The weekend is ready to kick off. You got your plans made yet? The club with the homies? At home with the significant other on the couch watching a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie (don't lie guys – like you don't know what I'm talking about)? If you've got some time to devote to baseball before the weekend hits you might want to read this piece – a review of matchups for Friday, June 27th. 

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.

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DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
 
The last 14 days...

Jose Altuve has hit .459 with four steals.

Alejandro De Aza is actually hitting with a .342 average and four steals. 

Billy Butler has hit .380 with eight runs scored and nine RBIs.

Josh Harrison is batting .348 with eight RBIs and four steals. 

Brad Miller is batting .349 with thee homers and eight runs scored. I forgive you. No one else knew of his success either.

Aramis Ramirez is batting .404 with four bombs, 12 RBIs and 10 runs scored. Teammate Scooter Gennett is at .400-2-10-11-1. 

Adam Dunn rips up the knuckler from R.A. Dickey. He's hit .462 with two homers over 13 at-bats. 

Five at-bats but four hits for Yunel Escobar against Kevin Gausman. Ben Zobrist also has four hits but it took him seven at-bats. 

Evan Longoria has hit Chris Tillman very, very well (understatement). When you hit .407 over 27 at-bats you're big time impressive. When you've hit five bombs and driven in seven runners you are Optimus Prime like (yes, Transformers: Age of Extinction is out. I won't be seeing it this week, but early next week it's on like Donkey Kong. How many 80's references can I drop? Looks like two.). Matt Joyce has hit .292 with two homers and four RBIs over 24 at-bats.

Dioner Navarro has hit .412 in 17 at-bats against John Danks. He's also gone deep twice. 

Gerardo Parra has hit .353 in 17 at-bats against Tyson Ross. 

Troy Tulowitzki has hit .333 with a homer against Kyle Lohse in 21 at-bats. Tulo is so good my question is – does this effort even deserve a mention?

“Rubik's Cube Champion Anthony Brooks Is Really Good At Completing Rubik's Cubes.” Blindfolded. 

Dan Uggla, I know it's a shock to see him here, has hit .308 with a .950 OPS in 42 plate appearances against Kyle Kendrick. He's gone deep twice with seven RBIs and for him the four Ks in 39 at-bats is a fantastic number. 

Ryan Zimmerman has hit .360-1-4 against Jason Hammel over 25 at-bats. 

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Erick Aybar is batting .256 with a .275 OBP over 40 plate appearances against Jason Vargas. Josh Hamilton is often rendered impotent as well. Three homers in 25 at-bats is impressive but the .200 average and .259 OBP over 27 plate appearances certainly doesn't impress, at all. 

Domonic Brown... will he even play? Hopefully he doesn't. He's 1-for-10 against Julio Teheran. Marlon Byrd can one up him – he's 1-for-11. 

Melky Cabrera has two doubles and four RBIs against John Danks but he's also hit just .240 with a .589 OPS over 26 plate appearances.

I hate fascism. You gotta look good while fighting crime. Just ask Batman.

Jason Heyward has one RBI, no steals and has hit .200 over 25 at-bats against Kyle Kendrick.

Adam LaRoche hasn't done very well against Jason Hammel. He's got two hits and five strikeouts over 15 at-bats. Does have a homer though. Ian Desmond doesn't have a homer and is batting .250 with no RBIs over 16 at-bats. Denard Span has a theft but he's also gone 1-for-10. 

Ryan Ludwick has one hit in 17 at-bats against Madison Bumgarner. At least he's driven in two runs. Jay Bruce has one hit in 12 at-bats. He's also driven in two. 

Miguel Montero has one hit in 12 at-bats against Tyson Ross. 

Hunter Pence has hit .276 against Johnny Cueto in 29 at-bats. Unfortunately he has no homers, no steals, no RBIs, 11 strikeouts an a .645 OPS. Pablo Sandoval (9 ABs), Michael Morse (6 ABs) and Gregory Blanco (5 ABs) all have just one hit against Cueto. 

Drew Stubbs has hit three singles in 17 at-bats against Kyle Lohse. At least he has only three punchouts. 

Ben Zobrist, and yest the Orioles and Rays play two games, is awful against Chris Tillman. Take that back. Just really bad. He's hit three homers in 32 at-bats but he's also batting .188 with a .257 OBP. It gets worse from there. Others against Tillman: Yunel Escobar (.154 in 13 ABs), James Loney (.125 in 16 ABs), Desmond Jennings (.125 in 16 ABs) and Jose Molina (1-for-11).

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

Madison Bumgarner, in seven starts at home this year, has a 4.57 ERA and 1.48 WHIP. In five career starts against the Reds he's got a 4.11 ERA though his WHIP is 1.04. The only two reasons he's not in the negative column is that he's Madison Bumgarner and because the Reds are the 5th worst team in OPS against lefties.

Jesse Chavez faces a Marlins club that is batting .221 with a .294 OBP and .325 SLG the last two weeks. They are in a bit of a funk in Florida where this game will be played. Chavez has a 2.98 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in eight road start this season, and just once in his last eight outings has he allowed more than three earned runs. 

Johnny Cueto has a 1.86 ERA, 0.84 WHI P and 119 Ks in 116 innings. Starts against everyone. Pitches in San Francisco against the Giants. 

Tyson Ross has a losing record at home (3-4) but he has a 2.36 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and more Ks (56) than innings pitched (53.1). He also held the Diamondbacks to three runs (one earned) in a seven inning start on May 4th to lower his ERA to 2.57 over 35 innings against the D'backs. 

Hyun-jin Ryu is 9-3 with a 3.06 ERA. He's won six of his last seven starts. He faces a Cardinals club that is 19th in OPS against righties and 25th in road OPS. 

Jason Vargas has allowed three or fewer runs in 6-straight outings as his ERA has dipped from 3.76 to 3.16. He's gone four games without a homer, has allowed only four walks in his last four outings and has just one loss in his last six trips to the bump. He faces his former team (Angels) at home, and he's long dominated the Angels (2.56 ERA, 1.08 WHIP over 91.1 innings).

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

Trevor Bauer faves the Mariners in Seattle. He allowed three homers in his last outing and in three road starts this season his ERA is 6.19 while his WHIP is 1.50. Over his last four starts he's also allowed at least three runs each time out as his ERA has gone from 3.63 to 4.40. Just not looking sharp.

R.A. Dickey has only one win in his last five outings and he's allowed at least one homer in each of his last seven starts (nine total). Hard to ever know what to expect from him but in his last outing against the White Sox he allowed seven runs over five innings to push his career ERA (8.22) and WHIP (1.79) against the Sox into the stratosphere (30.2 innings).

I hate fascism. You gotta look good while fighting crime. Just ask Batman.

Brandon McCarthy is 1-10 with a 5.38 ERA. He's allowed the following earned runs his last six starts: 5, 5, 3, 5, 3 and 5. He pitches in Petco versus the Padres (one of those five run outings was against the Padres May 26th). 

Brad Peacock against the Tigers, a club that he allowed four walks and three runs against over 6.2 innings on May 7th. In 45.2 innings at home this season he's got a 5.12 ERA, 1.60 WHIP and 1.84 K/BB ratio. 


Chris Young faces the Indians at home. He's got a 2.23 ERA and 0.97 WHIP at home over seven starts. How? Some guys just know how to pitch, I get that, but this guy has 43 Ks in 86.1 innings and he's walked 34 batters. Those numbers stink. He's got a 0.44 GB/FB ratio. That's hideous. His fastball is 85 mph. Can't explain his success. 


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.