Welcome to the newest edition of the Weekly MLB Preview!
GAME BREAKDOWN GRID FOR WEEK 22 (8/29 to 9/4)
| TEAM | # GAMES | HOME | AWAY | VS LEFT | VS RIGHT |
| Orioles | 6 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Yankees | 6 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Red Sox | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Blue Jays | 6 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Rays | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Tigers | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Royals | 6 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| White Sox | 7 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| Indians | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Twins | 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Angels | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Mariners | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Athletics | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Rangers | 6 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Astros | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Nationals | 6 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Marlins | 7 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| Mets | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Braves | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Phillies | 6 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Cardinals | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Pirates | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Brewers | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Reds | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Cubs | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Dodgers | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Giants | 6 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Padres | 6 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Rockies | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Diamondbacks | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
Analysis: Looking for statistics which will influence your upcoming lineup? Check out these tidbits:
- I’ll start off this week’s column by saying that the upcoming schedule is rather interesting. Every team in baseball (with the exception of the Arizona Diamondbacks) plays at least six games, yet only five teams play seven (Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Miami Marlins, Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox). With a heavier slate of games on Monday and an extremely light one on Thursday, there is a vacuum of two-start pitching candidates.
- The Miami Marlins are on the road for the entirety of Week 22, traveling to New York to face the Mets and then Cleveland to square off against the Indians. Although the team is still without slugger Giancarlo Stanton, they currently lead the majors in AVG away from home at an absurd .281 – a full 14 points higher than the closest team in the Chicago Cubs. Players who especially benefit from traveling include J.T. Realmuto (.357 on the road) Martin Prado (.353) and Christian Yelich (.319).
- During the month of August, the top 7 teams in OBP all come from the NL. While the Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs leading the way won’t surprise anyone, the next two teams may raise some eyebrows – the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves. The Reds are obviously bolstered by having a healthy Joey Votto in the lineup, but don’t sleep on a few Braves that are in the midst of a second half resurgence, including Freddie Freeman (.474 OBP in August), Ender Inciarte (.416), Nick Markakis (.347) and Matt Kemp (.344).
INTERLEAGUE OUTLOOK
| AWAY TEAM | HOME TEAM | # GAMES | DH? | PLAYER(S) IMPACTED |
| Reds | Angels | 3 | Yes (3) | Tyler Holt, Tony Renda |
| Marlins | Indians | 3 | Yes (3) | Chris Johnson, Miguel Rojas |
Analysis: Week 22 is an extremely light one in terms of interleague play, with only two matchups scheduled. Both contests feature the AL as the home team which means an additional DH, yet neither road team (the Reds and Marlins) offers any stellar streaming options which may come into more at bats.
STARTING PITCHER RANKINGS
| PITCHER | MATCHUP 1 | MATCHUP 2 |
| Jose Fernandez | @Mets (DeGrom) | @Indians (Salazar) |
| Jake Arrieta | Pirates (Cole) | Giants (Bumgarner) |
| Julio Teheran | Padres (Jackson) | @Phillies (Thompson) |
| Tanner Roark | @Phillies (Thompson) | @Mets (Undecided) |
| Jacob DeGrom | Marlins (Fernandez) | Nationals (Lopez) |
| Carlos Martinez | @Brewers (Davies) | @Reds (Straily) |
| Yu Darvish | Mariners (Iwakuma) | Astros (Musgrove) |
| Johnny Cueto | Diamondbacks (Greinke) | @Cubs (Hendricks) |
| Gerrit Cole | @Cubs (Arrieta) | Brewers (Davies) |
| Rich Hill | @Rockies (Gray) | Padres (Perdomo) |
| Kyle Hendricks | Pirates (Kuhl) | Giants (Cueto) |
| Rick Porcello | Rays (Andriese) | @Athletics (Manaea) |
| Hisashi Iwakuma | @Rangers (Darvish) | Angels (Shoemaker) |
| Matt Shoemaker | Reds (Straily) | @Mariners (Iwakuma) |
| Tom Koehler | @Mets (Undecided) | @Indians (Bauer) |
| Sean Manaea | @Astros (Musgrove) | Red Sox (Porcello) |
| Dan Straily | @Angels (Shoemaker) | Cardinals (Martinez) |
| Trevor Bauer | Twins (Duffey) | Marlins (Koehler) |
| Jon Gray | Dodgers (Hill) | Diamondbacks (Bradley) |
| Zach Davies | Cardinals (Martinez) | @Pirates (Cole) |
| CC Sabathia | @Royals (Gee) | @Orioles (Miley) |
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Analysis: With the exception of the All-Star Break, Week 22 is one of the lightest in terms of two-start options that owners will face. In total, 32 pitchers have two starts next week, but a significant portion of them aren’t advisable from a streaming perspective. I’ve included the top 20 in my chart to provide our readers with a deeper pool to select from, but be well advised – it gets ugly quick.
Jose Fernandez and Jake Arrieta leading the pack shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially considering the level of competition which they are facing. A dark horse to actually provide the most value next week comes in Julio Teheran, who faces two abysmal offenses in the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies. I have him ranked as my third overall option, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him lead the way.
Rich Hill finally made his debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers this past week, and while I do expect him to be a fringe SP2 moving forward, he does take on the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in his next start. I’m not suggesting that I’d bench him by any means, but to expect anything more than a quality start may be reaching.
AL East pitchers occasionally fly under the radar when they enjoy sustained success, since owners have become conditioned to expect immediate regression, given the difficulty of the division. In the case of Rick Porcello, I still feel like owners are holding their collective breath, expecting for the wheels to finally fall off of his 2016 season. Consider this – the last time that Porcello surrendered more than four earned runs in an outing was July 24th, and he has struck out eight or more batters in three of his past five contests. Dating back to July 29th, he has lasted a minimum of seven innings in each of his starts. Some might consider this cherry-picking statistics, but bottom line? He’s been quite good of late.
| PITCHER | MATCHUP 1 |
| Chris Sale | @Tigers (Verlander) |
| Justin Verlander | White Sox (Sale) |
| Drew Smyly | @Red Sox (Wright) |
| Steven Wright | Rays (Smyly) |
| Felix Hernandez | @Rangers (Griffin) |
| A.J. Griffin | Mariners (Hernandez) |
| Bud Norris | @Rockies (Hoffman) |
| Robbie Ray | @Giants (Moore) |
| Matt Moore | Diamonbacks (Ray) |
| Aaron Sanchez | @Orioles (Gallardo) |
| Brandon Finnegan | @Angels (Nolasco) |
| Gio Gonzalez | @Phillies (Morgan) |
| Hector Santiago | @Indians (Kluber) |
| Corey Kluber | Twins (Santiago) |
| Bartolo Colon | Marlins (Phelps) |
| John Lackey | Pirates (Vogelsong) |
| Matt Garza | Cardinals (Weaver) |
| Ian Kennedy | @Yankees (Cessa) |
| Noah Syndergaard | Marlins (Urena) |
| Jeff Samardzija | @Cubs (Hammel) |
| Jason Hammel | Giants (Samardzija) |
| Jose Quintana | @Twins (Santana) |
| Jon Lester | Giants (Peavy) |
| Dylan Bundy | Yankees (Green) |
| Mike Foltynwicz | @Phillies (Hellickson) |
| Jeremy Hellickson | Braves (Foltynewicz) |
| Jimmy Nelson | @Pirates (Taillon) |
| Jameson Taillon | Brewers (Nelson) |
| Carlos Carrasco | Marlins (Cashner) |
| Anthony DeSclafani | Cardinals (Leake) |
| Blake Snell | Blue Jays (Liriano) |
| Dallas Keuchel | @Rangers (Perez) |
| Martin Perez | Astros (Keuchel) |
| Carlos Rodon | @Twins (Gibson) |
| Michael Fulmer | @Royals (Duffy) |
| Danny Duffy | Tigers (Fulmer) |
| David Price | @Athletics (Neal) |
| Taijuan Walker | Angels (Chacin) |
| Madison Bumgarner | @Cubs (Arrieta) |
| Jaime Garcia | @Reds (Bailey) |
| Homer Bailey | Cardinals (Garcia) |
| Marcus Stroman | @Rays (Archer) |
| Michael Pineda | @Orioles (Gausman) |
| Kevin Gausman | Yankees (Pineda) |
| Vince Velasquez | Braves (Whalen) |
| Ivan Nova | Brewers (Anderson) |
| Danny Salazar | Marlins (Fernandez) |
| Anibal Sanchez | @Royals (Ventura) |
| Yordano Ventura | Tigers (Sanchez) |
| Clay Buchholz | @Athletics (Triggs) |
| Clayton Richard | @Dodgers (Maeda) |
| Kenta Maeda | Padres (Richard) |
| R.A. Dickey | @Rays (Andriese) |
| Marco Estrada | @Orioles (Miley) |
| J.A. Happ | @Orioles (Jiminez) |
| Max Scherzer | @Phillies (Eickhoff) |
| Jake Odorizzi | @Red Sox (Pomeranz) |
| Drew Pomeranz | Rays (Odorizzi) |
| Daniel Norris | White Sox (Ranaudo) |
| Edwin Jackson | @Braves (Teheran) |
| James Paxton | @Rangers (Hamels) |
| Cole Hamels | Mariners (Paxton) |
| Adam Wainwright | @Brewers (Peralta) |
| Wily Peralta | Cardinals (Wainwright) |
| Kendall Graveman | @Astros (McHugh) |
| Collin McHugh | Athletics (Graveman) |
| Masahiro Tanaka | @Royals (Volquez) |
| Zack Greinke | @Giants (Cueto) |
Analysis: As I mentioned earlier in this article, the lack of a Thursday slate dramatically pushed all of the pitchers to the one-start side of the tables this week. In doing so, the top-end is overweight with fantastic choices for owners to choose from, namely in the NL East.
While you can do so, owners should take advantage of Vince Velasquez’s starts. This week he takes on the Atlanta Braves. While they have been surging of late (as indicated in the schedule section), I’m still confident that he can hold them down and produce a quality start with at least eight strikeouts.
Speaking of continued dominance in an inter-divisional rival, the Boston Red Sox take on the Tampa Bay Rays later next week, and Drew Pomeranz is on the hill. While many thought that the signing at the trade deadline wouldn’t produce much in terms of results, Pomeranz has surrendered two earned runs or less in each start dating back to July 30th. During that timeframe he has struck out 26 batters over 29 innings. Not a bad return.
My pickup of the week? Brandon Finnegan against the Los Angeles Angels. Finnegan has produced an up-and-down 2016 season, but is in the midst of a hot streak, and is coming off of a fantastic start against the crosstown Dodgers. While I don’t think that he’ll get out of the seventh inning, it wouldn’t surprise me to see nearly double-digit strikeouts while allowing two earned runs or less. Call it a hunch.