Quickly jump to any page for specific intel
A heightened volume of interleague games leads to a more restful Week 10 for major league teams -- interleague series often span two games with Monday-Thursday bookend days off, causing five-game weekly schedules -- as there are only 87 total games scheduled, 19 of those of the interleague type. A whopping nine teams play only five times -- the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers -- and Monday is an especially quiet day, with only three games on the schedule, one of them a Miami Marlins at Boston Red Sox makeup of their May 30 postponement. In weeks like this, seven-game schedules are huge, and those belong to three teams: The Red Sox, Kansas City Royals and Marlins.
Among that trio of seven-game teams, none stands a clear step ahead of the others in terms of weekly matchups, but the Red Sox and Royals in particular each has an area that fantasy managers can exploit. The Red Sox are scheduled to face three (and possibly four) left-handed starters in their seven games, benefitting lefty-mashing, widely available Hunter Renfroe (69.3% available in ESPN leagues) and Bobby Dalbec (89.5% available), their typical Nos. 6-7 hitters against left-handers with the duo .327/.389/.531 and .296/.321/.593 hitters against lefties in 2021. The Royals have the most favorable set of weekly pitching matchups, thanks to spending their week at pitching-leaning venues Los Angeles' Angel Stadium and Oakland's RingCentral Coliseum, good news for their aligned two-start pitchers. Kris Bubic (71.2% available), who has a 2.53 ERA but also a 1.31 WHIP in his four starts since joining the rotation, is one. The other? It belongs to top prospect Jackson Kowar, (98.7%) who was 5-0 with a 0.85 ERA in six starts for Triple-A Omaha. Add him now.
The Los Angeles Angels and Yankees are the teams most impacted by losing their designated hitter in their interleague games. Usual Angels DH Shohei Ohtani, who didn't start in the field in either of the team's two games at San Francisco's Oracle Park May 31-June 1, is aligned to pitch the Friday series opener at Arizona's Chase Field, but he'd otherwise be limited to pinch-hitting duty, again causing a tough call for his fantasy managers in weekly leagues. What rates better, 7-5-7-5 hitting graded matchups (albeit with a good amount of starting-pitcher variability) while starting 4-of-6 games as a hitter, or his 53 Game Score projected Friday start? I'd lean towards the former, but it's a close call. As for the Yankees, usual DH Giancarlo Stanton hasn't played an inning in the field since Oct. 12, 2019, presumably limiting him to pinch-hitting duty during the team's two-game weekend series at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, and he'll also tangle with 2-of-3 right-handed starters during the week-opening series at Minnesota's Target Field. Stanton, an .063 hitter (1-for-16) with nine strikeouts in his five games since returning from the injured list, looks like a definite sit. Among the other teams influenced by the DH rule: The Diamondbacks, Mets, San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals gain it for two games and the Marlins one, while the Rangers lose it for three games and Cleveland for two.
Short weeks (five games or fewer) and long weeks (seven-plus) cause enough rotation-projection headaches, but the volume of rotation shuffling we've seen this season makes Week 10 especially challenging. Accounting for only the most fantasy-relevant pitching matchup teams -- i.e. this doesn't account for those with tough weeks -- Cleveland has only Shane Bieber and Aaron Civale as regular starters, could use the former as a two-start pitcher and might summon Triston McKenzie (69.1% available) for what would be a strong streaming matchup regardless of assignment. Tony Gonsolin (70.1%), who made his third rehabilitation start, a 51-pitch effort, for Triple-A Oklahoma City on June 3, hasn't been formally announced as the Dodgers' Wednesday pitcher, but all indications are that he'll be activated to start then, getting that great, start-worthy matchup at Pittsburgh's PNC Park. The Milwaukee Brewers have listed Adrian Houser, who pitched five innings of relief on June 1, as their scheduled Tuesday starter, aligning him for a favorable two-start Week 10. The team has, however, been using a six-man rotation at times this year. The Seattle Mariners, who have on only three non-opener occasions all season allowed a starter to work on fewer than five days' rest, could address their persistent rotation injuries by giving Marco Gonzales a pair of favorable matchups (at Detroit Tigers, at Cleveland).
In addition to the Dodgers' brilliant overall pitching matchups -- again, they face the Pirates and Rangers, both bottom-seven teams in terms of wOBA -- their hitting matchups also grade best-in-the-league. That's despite their first three coming at pitching-friendly Pittsburgh's PNC Park, and it's primarily because they won't face much in the way of elite, proven starting pitching. Cody Bellinger, who hit his first home run since his return from the IL in his fifth game back on June 2, should finally get things going with the bat this week. The team also got AJ Pollock (52.5% available) back from the IL on June 4, and should play him frequently enough in left field to make him a worthwhile, universal fantasy start.
The Pirates, naturally, draw the week's least favorable schedule, in large part because of that week-opening series against the Dodgers. It doesn't help that they'll finish with three games against the Brewers, who will surely pitch either (and probably both) of Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes during the series, with those pitching matchups neutralizing the benefits of the games being played at the more hitting-friendly Milwaukee's American Family Field. Pirates players aren't popular plays in fantasy in general, with Ke'Bryan Hayes, Richard Rodriguez, Bryan Reynolds and Adam Frazier effectively the only justifiable mixed-league plays facing this schedule, but even those four might struggle to generate useful numbers during Week 10. Rodriguez is probably your best bet, the closer for a team that might have to eke out any wins.
The Cincinnati Reds will spend the entirety of Week 10 at Great American Ball Park, the most homer-friendly venue in baseball both this and last season and second-best run scoring environment in 2021, boosting their offensive profile in fantasy. They'll host the Brewers and Colorado Rockies for three games apiece, drawing Brewers fifth (and possibly also fourth) starters Brett Anderson (and Houser), and contact-oriented Rockies starters Kyle Freeland and Antonio Senzatela. While the Reds' best hitters -- Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker -- are almost universally rostered, they've been getting good mileage out of their two catcher-eligibles, Tucker Barnhart (79.5% available) and Tyler Stephenson (95.2%), with the latter making 14 consecutive starts through June 3, thanks to 10 of those coming at first base. Barnhart is a .328/.417/.541 hitter in 20 home games and Stephenson .340/.444/.453 in 20 there, and both are well worth the add-and-start if you're hurting at catcher.
The Chicago White Sox, a righty-heavy lineup with baseball's best wOBA against left-handers (.355) and sixth-widest wOBA split in that direction (36 points), are scheduled to face a league-high four left-handed starters (tied with the Orioles and Rays), explaining their strong righty-hitting matchups grade. Keep close tabs on Andrew Vaughn's (63.0% available) status, as if he's ready to return in time from the COVID-19 injured list, hit .300/.429/.700 rates against lefties suggest he'll capitalize in a big way. Cleveland, meanwhile, is scheduled to face four righties in five games, which is good news for righty-mashing Josh Naylor (93.1% available), a .294/.330/.468 hitter against right-handers thus far this season.
With the lighter schedule comes an especially light week as far as two-start pitchers, with only 23 currently projected to take two turns. Four of them -- the aforementioned Bieber, the Cubs' Adbert Alzolay, Mets' David Peterson and Yankees' Jordan Montgomery -- could also see their second starts pushed back into Week 11, should those teams choose to use five-man rotations. Sonny Gray might be the safest, most reliable two-start pitcher of the week.