Friday. Your mind drifts to drafts. Try to keep focused, at least for a little bit longer. There's still plenty of time to plan your weekend of fun. Now is the time for ya to focus, set your Friday lineup, and look back with fondness Saturday morning at all the success your squad had.


***RAY FLOWERS AND JEFF MANS WILL BE HOSTING A LIVE ADVICE INTERACTIVE EVENT FRIDAY, JUNE 13TH, AT 2 PM EDT. CLICK ON THE LINK FOR MORE DETAILS.
 

* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data. Just because a player is not listed does not mean that he is a bad or good play. The players listed below are mentioned merely because of the BVP data for the matchup.

DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
 
Adrian Beltre is mashing. He's also hitting .323 with a homer in 31 at-bats against King Felix. Leonys Martin is at .348 with a homer and five RBIs over 23 at-bats. Elvis Andrus, in 71 at-bats mind you, is batting .296 with a .354 OBP. He's also stolen two bases and driven in 12 runners.

Jay Bruce has struggled this season on and off the field, but he's hit well against Matt Garza (.375-2-6 over 16 ABs).Skip Schumaker has hit .500 over 12 at-bats.

Ike Davis has only 10 at-bats against Nathan Eovaldi. He's gone deep twice though with six RBIs.

Josh Hamilton has been reminding everyone how talented he is of late. He's also torched Aaron Harang whenever the righty has been on the bump. In nine at-bats he has six hits, including two homers, and he's driven in four runs. Albert Pujols, failing at every chance of late, has long tattooed Harang as well. Over 79 at-bats he's hit .342 with five bombs and 16 RBIs. Small sample size, but David Freese has gone 5-for-9. Then there is Mike Trout. He’s got seven hits in 15 at-bats.

Yadier Molina has hit .429 with three RBIs over 14 at-bats against Jordan Zimmermann. Jon Jay has gone 7-for-15 (.467).

Mike Moustakas has hit .412 with two homers against Jose Quintana in 19 at-bats. Ride the lighting. Salvador Perez has hit two homers with six RBIs an a .318 batting average over 22 at-bats. Alcides Escobar has hit .333 over 21 at-bats.

David Murphy is a superstar against John Lackey. In 22 at-bats he's hit .455 with a homer and three RBIs.

Is Slender Man real?

A.J. Pierzynski has hit .368 with an a .864 OPS against Justin Masterson. He's done that over 40 plate appearances as he's driven in four runs.

Kyle Seager has five hits in 10 at-bats against Nick Tepesch.

Rickie Weeks channels his inner Rogers Hornsby when he's facing Homer Bailey. He's hit, get this, .519 over 27 at-bats. He's got two homers and eight RBIs as well. Khris Davis has also sipped from the cup of success with two homers, four RBIs an a .455 average in 11 at-bats. Might as well toss Ryan Braun in there too. He's batting .306-1-6 with two steals over 25 at-bats. Weeks stole two bases too- don't want to forget that.

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Jose Bautista has two hits in... 22 at-bats against Ubaldo Jimenez. Yikes. Melky Cabrera has two hits in 11 at-bats. The duo is 4-for-33 (.121).

Billy Butler is one of many Royals batter who has struggled this season and who also struggles against Jose Quintana. Here's the damage. Butler has hit .190 with nine Ks in 21 at-bats. Lorenzo Cain is hitting .227 with one RBIs in 22 at-bats. Alex Gordon has two RBIs but is batting .130 over 23 at-bats. And finally, I gotta say, Eric Hosmer you should be ashamed of yourself. In 24 at-bats he's produced two hits hits and no runs batted in.

Matt Carpenter has a .214 average and no walks in 14 matchups with Jordan Zimmermann.

Adam Dunn has struck out 12 times in 31 at-bats against Jeremy Guthrie. He's also got only one homer. Gordon Beckham also struggles in the matchup hitting .222 over 36 at-bats. He's the owner of two homers. Alejandro De Aza (.241 in 29 ABs), Dayan Viciedo (.182 in 22 ABs) and Alexei Ramirez (.167 in 42 ABs) also suck wind.

Paul Goldschmidt has five hits, and 10 Ks, in 25 at-bats against Clayton Kershaw. Miguel Montero has six hits, and 11 Ks, in 29 at-bats. Combined the duo is 11-for-54 (.204). Don't forget about Martin Prado either. He's at .148 over his 27 at-bats.

Carlos Gomez hasn't got it done against Homer Bailey. He's stolen two bases but has no homers, has hit .174 and has a .457 OPS over 25 plate appearances. Aramis Ramirez has also been rendered somewhat impotent with his .222 average and .259 SLG over 27 at-bats.

Joe Mauer has looked as bad at the plate the last two months as he ever has. Vexing. He's not overly likely to pick things up Friday given that he's hit .273 with no homers and, get this, one RBI on the road. He plays in Detroit.

Angel Pagan has hit .240 with a .321 OBP against Jorge De La Rosa over 28 plate appearances.

Dustin Pedroia has a .238 average and one RBI over 21 at-bats versus Justin Masterson. Grady Sizemore, Jackie Bradley, Brock Holt, Jonny Gomes and Jackie Bradley Jr. are a combined 0-for-19.

Alex Rios is near the top of the AL leaderboard in batting average. In 38 at-bats against Felix Hernandez he's batting .237 with 14 Ks. Shin-Soo Choo also struggles with a .267 average and 12 Ks in 30 at-bats.

Nick Swisher has been activated off the DL. Don't activate him off the bench Friday. In 64 at-bats against John Lackey he's been awful. Terrible. Pathetic really. He's hitting .156 with a .546 OPS and he has, get this, 24 punchouts. Just not good at all. Asdrubal Cabrera also hasn't been very productive as he's hit .185 while racking up eight Ks in 27 at-bats.

Troy Tulowitzki kills it at home, but is a mortal on the road. He's in San Francisco where he will take on Tim Lincecum who has held him to a .255 average and .687 OPS over 55 at-bats (he does have two homers and 11 RBIs).

Poor B.J. Upton. He's hit .150 against C.J. Wilson and has struck out in 45 percent of his at-bats (9-for-20).

Bookmark the following three sources to check daily after you read this piece.

Fantasy Alarm Lineups

Batter Versus Pitcher

Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.

MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target

Chase Anderson faces the Dodgers in Los Angeles. He's made five starts, and what do you know he has won each one of them. In four of the outings he's allowed two of fewer earned runs. He's walked two or fewer batters each time out. His lone hiccup was back on May 17th against... the Dodgers (5 ER in 5.1 IP). Not dominating, but a solid bet for a solid outing.

Bartolo Colon versus the Padres in New York. Colon has allowed five earned runs over his last four starts. That's good right? He's also struck out 23 while walking seven in that time. There's also this: in four home starts this season he's racked up a 2.30 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and walked two batters.

Jeremy Guthrie versus the current White Sox roster: .221/.293/.360 over 267 at-bats. That's a whole lot of at-bats. The game takes place in Chicago, but the overall dominance is hard to ignore. Yes, I said dominance. The last outing he flashed more of the same holding the White Sox to one run over seven innings (May 21st).

Tim Lincecum has a 3.86 ERA in eight home starts this season. He owns a 3.96 mark in 27 starts against the Rockies. He faces a club with no Cargo, no Cuddyer, and as noted he controls Tulo pretty well. Also, in five of his last six outings he's allowed three or fewer earned runs. A passable option Friday.

Collin McHugh faces a struggling Alex Cobb (see below). He's allowed a total of three earned runs over his last three starts. He did walk five guys last time out, and in his last two outings he's failed to record more than 15 outs. However, the Rays just aren't very good against righties. Check out their slash line: .244/.319/.365.

Jordan Zimmermann has tossed 17 scoreless innings his last two outings to drop his ERA from 4.07 to 3.17. He's walked two batters in his last three starts. He's allowed only one big fly in five outings. He's got a 2.91 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in five road starts. He takes on the Cardinals in St. Louis.

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

Alex Cobb faces a surging Astros club in Houston. Cobb has a bright future, but he's been a mess of late allowing 16 runs over his last three starts leading to a 9.39 ERA and three loses. When someone is pitching like that it doesn't matter what the matchup looks like.

Aaron Harang takes on the Angels in Atlanta. Smoke and mirrors folks. Still not sure how's he's done it. No longer going deep in games, the last time he worked seven innings was his no-hit attempt on April 18th, Harang last won a game on May 11th. He's also walked 10 batters in his last two outings and sooner or later work like that just eats you up.

Sonny Gray pitches at home against the Yankees. The Yanks are 19th in baseball with a .250 average against righties and they are ranked 18th in OPS against them (.691). Gray has seen his ERA go from 1.99 to 2.83 in his last three outings though, and he's walked seven in his last two outings. He's also got a 1.41 WHIP in seven home starts this season. Just enough to tilt the meter to caution in this start.

Lance Lynn has faced the Nationals four times with disastrous results: 6.23 ERA, 1.77 WHIP. He did pitch well against them the last time out though allowing one runs over 5.2 innings (April 19th). Still, he's gone a total of 8.1 innings his last two starts, allowed 14 hits and four walks, and permitted six runners to score. He's just off and the Nationals are coming off a strong series against the Giants.

Nick Tepesch has lost his last two decisions. He's allowed right runs over 7.1 innings. He's walked six batters while striking out two in his last two outings. He's allowed 22 hits over his last 14 innings. He beat the Mariners May 21st (3 ER, 6 IP) but don't know how you would trust him here.
 

Make sure you tune in to the Fantasy Alarm's Daily Game Show at 6 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87) as Jeff Mans and Ted Schuster will help you to set your daily lineups.