Monday after a long weekend is where many of us are at right now. If things turned out as hoped you've got a big smile on your face. For the rest of us who don't feel that way, we're sporting angry frowns. I don't want to be a part of the down side, I want to be part of the solution. I'm trying to help those that need a pick me up Monday. Maybe you can find a nugget or two in this piece to help out your fantasy squad for Monday, June 23rd.
* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data. Just because a player is not listed does not mean that he is a bad or good play. The players listed below are mentioned merely because of the BVP data for the matchup.
DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Gordon Beckham faces lefty Wei-Yin Chen Monday. In 47 at-bats against port siders this year he's gone deep twice while batting .383. Jose Abreu is only batting 237 against lefties but he does have five big flies in 59 at-bats.
Endy Chavez has a rather amazing eight hits in 13 at-bats against John Lackey. His .615 batting average is nearly double the .309 mark that Robinson Cano has posted in 55 at-bats.
Nelson Cruz and Adam Jones annihilate lefties. In 61 at-bats Cruz has hit .426 with five homers and 15 RBIs. He's also walked 14 times leading to an OBP of .526. Adam Jones has hit .405 with five bombs of his own. Will the duo be able to do anything against, arguably, the best lefty in the American League in Chris Sale? Hard to think they will have anything remotely approaching the type of success they've thrown up against lefties this season.
Khris Davis has hit .359 with six bombs and 16 RBIs in 64 at-bats against lefties this year. He faces a struggling Gio Gonzalez Monday.
Todd Frazier has hit .318 with two bombs and a .423 OBP against Jeff Samardzija over 22 plate appearances. Devin Mesoraco has hit a big fly while batting .545 over 11 at-bats.
Maybe our human ancestry isn't as is simple as we thought.
David Ortiz has 31 at-bats against Felix Hernandez. He's hit .323 with a homer and five RBIs.
Buster Posey has hit .417 with two homers against Andrew Cashner in 12 at-bats.
Jimmy Rollins has eight nits in 21 at-bats against Nathan Eovaldi. He's gone deep and stolen a base too. Chase Utley has a mere .733 OPS but he's also hitting .286 with seven RBIs in just 21 at-bats.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Domonic Brown has one RBI while posting a .461 OPS in 20 plate appearances against Nathan Eovaldi. How bad is this guy?
Omar Infante has the following slash line against Zack Greinke over 27 plate appearances: .185/.185/.333. That's not getting it done. Nope.
James Loney has one hit in 12 at-bats against Edinson Volquez.
Manny Machado has hit .185 this season in 54 at-bats against lefties. Good luck hitting off Chris Sale. Same to you Chris Davis. Yeah you've got four homers and 15 RBIs over 75 at-bats against lefties, but you're also batting .240 with 24 strikeouts, or one every three at-bats. Might be a rough day fellas.
Mike Napoli is one of the many Red Sox who struggle against Felix Hernandez. In 36 at-bats he's not only hit .167 and he's also struck out 14 times. Terrible. A.J. Pierzynski is just as bad with his .225 average and .637 OPS (42 PAs). Then there is Jonny Gomes and Daniel Nava. Both those guys are 3-for-14.
Hunter Pence has one hit against Andrew Cashner in 12 at-bats.
Plenty o' Reds struggle against the Cubs' Jeff Samardzija. Let's focus on three guys. Zack Cozart has a .656 OPS over 28late plate appearances. Actually, that's normal for him. Brandon Phillips has hit .212 with a .418 OPS over 33 plate appearances. That's hideously awful. Joey Votto has a .214 average and eight punchouts in 28 at-bats.
Jean Segura showed some uncommon power at the end of last week. Don't expect this week to start out the same. He faces Gio Gonzalez and against lefties this year he's hitting .155 with two RBIs over 58 at-bats.
How Seth Smith has accrued 29 at-bats against Matt Cain is a total shock. I say that because he has two hits, two, in the matchup.
Ryan Sweeney is 1-for-11 against Alfredo Simon.
Will Venable has two homers against Matt Cain but he's also batting .220 with a .298 OBP over 46 plate appearances.
Bookmark the following three sources to check daily after you read this piece.
Fantasy Alarm Lineups
Batter Versus Pitcher
Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.
MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Matt Cain starts at home against the Padres. He's been hit or miss this year, no doubt, but he's mostly been on when facing the Padres roster in his career: .195/.245/.325 over 200 at-bats.
Wei-Yin Chen has lowered his ERA to 3.78 while pushing his K/BB ratio up to 5.00. That second number is extremely impressive. He has been been bit by the long ball though, four in his last three starts and seven in his last five. He faces a White Sox club though that is just 19th in OPS against lefties and Chen does own a 3.13 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in seven home starts.
Alex Cobb has only one win his last six starts. Twice he's pitched poorly, but in the other four outings he's allowed a total of four earned runs. He's also punched out 17 over his last 13.1 innings while allowing one earned runs. The Pirates are 11th in OPS against righties, but Cobb seems pretty well locked in at the moment.
Matt Garza is having a really hard time, not just throwing to first base, but getting any kind of traction. He's certainly looked better of late, he's allowed a mere six earned runs over his last four starts, and he's gone at least six innings in each of his last seven starts. Still, he has only six strikeouts over his last 20.2 innings. Luckily for him he's pitching at home (2.89 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3 to 1 K/BB ratio over eight starts) against the Nationals (7th worst OPS this season against righties).
Chris Sale, even against the Orioles, is a must start. Oddly, in his 10 starts this season he's only made two trips to the hill on the road. Oh, he's killed it there too don't worry (2.40 ERA, 0.87 WHIP).
Edinson Volquez faces the Rays Monday in Florida. Here are the batting average marks of some of the Rays batters the last 30 days: Matt Joyce .250, Desmond Jennings .243, Logan Forsythe .238, James Loney .234, Ben Zobrist .226, Yunel Escobar .204, Jose Molina .191 and Sean Rodriguez .171.
Chase Whitley faces the beat up Blue Jays in Toronto. He's made seven starts and gone more than 5.0 innings just twice, so wins can be elusive. He's yet to allow more than three runs in an outing though and he's given up just one homer all year while walking just four batters. He also held the Jays to two runs over five innings last week.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Nathan Eovaldi throws hard. He's also been very inconsistent of late and downright poor in his last two trips to the bump in which he's allowed 11 runs over just 10.2 innings. He faces the Phillies in Philly, and though he held the club to one earned run on May 21st he did allow three runs in that game along with 10 hits. He's also got a 4.00 ERA and 1.49 WHIP in eight starts against the Phillies.
Roberto Hernandez, even against the Marlins... how do you trust him? He's got one win in nine starts, has allowed four homers in his last three outings and his ERA has gone from 3.76 to 4.53 over his last four starts.
This is pretty funny... inventive at least. Who knew you could use nail polish is such inventive ways. A uterus pinata? Yes, I just typed uterus pinata... twice.
Lance Lynn pitches in Colorado. All you really need to know, right? Might as well bench Jhoulys Chacin as well. His goal each game is a quality start, Yippee. He has a sickly 1.42 K/BB ratio on the year and his in four home starts his numbers are, average (3.80 ERA, 1.35 WHIP).
Marcus Stroman has a great arm. Right now it's not resulting in positive results. His last two starts have resulted, how many times can I use the “r” word in one right write up?, in two losses. Still he's ERA has come down over the course of his last four outings, so at least he's going in the right direction. He faces the Yankees in Toronto.
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.