Friday's matchups are daunting. Well, that is if you choose to go it alone with using all the tools that are in the arsenal of offerings from Fantasy Alarm. One of those tools is the daily matchup piece written by Ray Flowers.

Talk to me and Jeff Mans LIVE, today, Friday June 20th. Find out how.

* 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
 
Robinson Cano has 81 at bats against James Shields. That's a ton. Leads you to think that the .395/.424/.691 line is pretty legit (he's also got four homers). Kyle Seager has only eight at-bats but he has five hits (two homers) and four RBIs.

Matt Carpenter is batting .429 with a .520 OBP in 25 plate appearances against A.J. Burnett.

Starlin Castro has killed Charlie Morton. He's hit .458 with two homers and six RBIs over 24 at-bats.

Andre Ethier is batting .333 with two homers against Ian Kennedy over 30 at-bats.

Why Tim Lincecum throws a pitch in the strike zone to Paul Goldschmidt is one of the biggest mysteries of life. In 24 at-bats, and this is amazing, Goldschmidt has hit .542 with seven homers and 17 RBIs. He also has a 1.994 OPS. Insanity.

Scott Hairston always hits lefties. He's at .400 with a homer in 15 at-bats against the struggling Mike Minor.

Nick Markakis has hit .364 over 22 at-bats against Hiroki Kuroda.

Victor Martinez embarrasses Zack McAllister. He's got a homer and seven RBIs in 13 at-bats. Worse yet for Zach attack is the fact that Vmart is batting .615 with a 1.720 OPS. Austin Jackson also blasts ZA with seven hits in 14 at-bats.

Andrew McCutchen tees off on Edwin Jackson. He's at .462/.563/.923 over 30 plate appearances. He also has three homers and nine RBIs. Starling Marte is right there with Andrew as he's hit .471 with six steals over 19 plate appearances.

Buster Posey versus Josh Collmenter in nine at-bats: .667-2-7.

Alexei Ramirez is batting .600 with a homer and six RBIs in 10 at-bats against Ricky Nolasco.

Carlos Santana is finally hitting. He's also long hit Rick Porcello well with a .324 average and three homers in 34 at-bats. Asdrubal Cabrera has hit .317 with a .391 OBP over 44 plate appearances. David Murphy is 6-for-14.

Dan Uggla, and I'm being serious here, crushes Stephen Strasburg. Seriously. The 11 strikeouts in 30 at-bats shouldn't cause you to overlook the .440.455/.667 line over 33 plate appearances that includes two bombs and 10 RBIs. Freddie Freeman is hitting a cool .412-1-6 in 17 at-bats.

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Miguel Cabrera has 20 plate appearances against Zach McAllister. He's produced a .557 OPS.

Ian Desmond (.238 with one RBI in 21 ABs) and Ryan Zimmerman (.250 with one RBI in 20 ABs) just don’t hit Mike Minor very well.

Adam Dunn is batting .231 with 11 Ks in 26 at-bats against Ricky Nolasco.

Curtis Granderson is 3-for-19 against Henderson Alvarez. Lucas Duda is 2-for-12 while Eric Young is 2-for-10.

Kelly Johnson, not good my friend. In 34 at-bats he's had one RBI and he's hit .235 against Ubaldo Jimenez. In an odd twist, Johnson's walked 10 times leading to a .409 OBP. Mark Teixeira is unarguably worse. He's got seven Ks and one hit in 16 at-bats.

J.J. Hardy has hit .150 against Hiroki Kuroda over 20 at-bats. Nick Hundley is 2-for-14. Nelson Cruz is 3-for-17 with one RBI.

Russell Martin is at .158 with no RBIs in 19 at-bats against Edwin Jackson.

Yadier Molina is batting .160 in 25 at-bats against A.J. Burnett.

Miguel Montero is the opposite of his teammate against Tim Lincecum. Montero has struck out 15 times and hit .175 against the Freak in 57 at-bats.

Hunter Pence has hit .188 with seven strikeouts in 16 at-bats against Josh Collmenter.

Anthony Rizzo is at a mere .200/.333/.267 over 17 plate appearances against Charlie Morton.

Andrelton Simmons has come to the bat 12 times against Stephen Strasburg. He has one walk and no hits.

Drew Stubbs has one hit and eight strikeouts in 15 at-bats against Marco Estrada.

Will Venable has one hit, a homer, in 15 at-bats against Dan Haren.

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

Henderson Alvarez pitches at home against the Mets. The last time he faced the Mets he threw a shutout. He has a 2.62 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in five starts against them. He's also sporting a 1.62 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in seven home starts this season.

Jarred Cosart takes on the Rays in Tampa. Since April 23rd, a span of 10 starts, the opposition hasn't recorded more than three earned runs. The last two weeks the Rays aren't hitting that well with a .249 average and 10 homers in 491 at-bats.

Hisashi Iwakuma has a 2.59 ERA on the year. He's also allowed a total of four runs over his last three starts and eight of the last nine times he's taken the bump he's worked at least seven innings. His neck should be OK and he pitches on the road against the Royals. In three road starts this season he's been locked in with a 2.49 ERA.

Hey, we all get hungry.

Charlie Morton has won each of his last three outings. He's also allowed a total of eight earned runs over his last five outings. Taking a look at his last 10 outings brings forth a total of just a single homer. He faces the Cubs on the road where he has an elevated 4.01 ERA this season.

David Price over his last four starts: 2.97 ERA, 0.96 WHIP with 37 Ks over 30.1 innings. He faces the Astros though and they are 10th in OPS against lefties so it's not likely to be a cakewalk.

James Shields has won his last two starts allowing three runs. He pitches at home against the Mariners and he has a solid 3.24 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in five home starts.

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

A.J. Burnett has walked two batters over his last two starts. Now it was against the Cubs and Padres, but that's still notable given the plethora of free passes he's been dishing out. Unfortunately he saddled with a 4.98 ERA and 1.48 WHIP on the road this year in seven starts and the Cardinals killed him for seven runs in two innings in their last meeting.

Ubaldo Jimenez last won a game on May 8th. He's allowed 10 runs over his last four outings as his ERA has gone from 4.98 yo 4.86. Yippee. He's also been torched by the Yankees over five career starts: 1-4, 6.67 ERA, 1.78 WHIP.

A fascinating arm wrestling story.

Hiroki Kuroda has a 4.93 ERA in seven home starts. He defeated the Orioles on April 7th (2 ER, 6.1 IP) and he's posted a 3.44 ERA and 0.98 WHIP over three June starts. Still, eight Ks in 18.1 innings and a 4.53 ERA in 10 night starts puts him in the no-fly zone.

Mat Latos looked sharp in his first outing this season but he faces the Blue Jays in Cincy. The Jays are 2nd in baseball in team OPS against righties and they lead the bigs in homers against them.

Mike Minor is someone you should look at add on the cheap from a frustrated owner. He's not someone to start Friday. He's allowed 22 this and 11 runs over his last two starts. He takes on the Nationals.

Rick Porcello has a 4.19 ERA and 1.26 WHIP on the road this year. He's also sporting a 3.59 ERA and 1.29 WHIP over 110.1 innings against the Indians. He's a decent play, but he's just not exciting, has walked11 batters in his last four outings, has failed to complete six innings in three of his last five trips to the bump and has allowed 11 earned runs over his last three starts.


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.