2015 MLB Fantasy Baseball Weekly Preview: Week 18

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Well, we are about a week removed from the trade deadline, and we have learned quite a bit. Regardless of price, stacking the first four Toronto hitters seems like a sure bet on a daily basis. With that being said, starting a pitcher against the Blue Jays is risky enough, but with Troy Tulowitzki atop the order, the notion of paying for a pitcher against that lineup is playing with fire. Heck, more like just jumping right in the inferno. The addition of David Price was huge for this team, giving them a definitive ace in the AL East.

The Cardinals went out and acquired Brandon Moss before the deadline, prompting some questions. It was rather interesting for the Cardinals to put together quite a package for a player who was hitting .217 with 15 homers and 50 RBI. Not to mention that he will sit against lefties while donning the Cardinals jersey. The move hasn’t worked thus far, seeing as he is hitting .136 with zero home runs and one RBI with his new club.

As we move into week 18, we continue to draw closer and closer to the playoffs in our leagues. The Yankees brought up their highly touted prospect Luis Severino, who pitched pretty well in his major league debut. He will be one of the biggest waiver wire additions for the upcoming week, and he has the skill set to help out owners in even the shallowest of formats. He is just the latest of prospects to come up and help out his big league club, yet another indicator that the young guns are coming and coming in bunches.

Let’s run through another edition of the MLB Weekly Preview for MLB Week 18:

GAME BREAKDOWN GRID

For week 18, here are the cold hard facts that you need to know and consider. These are applicable to both your seasonal leagues and daily lineups.

1. Regardless of the matchup, you can’t go wrong with almost any Toronto hitter, especially any of those first four.

2. In the weekend series with the Indians, the Twins have to go up against Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco.

3. If his price tag continues to stay under $4,000 on FanDuel, Randal Grichuk needs to be in your roster more often than not.

4. Sure, J.D. Martinez has been slumping somewhat of late, but given his power potential and a FanDuel price tag right around $3,700, he is a good play all week.

5. 23 of Martinez’s 30 homers have come against righties and he will face six this week.

6. Charlie Blackmon is a solid play every day already, however, Tyson Ross is extremely susceptible to stolen bases, making him a threat to steal multiple bases on Friday.

7. In his last 38 at-bats, Didi Gregorius is hitting .394 with seven runs scored, one home run and 11 RBI. His mid-$2,000s price tag on FanDuel is rather low for this recent production.

8. Through the first seven games in August, Jace Peterson is hitting .345 (10-for-29) with two home runs, seven runs scored and seven RBI.

INTERLEAGUE OUTLOOK

Evan Gattis is the team’s designated hitter almost every day, however, he should get the start on Tuesday in the field against Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants. Expect Preston Tucker to get the start against Chris Heston in the other contest. Gattis is hitting just .222 on the season against lefties, so even though he will likely be in the lineup, it would be best to not start him on FanDuel or in your seasonal lineup. Assuming Tucker does get the start in the outfield against Heston, he would be worth starting, seeing as he is hitting .290 with 10 homers in 169 at-bats against right-handers on the season.

With the Braves trading Chris Johnson to the Indians for Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher, the team has some options when constructing their lineup in their interleague series with the Rays. While manager Fredi Gonzalez said that Swisher can help them at first base while Freeman is on the shelf, I doubt that they will rush Swisher onto the field. He hasn’t played since June 12 and since they have the opportunity for a DH, they should use it for Swisher. Another option is giving A.J. Pierzynski a half-day off, sliding him to designated hitter and giving a start or two to backup Ryan Lavarnway.

STARTING PITCHER RANKINGS

Drew Hutchison is 10-2 on the season. Great. He hasn’t lost in over a month. Great. If you just take that into account, the overall consensus would be that he is having a great season. Well, he seems to be more lucky than great. He has a 5.42 ERA and 1.52 WHIP to go along with those other numbers. Sure, he hasn’t lost since July 3, but since then he has allowed 17 earned runs in 25 innings. Since his last loss, he is averaging just five innings per start, not something that equates to fantasy success, unless you’re striking out double-digit batters in that few innings, which he certainly is not. While Hutchison has been extremely inconsistent for owners this season, he does draw two starts at home this week, where he is 8-1 with a 2.76 ERA on the season.

After trading David Price to the Blue Jays, the Tigers weren’t expecting to see much of a return immediately. Well, Matt Boyd had other plans for his new team. After allowing 11 earned runs on 15 hits in 6 2/3 innings with the Blue Jays, he was wonderful for the Tigers in his team debut. The southpaw allowed just one earned run on seven hits in seven strong innings against the likely playoff bound Kansas City Royals. In week 18, he will the Royals again and another playoff hopeful in the Houston Astros. He will go on the road for both of these starts, making him a questionable play in DFS. However, if you can get him at the right price, he could be the X-factor in your profitable lineup. Even though Boyd beat the Royals in his team debut, the better play seems to be against the Astros, seeing as their team batting average against southpaws is almost 30 points lower than the Royals’ team average. The Astros have hit almost twice as many home runs off lefties, but with the Astros’ strike out woes, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Boyd miss quite a few bats in that weekend matchup.

Over the weekend, the Mets and Pirates will square off in an important series. Both teams need to continue to win to earn a playoff spot. If the Pirates don’t make any adjustments to their rotation, this is what we would get over the weekend. Friday would see Francisco Liriano square off against Bartolo Colon. In Game 2, the Pirates will send out Charlie Morton to face a sneaky good Jonathon Niese. The series finale will see recent acquisition J.A. Happ go against Matt Harvey, one of the aces in the Mets’ loaded rotation. This is going to be one of the better series of the week, and hits could come few and far between with the plethora of pitching talent that will be displayed over the weekend.

What’s the Verdict?

Here is the verdict on a few players in week 18 and whether or not you should play them:

Luis Severino—Tue- @CLE (Carrasco)

Other than the ball David Ortiz sent flying to the bleachers, Severino pitched very well in his debut. While he was a bit erratic at times, he didn’t walk a batter, which is impressive for a young pitcher. He showed that he has plus stuff and his fastball jumped out of his right arm. Cleveland is in the bottom third of the MLB in terms of scoring runs and team batting average. They aren’t a major threat to leave the yard, but Severino’s past shows that he isn’t going to serve up many home run balls. If you ask me, I like this matchup. He does have a second matchup, but seeing as it’s against the Blue Jays, we don’t need to talk about a rookie going up against that powerhouse lineup.

VERDICT: Yes.

Raisel Iglesias— Wed- SD (Shields)

First off, the fact that he is facing the Padres could be reason enough to start the right-hander. The Padres offense has been abysmal this year and have been prone to striking out in bunches against righties. The Padres have the second most strikeouts in all of baseball against right-handers, and seeing that Iglesias has 42 strikeouts over his last seven starts, there is a lot to like here. Since his price tag is typically only around $6,500 on FanDuel, he makes for a great value play.

VERDICT: Yes.