Championships are won by making the right little decisions through the season and micromanaging your lineup well can be the difference maker. Each week, I’ll be taking a look at five hitting matchups you should take advantage of this week, and five hitting matchups you should avoid this week. Here are the batters you should start and avoid for Week 2 (4/10 – 4/16) of the fantasy baseball season.
Note: This article is geared toward middle-of-the-road players, meaning you should be starting top of the line bats regardless of the matchup.
START
Cincinnati Reds hitters but especially Billy Hamilton and Jose Peraza - This week is a good week to start your Reds hitters, as they not only have seven straight games, but some pretty favorable matchups. The only matchup that scares me is Jameson Taillon on Tuesday, especially after how he shut down the Red Sox, and maybe Tyler Glasnow on Monday (he can definitely get some strikeouts), but other than that, the Reds get an incredibly favorable series in Milwaukee. They will be facing Jimmy Nelson, Tommy Milone, Zach Davies, and Wily Peralta, none of whom scare you. And, even better, they get to face Francisco Cervelli with the Pirates and either Jett Bandy or Manny Pina with the Brewers at catcher, all of whom you can easily run on. Billy Hamilton and Jose Peraza are two of the fastest players in baseball, so not only do they have a favorable hitting matchup, but they have a very favorable matchup for stolen bases, so especially start them.
Samardzija’s not a lefty…
Start 2/3 of Castellanos, Lamb, Pearce. Pearce matchups, though he’s splitting time in left, worth starting over either?
Probably Pearce and Lamb, just avoid Lamb on the lefty matchup days.