Daily Trends: April 25th

Friday is such a finality. The work week is over for most. The fun is about to commence for most (not like me since I party every night. Honestly, I do now more than when I was in college. Good or bad? I'll leave that up to you to decide). Here are the best and worst matchups for game action Friday.

Friday is such a finality. The work week is over for most. The fun is about to commence for most (not like me since I party every night. Honestly, I do now more than when I was in college. Good or bad? I'll leave that up to you to decide). Here are the best and worst matchups for game action Friday.

DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
 
Book it. Miguel Cabrera will bash Kevin Correia's brains in Friday. Miggy has hit .393 with eight RBIs in 28 previous battles. The turn around begins.

If the Braves check the numbers Ryan Doumit will be on the field against Homer Bailey. That's what good managers do when they notice that their batters are hitting .500 off a guy with 50 percent of the hits going for extra bases (16 ABs).

Eric Hosmer should have success against the spotty Ubaldo Jimenez as he always has (.364 with two homers and six RBIs in 22 at-bats).

Torii Hunter has struggled versus lefties this season but he's hitting a respectable .279 against righties. He's also 6-for-10 against human pitching machine, righty Kevin Correia.

Jason Kubel isn't impressed with Rick Porcello's sinker. In 30 at-bats he's hit .433.

David Ortiz will have success against Mark Buehrle no matter how well the soft tosser has done to this point. Over 78 plate appearances Ortiz has hit .329 with a .947 OPS. He's also got three bombs and 13 RBIs. Dustin Pedroia has also hit .364 in 33 at-bats against MB.

Ian Stewart... will he be in the lineup? If he is you might consider starting him. He's hit .462 in 13 at-bats against Hiroki Kuroda though he's only hit .185 against righties this year.

Ben Zobrist has his average up to .310 an his OBP is .404. He's also had at least two hits in four of his last six games and he's scored seven runs in those games. He takes on the struggling Erik Johnson Friday.

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Brian Dozier has hit .239 against Detroit in his career. He's hit .235 at home this season. He's hit .224 against righties in his career. He faces righty Rock Porcello.

Alcides Escobar versus Ubaldo Jimenez has a nice ring. Unfortunately the results have clearly favored the hurler as Alcides has hit .130 with a .410 OPS over 23 at-bats. Cold teammate Salvador Perez doesn't figure to kick things into gear Friday. He's 2-for-13 against Ubaldo.

Chris Johnson has --- stunk this year. Shocker. Well not at all. I told you he would stink. Boy has he. He will continue to smell like rancid chicken Friday when he faces Homer Bailey who has limited him to one hit in 12 at-bats (he's also struck out seven times).

Evan Longoria has hit .315 with a .377 OBP versus right-handed pitching this season. Erik Johnson though has been really tough on righties limiting them to a .229 average and .275 OBP. That might mean you could be a bit nervous about Wil Myers as well given that he's hitting a rough .231 with a .310 OBP this season even though he's been much better against righties at .280.

Albert Pujols has 500 homers and he's rebounded nicely to start the year. He's also hitting just .258 against right-handed pitching with a .333 OBP. He faces Hiroki Kuroda who he's hitting only .273 against without a single walk over 22 plate appearances.

Don't let you pet fall asleep in a chair. If you do, the fire department might need to be called.

Pablo Sandoval has hit under .200 against righties. Even though he faces the struggling Carlos Carrasco he's still really tough to trust Friday.

Carlos Santana faces the completely locked in Tim Hudson. Given that Santana is the polar opposite of that, he's hitting .137 with three RBIs this season, it's best to leave him on the bench versus painfully watching him get carved up by Hudson.

Grady Sizemore is a mess after a solid start to the year. He will fall further Friday as he has hit all of .217 in 69 at-bats versus Mark Buehrle.

Ichiro Suzuki (.196 in 46 at-bats) and Brett Gardner (.154 in 13 at-bats) have had no success against C.J. Wilson. Bench whichever one starts for the Yankees.

Bookmark the following sources to check daily after you read this piece.

Batter Versus Pitcher

Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.

MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target

Henderson Alvarez has a 2.66 ERA through four starts. He's also coming off a nine inning shutout of the Mariners. A Mariner is a fisherman. The team for Miami is the Marlins (a fish). Just pointing it out. The Mets aren't exactly an offense to be overly concerned with, are they? Start Alvarez with confidence.

Jesse Chavez allowed one run over six innings in his last start which was against the Astros, the team he faces again Friday. Chavez has also made two starts on the road this season with a 1.29 ERA and 0.71 WHIP. Oh, and I did mention the start is against the Astros, right?

Interesting or perverted? You decide.

Tim Hudson is pitching at home. Tim Hudson has worked at least seven innings in each of his four outings. Tim Hudson has a 2.40 ERA. Tim Hudson hasn't issued a single walk. Good luck Indians.

Robbie Ross owns a 2.31 ERA in four starts this season. One of those starts was against the Mariners on April 15th when he worked 7.2 scoreless innings (the team he takes on Friday). Ross hasn't issued a walk in his last two outings and three of the four times he's taken the bump he's allowed two or fewer runs.

Stephen Strasburg takes on the Padres in Washington. In 43 starts at home he's the owner of a 2.61 ERA, 1.01 WHIP an a 6.12 K/BB mark. Good luck Padres.

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

Matt Garza has allowed 17 hits over his last 12 innings. He's allowed nine earned runs over his last 12 innings. He's currently sporting a 2.71 K/BB ratio, and that would be a four year low after three years in a row over three. He's worked three games at night this year and his ERA is 6.00 and that WHIP is 1.72. He likes the sun. He won't see it Friday.

Jordan Lyles has a 3.04 ERA and has looked pretty solid his last three outings. Don't expect that streak to reach four in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Lyles has a 6.30 ERA and 1.40 WHIP on the road this year, and his lone career start against the Dodgers resulted in seven runs allowed in 5.1 innings.

Jake Peavy allowed five runs the last time out. He's also walked four batters in each of his last three starts leading to a poor 1.79 K/BB rate. He's also allowed four homers in four outings, and the Blue Jays can certainly put a charge into the ball.

Yordano Ventura faces an Orioles lineup that hits pretty well against lefties at .285 as a club. The game will take place in Baltimore, a good place to hit, and Ventura is coming off a sloppy outing in which he gave up 10 base runners (six hits, four walks) in four innings.

Carlos Villanueva has about as much of a chance of being a winner on Friday as you do when you try to throw those rings on the plates that are floating on water at the carnival (I'm convinced they merely pay an employee to walk around all day with one of those five foot stuffed animals. No one wins those). He faces a Brewers lineup filled with righties and right-handers have murdered him this season to the tune of a .429/.429/.556 slash line.

Make sure you tune in to the Fantasy Alarm's Daily Game Show at 6 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87) as Jeff Mans and Ted Schuster will help you to set your daily lineups.