s ability to boost any offenses abilities.

Who’s Not

Charlie Blackmon , OF COL - Blackmon has been unreal at Coors this year, but this past week wasn’t his friend, even with a nice match-up at home against the Giants. The lumberjack looking outfielder, slashed .120/.154/.160 with just two runs and an RBI while striking out more than a quarter of the time. He is in no danger of losing playing time and will still hit at or near the top of the Rockies lineup and it’s likely just bad week for him.

Austin Riley , 3B/OF ATL - The youngster who’s been setting the world on fire for most of his time in the majors, is coming back down to earth. He slashed .167/.200/.208 last week while striking out 44-percent of the time with a run and two RBI. The future is bright for the top third baseman prospect in baseball, at the time of his call-up, but like every rookie, it comes down to how fast he makes adjustments at the highest level. The Braves need the bat in the lineup to keep making the strong push to stay atop the NL East and in all likelihood it will turn around shortly.

Shin-Soo Choo , OF/DH TEX - Choo is normally the most reliable bat in the Rangers lineup; a bona fide hitting and on-base machine. Not this past week though. He slashed just .111/.200/.278 with one home runs, two runs, and an RBI on the tally. The striking out 35.6-percent of the time is unusual for him as well but then again there were a few other Ranger teammates that didn’t have the best weeks either. Choo is too skilled and patient a hitter to stay in a slump very long, just flashback to his on-base streak year or two ago as proof.

Match-Up Breakdowns

The teams in the left column are the away team with their stats showing for road games and the right column shows team stats for those respective team's home games.

Weekend Match-Ups (Thursday/Friday-Sunday)

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