Editor's Note: Tristan H. Cockcroft is on vacation and will return for Week 19's Forecaster.
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A couple of schedule oddities grace the Week 18 schedule: The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels will play a doubleheader at Los Angeles' Angel Stadium on Tuesday, in which the Blue Jays will be the home team for Game 1. Additionally, the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox will play the "Field of Dreams" game in Dyersville, Iowa, on Thursday, before each team has Friday off, then travels back to Chicago to complete the final two games of the series.
The trade deadline frenzy may be over, but that doesn't mean rotations will be settling down. In fact, now is about the time teams will begin to manage workloads based on last season's abbreviated campaign. We've already seen the Brewers truncate a recent Freddy Peralta start without much notice and they say they'll continue to repeat it every now and again. Though, there is no word if Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes will receive the same treatment. Recall Milwaukee stated their plan is limiting their starters to 100 more innings than they tossed last year. That leaves around 45 for Woodruff and 55 for Burnes. With eight weeks left, Woodruff projects to go well over while Burnes is right on pace.
Week 18 marks the return of a pair of the league's top hurlers. Chris Sale is set to make his season debut for Boston after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery while Jack Flaherty is slated to return for St. Louis after missing more than three months with an oblique injury.
This will be an intriguing week for the Red Sox rotation. Martin Perez and Garrett Richards have struggled mightily with Perez the likely candidate to cede his rotation spot to Sale. The Red Sox could elect to replace Richards with Tanner Houck.
Another rotation in flux is the New York Yankees as they await their own Tommy John returnee with Luis Severino currently rehabbing in the minors. The club's pitching has been thinned with Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery on the COVID-19 IL plus injuries to Domingo German and Michael King. Luis Gil was impressive in a spot start and could stick around. Deivi Garcia could also be summoned, but he hasn't pitched well for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Week 18 features seven teams with five games, though no one will spend the entire week at home. The Reds and Brewers will be away for all seven while the Cubs, Indians, Angels, Padres and Blue Jays split the week home and away. Only the Astros are slated for five games with the other 22 clubs scheduled for six contests. The only doubleheader takes place on Tuesday with the Blue Jays playing a pair in Anaheim with the Angels.
There are only two interleague series on the docket. The Rockies visit Houston for a short two-game set early in the week while the Cardinals and Royals renew their battle of the Show Me state with three games over the weekend. The Royals have two righthanders lined up, so perhaps Matt Carpenter will get a chance for some action.
Despite missing Fernando Tatis Jr, the San Diego Padres line up for a big week offensively. The Friars open at home with three games against the Marlins but miss most of their better arms as Zach Thompson and Braxton Garrett are on the ledger for the first two. San Diego then heads to the desert for a four-game set where they'll face the weak Arizona rotation. Along with Garrett, the Padres will also face southpaws Caleb Smith and Madison Bumgarner. As a team, San Diego has surprisingly struggled against lefty pitching with the 11th lowest wOBA against them. However, much of that was done without Austin Nola who historically handles lefties well along with newly acquired Jake Marisnick.
As mentioned, the Brewers will be away from hitter-friendly American Family Field all week, but they'll visit a pair of pitching-starved NL Central foes. Milwaukee starts the week in Wrigley Field where they'll draw four righthanders. This bodes well for Kolten Wong, Omar Narvaez and Rowdy Tellez. The Brew Crew then head to the Steel City where they'll see another pair of middling righties before facing lefty Steven Brault to end the week.
As mentioned, Cincinnati is on the road all week, but they'll visit a duo of home run friendly venues. They begin the week making up a game in Cleveland, which boosts lefty power before embarking on a three-game series in Atlanta. The combination of altitude and hot weather render Truist Park as a latent place for homers. It's no secret Citizens Bank Park embellishes the long ball and that's where the Reds close out the week with the hittable Ranger Suarez and Chase Anderson slated to take the hill for the home team.
Keeping in mind rotation shuffling can easily smear potential platoon edges, four of the Pirates six home games are slated to be against a lefthander. Unfortunately, with Adam Frazier traded to the Padres, Bryan Reynolds is the only Buc handling lefties with authority. The Yankees draw three lefties in their six tilts so perhaps this is the week Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge do their best imitation of the Bash Brothers.
On the flip side, other than the Brewers reviewed above, the Dodgers and Mets are slated to face six righthanders. If you've been waiting on Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto to get going, this lines up to be a good week.
Finally, if you're in the market for some steals, the Nationals, Mets and Cubs all face batteries susceptible to the running game. The major beneficiary could be Victor Robles as the Nationals need to generate offense and Robles is finally showing signs of life. As a team, the Mets haven't run much but if Jonathan Villar plays, he's a threat to take off whenever there is an open base in front of him while newly-acquired Javier Baez has been known to pilfer a bag or two. Without Baez, the Cubs don't have anyone swiping double-digits, though Rafael Ortega could take advantage if he stops hitting homers and settles for singles.