It would be wise to bookmark the following three sources to check daily after you read this wondrous piece (I'm so afraid of giving myself props).
Fantasy Alarm Lineups
Batter Versus Pitcher
Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.
DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Chase Headley might, just might, break out of his early season funk Tuesday. He's got six hits, including two homers, against Juan Nicasio. The most amazing part? Each of the 12 at-bats in the matchup have ended up in a hit or strikeout.
Russell Martin likes that slow stuff that Mike Leake is tossing up there. In 19 at-bats he's hit .474 with three RBIs. Neil Walker has also bashed Leake's brains in with a .321 average and 11 RBIs in 28 at-bats.
Zach McAllister hasn't been able to get Victor Martinez (5-for-9, five RBIs) or Austin Jackson (5-for-10) out in limited confrontations.
Brandon Moss faces righty Garrett Richards Tuesday. Last season Moss hit 26 homers... in just 366 at-bats against righties.
Daniel Murphy has six hits in 13 at-bats versus Bronson Arroyo.
A cheap play for Tuesday is Moises Sierra if his coaches check the box scores. In 12 at-bats versus Phil Hughes Sierra has produced seven hits, a homer and five RBIs.
Aramis Ramirez is hitting like he's 28 years old again. He gets to face a struggling Shelby Miller who has allowed Aramis to bat .500 with a homer and four RBIs in 10 at-bats.
In 17 of the 24 at-bats that Giancarlo Stanton has off of Stephen Strasburg he's had a hit (.333) or struck out (nine). He's gone deep twice of Strasburg as well.
Ben Zobrist had two 2-run homers Sunday. He get's to face Miguel Gonzalez who hasn't impressed at all on the young season. I know that Zobrist has only two hits in 19 at-bats in the matchup, and that he's a better hitter against lefties than righties, but I'm playing a hunch.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Elvis Andrus has been hitting well this season, basically producing a hit every game, but the matchup isn't an overly favorable one for him Tuesday. Not only has he hit .245 in his career against the Mariners but he's also facing Blake Beaven who has done an excellent job keeping Andrus under wraps allowing him only two singles in 15 at-bats (.133).
Omar Infante – sample size artifact? He has five hits in six at-bats versus Lucas Harrell and he has hits in seven of his last eight games this season.
Chris Johnson hasn't done much to excite in the first two weeks of the season. He'll likely continue to slump Tuesday against Cliff Lee. Johnson has hit .261 with six strikeouts in 23 at-bats in the matchup. Unfortunately for Dan Uggla that looks like a Herculean effort considering that Uggla has hit .189 with 17 punchouts versus Lee in 37 at-bats. Sit B.J. Upton too. That's what you do when a guy has one homer and 14 Ks in 36 at-bats against a hurler. Heck, Freddie Freeman has blown chunks versus Freeman too – he's just 8-for-33 (.242 with 12 Ks). Jason Heyward? No different at 3-for-22.
L.L. Cool J is still cool. Smooth.
Garrett Jones should be benched in fantasy and he should be benched by the Marlins. He's completely clueless against Stephen Strasburg as he's struck out nine times with one hit in 15 at-bats.
Kelly Johnson has nine strikeouts in 27 at-bats versus Jason Hammel. Yes he's hit .296 with two homers, but that's just too many whiffs for me to feel comfortable starting Kelly.
Most annoying thing ever? Well besides my constant digressions that have nothing to do with baseball, how about people who send you an IM leading to your response... then there is silence for like two minutes. Um, you contacted me. If you didn't have time to talk, why didn't you just wait two minutes until you did have time? Never get that.
Jason Kipnis has had a moderate start to the 2014 campaign. He likely won't be changing that point of view Tuesday against Anibal Sanchez who has struck him out six times and held him to a .402 OPS in 17 at-bats.
Adam Lind take a seat versus Phil Hughes. In 40 at-bats Lind has hit .225 with, get this, 14 whiffs in 40 at-bats. That's a lot. Colby Rasmus only had two strikeouts 14 at-bats versus Hughes but he's also had only one hit.
Andrew McCutchen escaped serious injury with his ankle, but it figures to slow him just a tad. Couple that with the fact that Mike Leake has somehow held McC to a .225 average over 40 at-bats and it would seem like sitting Andrew might actually be warranted.
Yadier Molina meet Marco Estrada. Yadier Molina prepare to produce two hits. He's 12-for-12 against Estrada (.571).
David Wright doesn't like to see Bronson Arroyo on the bump. In 38 career at-bats Wright has gone deep only one time leading to a .584 OPS.
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.
MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
You read about all the dominance that Cliff Lee had against the Braves above, right? It's pretty sick actually. In 15 starts he has a 2.80 ERA, 0.97 WHP, 113 Ks in 99.2 innings and his K/BB ratio is 16.1 against the Braves. Sixteen point one. Insane.
You know how Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees just won't die? The are famous movie serial killers who simply put, wouldn't die no matter what was done to them. Bullets, knives, lightning, car accidents, explosions you name it, they just keep on going. Much like that duo that just won't die neither will my love of Tim Lincecum. Don't tune me out. Instead hear me out. Matt Kemp (.196) and Adrian Gonzalez (.212) cannot hit Lincecum. In 98 at-bats they have also struck out 34 times and haven't gone deep one time. Not once. Andre Ethier is also batting .265 against Lincecum in 49 at-bats while Juan Uribe has a .667 OPS over 24 at-bats. Don't even get me started with Dee Gordon who has one hit in 13 at-bats. Once more into the breach...
Brandon Morrow has 13 Ks and just two walks over 11 innings. That alone sounds like a good enough reason to consider starting Morrow, doesn't it? The last time he faced the Twins he allowed one run over eight innings while striking out 11. that helps even more. Joe Mauer, Trevor Plouffe, Jason Kubel and Kurt Suzuki have hit .200 off Morrow (5-for-25). That enough for you to start the oft injured one?
Jake Peavy faces a potentially impressive White Sox lineup. The only man currently on the club to have taken him deep is Adam Dunn with two homers but he's only hit .161 in 31 at-bats. Peavy has held the current Sox to a .188/.274/.313 line over 64 at-bats.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Marco Estrada is a solid talent, but he's also facing a Cardinals team that has always given him fits. In 47 innings of work the righty has posted a 5.74 ERA and 1.53 WHIP. Estrada was also laughably bad at home last year with a 6.62 ERA and 1.49 WHIP.
Phil Hughes is still blah city, just like he has been for years. Through two starts his ERA is 7.20, his WHIP is 1.60 and he's allowed two homers in two outings. He faces the Blue Jays Tuesday and though the start is in Minnesota, I just don't know how in the world anyone could be trusting this guy at the moment.
Tom Koehler. Besides the fact that you might not even know that he is on the Marlins there is this – in 17 innings against the Nationals he's posted a 5.29 ERA thanks in no small part to four big flies. He's also got a mere 1.00 K/BB ratio with seven Ks in 17 innings. The Nationals beat him in last start last week.
Shelby Miller has lost both his starts this season. Shelby Miller has only seven Ks in 11.1 innings. Shelby Miller has a horrible set of ratios (6.35 ERA, 1.68 WHIP). Shelby Miller has been terrible on the road in his career with a 4.71 ERA and 1.49 WHIP over 91.2 innings. He's set to pitch in Milwaukee Tuesday.