Week 10 of the fantasy baseball season will be a more difficult week to navigate and optimize lineups with plenty of interleague play and nine teams scheduled to play only five games: ARI, BAL, CLE, NYM, NYY, PHI, STL, TB, and TEX. For these weeks, attention should be shifted towards teams that play on all seven days, of which we have three: BOS, KC, and MIA.
Of the short list of teams scheduled to pay seven games, our top hitters project to be from the Red Sox, who will benefit from playing against three left-handed starting pitchers. We will target Hunter Renfroe, available in about 30% of leagues, and Bobby Dalbec, only 10% owned.
On the flip side of things, our least favorite bats this week are from the Angels and the Yankees. Both of these play shortened weeks and do so at National League ballparks without a DH in the lineup. Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani, who typically plays as their DH, will likely see less plate appearances but will be available to pitch hint. Likewise, the Yanks have not used Giancarlo Stanton in the field since October 2019, so it is likely he too will be limited to a pinch hitting role when they play a series in Philadelphia at hitter friendly Citizens Bank Park.
Speaking of hitter friendly parks, the Reds benefit from playing six home games this week, all at very hitter friendly Great American Ballpark. They will play host to both the Brewers and the Rockies. As such, we will target some lesser owned Reds such as Tyler Naquin, 65% owned, Tucker Barnhart, 30% owned, and Tyler Stephenson, 5% owned.
There are a number of other low owned hitters and pitchers who we are targeting this week. This list will continue to grow throughout the week, but for now we are keeping a close eye on the following players/situations:
- Jonathan Schoop, owned in 40% of leagues, has always been a streaky hitter with massive upside. Schoop just put up impressive numbers in May and we would consider riding out this current hot streak until it inevitably ends.
- Framber Vazquez, now owned in 70% of leagues, was mentioned here last week after his return from the IL last week. He has now pitched very well in two appearances. Most recently, he pitched seven scoreless innings with ten strikeouts.
- Adam Frazier, now owned in 75% of leagues, has been another main stay here. Frazier has too many hits to be a free agent in any league or format.
- Brandon Crawford, owned in 70% of leagues, has also been mentioned in this section before and has seen his ownership increase by over 30% since then. We still think he is massively under-owned for a player who ranks among the top 60 in FBB.
- Tyler O’Neill, 75% owned, is again somebody we mentioned previously and has seen a massive ownership increase He continues to exceed expectations and has found himself among the top 100 players in FBB. The Cardinals’ OF has twelve homeruns on the season.