Fantasy Baseball Forecaster Week 20: August 11-17

Fantasy baseball's Week 20 brings us the trade deadline in ESPN standard leagues. All trades must be submitted and accepted no later than noon ET on Friday.

The annual Little League Classic closes the Week 20 schedule, as the Seattle Mariners and New York Mets square off on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the game being played at Muncy Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The prior two games of the Mariners-Mets series will be played at New York's Citi Field, meaning the park factors won't shift much for the series finale on Sunday, as both venues lean pitching-friendly. That said, Muncy Bank Ballpark has been a slightly tougher venue on right- than left-handed hitters, whereas Citi Field has been more balanced (albeit tougher on lefties for home runs specifically).

Running concurrent to that series is another showdown between the Los Angeles Dodgers, the leaders in the National League West, and the second-place San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium from Friday through Sunday. The Dodgers currently lead the season series, 5-2, though the Padres have scored the greater number of runs in those games, 37-35.

A pair of recently traded pitchers are lined up to face their former teams. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers meet up Monday through Wednesday at Texas' Globe Life Field in a rematch of their 2023 World Series matchup, albeit at much lower stakes, as both teams currently stand outside the playoff picture. Merrill Kelly is scheduled to face his former Diamondbacks teammates in the finale of that series (Wednesday). The Detroit Tigers' Chris Paddack, meanwhile, is aligned to make his second start against his former Minnesota Twins teammates (Sunday). He surrendered four runs on six hits, two of them home runs, in four innings in their Aug. 5 meeting.

The Houston Astros are expected to get Cristian Javier, who was the starting pitcher in combined no-hitters in both the regular season and postseason in 2022, back in their rotation on Monday.

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