I don't know. I feel like I'm helping. Maybe a little? I seem to take the chance in this opening paragraph to talk about me, to avoid anything baseball. I won't do that anymore – at least today. In what follows you will get all the BVP data you need as you attempt to determine what the best situation will be for your squad on Tuesday July 8th.  

* 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
 
Dustin Ackley has five hits in 10 at-bats when Phil Hughes is out there. He also has two RBIs. 

Ryan Braun's eyes begin to sparkle when he hears that Kyle Kendrick will be on the hill. Over 19 at-bats in the matchup Braun has hit .474 with two homers.

Billy Butler is slowly rounding into form. He faces Jeremy Hellickson in his first start of the season (see his Player Profile). Butler has always mashes versus Hellickson with nine hits in 14 at-bats. That's a smoking .643. Alex Gordon has seven hits over 14 at-bats. That's an impressive too is it not?

Todd Frazier has six hits in 17 at-bats against Travis Wood. Two of those hits were homers and he's driven in six runners. He's also stolen a bag.

This got real, real quick.

Nick Markakis has eight hits in 19 at-bats against the hot Doug Fister. He also has a homer and eight RBIs. Nelson Cruz has a homer and has hit .381 over 21 at-bats. He's good too. 

Mike Napoli has one RBI in 27 at-bats against John Danks. He's also whiffed 13 times. Yikes. It's not like Danks is a strikeout artist or anything. Dustin Pedroia also struggles in the matchup as he has one RBI an a .150 average in 20 at-bats. 

Ryan Zimmerman has two homers, five RBIs an a 1.273 OPS over 11 at-bats when facing Bud Norris

Ben Zobrist is at .423 with a 1.192 OPS against Jason Vargas. That's over 29 plate appearances and he's hit a homer with six RBIs. He's also got four doubles. 

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Elvis Andrus has one measly hit in 10 at-bats. He has struck out five times as well. Brad Peacock is the opponent on the hill. Alex Rios isn’t' quite as bad, but it's close. He has one hit in nine at-bats and has struck out four times versus the bird (see what I did there?). 

Starlin Castro has one RBI and has hit .233 over 30 at-bats against Johnny Cueto. Darwin Barney has two hits in 16 at-bats. Not a surprise. He stinks.

Self serve beer stations. What can go wrong?

Zack Cozart has two hits in 19 at-bats against Travis Wood. He's also struck out nine times. 

J.J. Hardy has four hits in 22 at-bats when facing off against Doug Fister. He's also struck out five times while batting .182. 

Sean Rodriguez has a mere two hits in 19 at-bats when Jason Vargas is on the bump. 

Michael Saunders has only two hits in 14 at-bats when Phil Hughes is on the hill. 

Ruben Tejada has no hits in 10 at-bats when Julio Teheran is on the bump. 

Juan Uribe has two hits in 15 at-bats when he faces off with Justin Verlander. That's not good. Adrian Gonzalez also has two hits, in one fewer at-bat (.143). He does have a homer and five walks though (.368 OBP).

Jayson Werth was Player of the Week in the NL. He's not likely to continue that work Tuesday as he has a total of two hits in 14 at-bats against Bud Norris. He's also whiffed seven times. 

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

Sonny Gray faces the Giants. He's a solid bet to have a decent outing given his 3.20 ERA and 1.33 WHIP in 10 home starts. Note though that those numbers are far from outstanding, and he's also walked six batters in his last two outings as his performance starts to even out. 

Carlos Martinez has made four starts and allowed a total of six runs. At the same time he's yet to record more than 15 outs, and that certainly limits his win potential. He faces a Pirates club that is currently 10th in OPS against righties and but they haven't been hitting wellish the last two weeks with a .257 average and .702 OPS.

Wily Peralta faces the Phillies and let's face facts. The Phils stink against righties. They are in the bottom three in homers against righties and their OPS is under .650, the second worst mark in baseball. Peralta has also enjoyed pitching at night this season with a 2.87 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 10 night starts. 

Tyler Skaggs has a 4.14 ERA and 1.20 WHIP to go along with his 4-4 record (his last win was May 20th). In his first start back from injury he allowed just two runs over six innings and the last time he faced the Blue Jays he held then to three runs, two earned, over eight outings. With seemingly everyone on the Jays hurt...


Chris Young pitches at home against the Twins. He's somehow gone 8-4 with a 3.11 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. I don't know how it's happened either. I don’t think anyone does. Over his last four outings he's allowed four runs. He's also walked only four men. In eight home starts he has a 2.19 ERA and 0.97 WHIP.

Vance Worley has made four starts this season. Each has been a quality start. He ha allowed a homer in 3-straight games though, and the Cardinals can be a tough opponent though they rank 23rd in OPS against righties giving Worley owners some hope. 

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

John Danks has allowed two or fewer earned runs in seven of his last eight outings. So why down on Danks? In 10 career starts against the Red Sox he's 3-6 with a 4.97 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. In eight road starts this season he has a 5.89 ERA and 1.61 WHIP. That's enough to at least stop him from being an automatic start. 

Jacob deGrom has one win in 10 starts. He has a 3.77 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. His K/BB is 2.04. He's failed to last six innings in four of his last six starts. He faces the Braves in New York. In his last start he faced the Braves in Atlanta and they scored three runs off him in five innings. Just no upside. 

Jeremy Hellickson makes his first start of the year against the Royals at home. All you need to see are his minor league numbers at Triple-A this year: 1-4, 7.23 ERA, 2.30 WHIP over five starts.

Phil Hughes takes on the Mariners in Seattle. It's been rough the last couple of times he's taken the hill. He's lost his last two outings, and in each of his last three game he's permitted a total of 17 runs as his ERA has gone from 3.09 to 3.95. Seventeen runs. Don't really care at this point that he has a 2.59 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in eight road starts. 

Kyle Kendrick faces the Brewers who are 9th in OPS against righties. For all the good that Kendrick has done, he's also gone just 3-8 with a 1.33 WHIP this season, and his 5.68 K/9 mark is terrible. If you're goal is to start a guy who could thrown six solid innings have at it but know that there really is no upside to Kendrick and back on April 8th he allowed six runs (four earned) in five innings to the Brewers. 

Justin Verlander starts at home against the Dodgers. Yes he's pitched better his last three starts, all were “quality starts,” but there are still concerns. Verlander has a 4.40 ERA and 1.64 WHIP in nine home starts. He's allowed nine homers in his last eight starts. Even with his success in his last three outings he's still allowed 20 hits in 19 innings and the Dodgers are 4th in baseball in OPS against righties. 


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.