Who’s On First? (7/27/20-8/2/20)
This article is going to be a weekly planner/FAAB piece. It will come out each Sunday morning for those of you looking for ideas for that night’s pick-up. I encourage you to also read the What’s on Second article which has more players and things to consider for the not too distant future.
Things to Consider
The Cardinals, Rangers, and the Rockies only play five games in Week 2.
Many starters won’t go deep enough in the first week or two to get a win. Relievers that pitch multiple innings could sneakily be wins targets.
The Astros, Blue Jays see no left-handed starters in Week 2.
The Marlins see four left-handed starters in Week 2.
Pickups to Consider
Kyle Lewis– Two bombs in two games is exactly why I said to pick him up in my “What’s on Second” article last week.
Shane Greene– Mark Melancon is hurt and Will Smith isn’t back yet.
Greg Holland– The Royals brought Ian Kennedy in the sixth inning and then Trevor Rosenthal in eighth. Holland closed out the game and it could mean he is the closer moving forward.
Patrick Sandoval– Is back in the rotation now that he is healthy and has a ton of talent.
Austin Nola– With Murphy out for a while, Nola becomes the main catcher and can play other positions.
Matt Adams– Adams is the strong side platoon at DH and is facing one lefty and misses Jacob deGrom
Enrique Hernandez– Hernandez has started the season hot and with Lux not on the roster, he could grab this job full time.
Rowdy Tellez– Toronto is only facing right-handed starters this week which means Tellez shouldn’t have to sit.
Alex Jackson– Both Braves main catchers have COVID and Jackson is a former top prospect.
Aristides Aquino– Last year, we saw what he can do when he is hot and he is back up with the Reds.
Kwang Hyun Kim- Kim has the closer gig for now…
Two-Start Pitchers Worth Considering
Kyle Gibson vs ARI, at SF
Yonny Chirinos vs ATL, at BAL
Michael Wacha at BOS, at ATL
Josh James vs SEA at LAA
Anibal Sanchez vs TOR, at MIA
Pablo Lopez vs BAL, vs WAS
Homer Bailey vs STL, vs CLE
Starting Pitching Matchups
| 7/27 | 7/28 | 7/29 | 7/30 | 7/31 | 8/1 | 8/2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAL | @MIA (Lopez) | @MIA (Hernandez) | MIA (Alcantara) | MIA (Smith) | TB (Snell) | TB (Glasnow) | TB (Chirinos) |
| BOS | NYM (Wacha) | NYM (Oswalt) | @NYM (deGrom) | @NYM (Matz) | @NYY (Tanaka) | @NYY (Happ) | @NYY (Cole) |
| NYY | @PHI (Arrieta) | @PHI (Eflin) | PHI (Nola) | PHI (Wheeler) | BOS (Weber) | BOS (TBD) | BOS (Hall) |
| TB | ATL (Foltnewicz) | ATL (Wright) | @ATL (Soroka) | @ATL (Fried) | @BAL (Cobb) | @BAL (LeBlanc) | @BAL (Wojciechowski) |
| TOR | @WSN (Sanchez) | @WSN (Voth) | WSN (Scherzer) | WSN (TBD) | PHI (Velasquez) | PHI (Arrieta) | PHI (Eflin) |
| CHW | @CLE (Civale) | @CLE (Plesac) | @CLE (Bieber) | OFF | @KCR (Montgomery) | @KCR (TBD) | @KCR (Lopez) |
| CLE | CHW (Cease) | CHW (Rodon) | @MIN (Odorizzi) | @MIN (Berrios) | @MIN (Odorizzi) | @MIN (Maeda) | @MIN (Bailey) |
| DET | KCR (Lopez) | KCR (TBD) | KCR (Duffy) | KCR (Singer) | CIN (Bauer) | CIN (Miley) | CIN (Mahle) |
| KCR | @DET (Fulmer) | @DET (Agrazal) | @DET (Boyd) | @DET (Nova) | CHW (Keuchel) | CHW (Lopez) | CHW (Cease) |
| MIN | OFF | STL (Martinez) | STL (Mikolas) | CLE (Clevinger) | CLE (Carrasco) | CLE (Civale) | CLE (Plesac) |
| HOU | SEA (Graveman) | LAD (Buehler) | LAD (May) | OFF | @LAA (Bundy) | @LAA (Canning) | @LAA (Ohtani) |
| LAA | @OAK (Bassitt) | SEA (Sheffield) | SEA (Dunn) | SEA (Gonzales) | HOU (McCullers) | HOU (Greinke) | HOU (James) |
| OAK | LAA (Canning) | COL (Senzatela) | COL (Marquez) | OFF | @SEA (Walker) | @SEA (Kikuchi) | @SEA (Graveman) |
| SEA | @HOU (James) | @LAA (Andriese) | @LAA (Sandoval) | @LAA (Heaney) | OAK (Manaea) | OAK (Fiers) | OAK (Bassitt) |
| TEX | OFF | ARI (Kelly) | ARI (Bumgarner) | OFF | @SFG (Webb) | @SFG (Samardjiza) | @SFG (TBD) |
| ATL | @TB (Glasnow) | @TB (Chirinos) | TB (Morton) | TB (Yarbrough) | NYM (Porcello) | NYM (Wacha) | NYM (Oswalt) |
| MIA | BAL (Wojciechowski) | BAL (Stewart) | @BAL (Milone) | @BAL (Means) | WSN (Corbin) | WSN (Sanchez) | WSN (Voth) |
| NYM | @BOS (TBD) | @BOS (Hall) | BOS (Eovaldi) | BOS (Perez) | @ATL (Newcomb) | @ATL (Foltynewicz) | @ATL (Wright) |
| PHI | NYY (Happ) | NYY (Cole) | @NYY (Montgomery) | @NYY (Paxton) | @TOR (Shoemaker) | @TOR (Thornton) | @TOR (Roark) |
| WSN | TOR (Thornton) | TOR (Roark) | @TOR (Pearson) | @TOR (Ryu) | @MIA (Urena) | @MIA (Lopez) | @MIA (Hernandez) |
| CHC | @CIN (Miley) | @CIN (Mahle) | @CIN (Gray) | @CIN (Castillo) | PIT (Williams) | PIT (Keller) | PIT (Brault) |
| CIN | CHC (Lester) | CHC (Mills) | CHC (Hendricks) | CHC (Darvish) | @DET (Turnbull) | @DET (Fulmer) | @DET (Agrazal) |
| MIL | @PIT (Brault) | @PIT (Holland) | @PIT (Musgrove) | OFF | STL (Flaherty) | STL (Wainwright) | STL (Hudson) |
| PIT | MIL (Houser) | MIL (Lindblom) | MIL (Woodruff) | OFF | @CHC (Darvish) | @CHC (Chatwood) | @CHC (Lester) |
| STL | OFF | @MIN (Bailey) | @MIN (Hill) | OFF | @MIL (Burnes) | @MIL Peralta) | @MIL (Houser) |
| ARI | @SDP (Davies) | @TEX (Gibson) | @TEX (Lynn) | LAD (Stripling) | LAD (Wood) | LAD (Urias) | LAD (Buehler) |
| COL | OFFOFF | @OAK (Mengden) | @OAK (Montas) | OFF | SDP (Richards) | SDP (Davies) | SDP (Lucchesi) |
| LAD | OFF | @HOU (Valdez) | @HOU (Verlander) | @ARI (Ray) | @ARI (Gallen) | @ARI (Weaver) | @ARI (Kelly) |
| SDP | ARI (Weaver) | @SFG (TBD) | @SFG (Cueto) | @SFG (Anderson) | @COL (Gray) | @COL (Freeland) | @COL (Senzatela) |
| SFG | OFF | SDP (Lucchesi) | SDP (Paddack) | SDP (Lamet) | TEX (Minor) | TEX (Kluber) | TEX (Gibson) |
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
In the starting pitching matchups chart, what does the shading mean?
Looks like they are two-start pitchers, but that was hard to figure out because each pitcher is not in the same row for starts 1 and 2.
Ok, thanks. I guess that makes sense even though some pitchers are only shaded once.