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Fantasy baseball's Week 12 begins with a Monday of only night games (nine of them in total), the earliest two having 7:05 p.m. scheduled starts, so managers will have additional time to set their lineups. For the remainder of your week's daily lineup planning, Tuesday has one day game, the first of the Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Guardians doubleheader on ESPN+ at 1:10 p.m. ET, among 16 total games. Wednesday has eight day games, the first scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET, and 15 total. Thursday has one day game, Twins at Guardians at 1:10 p.m. ET, and eight total. Friday has two day games, the first on tap for 2:20 p.m. ET, among 15 total. Saturday has 11 day games, the first being Game 1 of a Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays doubleheader at 12:07 p.m. ET, and 16 total. Sunday's games begin at 12:05 p.m. ET, one of 14 day games and 15 overall, concluding with St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball at 7 p.m. ET.
Additional ESPN+ games for Week 12 include Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners on Monday at 10:10 p.m. ET, Cincinnati Reds at Chicago Cubs on Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. ET and Atlanta Braves at Philadelphia on Thursday at 6:05 p.m. ET.
Week 12 heightens the number of rescheduled games originally postponed by the lockout, as there are three make-up games, two of which create the aforementioned doubleheaders, making this the first of what will be eight of the final 13 scoring periods in which there are at least three makeups for specifically lockout-postponed games. Week 13 is especially busy -- it has an additional three such makeups, as well as two more that reschedule previous rainouts -- so teams will surely be kept busy between now and the All-Star break. These rescheduled Week 11 games mean that the Twins and Blue Jays will each play eight-game schedules, giving both teams significant volume-driven advantages. That's especially valuable for the Blue Jays, who will face competitive Boston Red Sox (three week-opening games) and Rays (five weekend) teams at home, helping offset in weekly formats some of the tougher individual matchups involved. The Twins, meanwhile, also benefit from the extra game, as they begin their week with a five-game series at the talented Guardians, before getting a trio of much-softer matchups back home against the Orioles.
Those Blue Jays, incidentally, gain the benefit of a "right-handed friendly" schedule on offense, with three games (and possibly four) projected against left-handed starters. No team has accumulated more plate appearances from righty hitters than the Blue Jays, and they have a 22-point wOBA split favoring better performance against lefties. All of your name-brand Blue Jays hitters have massive numbers against lefties between 2021-22, but you should also add and start Santiago Espinal (52.8% available), a .342/.401/.459 hitter against lefties during that time span. Additionally, rookie Gabriel Moreno (90.5%) has been a .426/.461/.529 hitter against lefties between the minors and majors in 2021-22 and is a worthy deep-mixed/AL-only stash or streaming option.
It's the Colorado Rockies who have baseball's best hitting schedule of Week 12, thanks to six games at Coors Field, three apiece against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies are aligned to face four left-handed starters, three of them from the Dodgers, which is great news for a team that is significantly better against lefties than righties, ranking second in batting average (.292), third in wOBA (.345) and seventh in strikeout rate (19.6%) against left-handers in 2022. Kris Bryant, who has a career wOBA 40 points higher against lefties (.404) than righties (.364), should be back in action as the team's regular left fielder and No. 3 hitter for the full week, so activate him everywhere for this fantasy-friendly schedule. Connor Joe (37.5% available in ESPN leagues) and Brendan Rodgers (47.8% available), .318/.403/.485 and .317/.367/.593 hitters against lefties since the beginning of 2021, should also capitalize and are well worth an add-and-start.
The Diamondbacks, one of the Rockies' opponents for the aforementioned games, are one of the four teams to draw the short end of the scheduling stick, joining the Detroit Tigers, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants in playing only five games. Unlike the other three, the Diamondbacks' Coors assignments give them a fighting chance on offense, even if those games mean scheduled weekend starters Merrill Kelly (Friday), Zach Davies (Saturday) and Dallas Keuchel (Sunday) are a no-go in fantasy. Daulton Varsho, incidentally, has homered twice with a .568 wOBA in five career games at Coors, and he, Ketel Marte and Christian Walker should all absolutely remain active despite the short week. Zac Gallen also draws the San Diego Padres as his lone opponent, on Tuesday, and should be kept universally active.
The Milwaukee Brewers could get Brandon Woodruff (hand, 15-day IL) back in action on Wednesday, as he threw 74 pitches and five innings of one-run baseball in his second minor-league rehabilitation start for Class A Wisconsin on June 23, and he'll return at an ideal time as far as matchups go. He and his teammates are scheduled for six road games at pitching-friendly venues of the Rays (two games), which will be Woodruff's opponent, and Pittsburgh Pirates (four games), teams that rank 25th (3.75) and 21st (4.14) in runs per game in June. Woodruff, along with two-start pitcher Eric Lauer (22.3% available) and rookie Jason Alexander (97.8%), who is doing the opposite of pitching poorly, all warrant places in your mixed-league lineups.
The White Sox, who were profiled in this space last week for their favorable Week 11 home schedule, now draw the inverse, a challenging road trip where we'll see whether they can maintain their year-to-date relative road success (18-16, plus-9 run differential). They'll visit the Los Angeles Angels for three games, facing Shohei Ohtani (projected Tuesday) in the process, then the Giants for three, where they'll square off against Logan Webb and that team's finally healthy rotation. Five of the team's six opposing starters (and perhaps all six) are right-handed, which is a problem for a White Sox offense that ranks sixth-worst with a .289 wOBA against that side. This is not a good week to activate Jake Burger or AJ Pollock, .231/.274/.402 and .234/.276/.303 hitters against righties this season, despite their middle-of-the-lineup roles.
The Mets, one of the aforementioned five teams scheduled for only five games, could get Max Scherzer (oblique, 15-day IL) back in action on June 26 (Sunday of Week 11), and certainly he should return for the team's Week 12 home series against the Texas Rangers if the team decides to be more patient with the ace right-hander. Scherzer threw 65 pitches in a June 21 rehabilitation start for Double-A Binghamton, meaning he should be back within the 85-90 range by his projected Sunday-of-Week-12 turn and a certain start in all leagues (barring unexpected setbacks), even those with weekly transactions.