Ray Flowers was shocked by the 7-1 loss of Brazil to Germany in the semi-finals of the World Cup. Who wasn't? He was able to gather himself, of course, in time to breakdown the matchups for majior league play on Wednesday. Still shocking was that game of futbol.

* 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
 
Good matchups due to success at home:

Austin Jackson, seriously, has hit .310 in 42 games at home. J.D. Martinez is at .309 with seven homers in 81 at-bats. 

Steve Pearce has hit .374 with five homers in 91 at-bats. 

A.J. Pierzynski has hit .307 in 127 at-bats. Brock Holt has only one homer at Fenway, but he's also hit .322 in 121 at-bats. 

Rickie Weeks is batting a robust .361 at home (72 at-bats). The other guy who plays second for the Brewers, Scooter Gennett, is batting .349 with four homers in 109 at-bats. 

Good matchups do to facing a lefty:

Jose Bautista has hit .364 with seven homers in 66 at-bats against lefties. He faces the struggling C.J. Wilson

Alex Rios has hit .373 with 17 RBIs in 75 at-bats. He faces the struggling Dallas Keuchel

Troy Tulowitzki versus Eric Stults. He's hit .389 with seven homers in just 72 at-bats. He's also playing at home. Drew Stubbs is at .356 with three homers as well. Nolan Arenado has six hits in 13 at-bats against Eric Stults. Tulowitzki, just mentioned him, has seven hits in 19 at-bats (.368). He's also walked seven times leading to an impressive .538 OBP. D.J. LeMahieu has six hits in 16 at-bats (.375). 

Jayson Heyward hits the returning to action Dillon Gee very well. In 21 at-bats he's hit .381 with a homer, a steal and six walks leading to a .536 OBP.

Ryan Howard has no fear of Kyle Lohse. It's actually the hurler who should fear the hitter. Howard has hit .440 with a 1.277 OPS against Lohse as he's gone deep twice with eight RBIs over 29 plate appearances.

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DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Jose Altuve has hit everyone this season. He never hits Yo Darvish though with only two hits in 17 at-bats. Jason Castro has two hits in 15 at-bats. Chris Carter is 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts.

Adrian Beltre has five hits in 19 at-bats. He's failed to pick up an RBI to compliment his .684 OPS against the suddenly struggling Dallas Keuchel. Elvis Andrus has also had a rough go of it with a .211 mark in 19 at-bats (he does have two steals).

Billy Butler is 2-for-11 against Alex Cobb. This season he hitting barely better than his weight against righties.

Jacoby Ellsbury has one hit in 11 at-bats. Derek Jeter has two hits in 11 at-bats. Mark Teixeira has two hits in 10 at-bats. They've all been held in check by... Josh Tomlin

Adrian Gonzalez has four hits in 20 at-bats against Max Scherzer. He has one RBI, but that effort dwarfs what Matt Kemp has done, or more appropriately, hasn't been able to do. Shockingly, Kemp has gone 0-for-18, not a single hit.

Curtis Granderson has 46 at-bats against Ervin Santana. He's got five big flies and nine RBI. Unfortunately he's also batting .239 with a .314 OBP. 

Ian Kinsler has a .154 batting average and .154 OBP in 26 plate appearances against Zack Greinke. Austin Jackson has one hit in 10 at-bats. 

Andrew McCutchen rarely wins the battle with Lance Lynn. Not only has he hit a mere .154 in 26 at-bats but he's also, shockingly, struck out 10 times. 

David Murphy has three hits and one RBI against Brandon McCarthy in 14 at-bats. 

Jimmy Rollins has strode to the plate 43 times against Kyle Lohse. He's hit .179 with a .256 OBP and .538 OPS. Unfortunately for Chase Utley... he wishes he was that good. Utley has hit .148 with a .443 OPS and one RBI over 30 plate appearances. 

Don't know why you would do this, but dude is talented.

Pablo Sandoval isn't 100 percent with that elbow issue, and he's hit .200 over 15 at-bats against Jason Hammel

Seth Smith and Cameron Maybin both have struggled against Jair Jurrjens. Now it's most old stuff, Jurrjens hasn't been around for a while, but both guys are 2-for-14 (.143). 

Justin Upton has hit poorly against Dillon Gee. In 21 at-bats he's hit .190 and struck out a third of the time. Don't expect to see Dan Uggla out there (.172 in 29 ABs).

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

Matt Cain isn't as bad as you think (see his Player Profile). He's also held the A's to a 2.11 ERA with a 0.92 WHIP over 10 career matchups. Oh, and he's allowed two runs in his last two starts. 

Dillon Gee has been really good since June of 2013, but he will be making his first start since May 10th against the Braves at Citi Field. The Braves are terrible against righties with the 5th worst OPS against righties in the game and Gee has a 2.95 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over 12 starts against the Braves.  Do you trust him given it's his first start?

Kyle Lohse pitches at home where he has a 2.10 ERA and 0.88 WHIP over seven starts. He's taking on a Phillies team that he walked five batters against in five innings in the last meeting. That's not who he is. He's walked a total of 11 batters over his last 10 starts. 

Lance Lynn pitches at home against the Pirates. Lynn has a 3.17 ERA on the year at home, and if you remove the beating he took against the Dodgers two starts ago hes allowed two or fewer runs in each of his last four starts. Doesn't have a great history against the Pirates though (5.13 ERA, 1.44 WHIP in 59.2 innings). 

Yordano Ventura has allowed a total of 11 earned runs over his last six starts. Oddly, he has only one game in his last eight in which he has more than four strikeouts. He faces the Rays, a team that he held to just two hits over six scoreless innings in their lone matchup. Yordano has also gone at least seven innings in four of his last five starts.

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

Yu Darvish has been uneven of late. In three of his last four starts he's allowed four earned runs, and in four of his last seven outings it's been four earned runs allowed. He's also been taken deep three times in his last three starts and he has only one win in four outings. He dominated the Astros the last time out and in seven career starts he owns a 2.29 ERA and 0.75 WHIP against them, but boy is he struggling – for him – right now. ANd he got hit on the noggin in BP Tuesday. 

Roenis Elias pitches at home against the Twins. Back on May 17th he gave up four runs over seven innings to the Twins, and in his last two outings he's allowed 10 runs in 11 innings thanks in no small part to three homers allowed.

Kyle Gibson has a 5.54 ERA in 10 road starts. In his 10 road starts he's averaged 2.8 strikeouts a game. He's allowed 14 runs over his last three starts... and they have lasted only 12 innings. He pitches in Seattle.

Dallas Keuchel is dealing with injury, and really struggling: last 6 starts - 5.45 K/9, 3.55 BB/9, 4.03 ERA, 1.55 WHIP. He pitches on the road against the Rangers.

Brandon McCarthy makes his first start of the year for the Yankees in Cleveland. In eight road starts this season he has a 4.50 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. In 15 night starts he has a 5.56 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. In 61.2 innings against the Indians he has a 4.38 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. This season he has a 5.01 ERA and 1.38 WHIP. You wanna start that?


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