When you’re looking at pitcher matchups for fantasy baseball, sometimes the cards just align for certain guys. On the right day, Rodrigo Lopez can look like a surefire start… Actually probably not. But for fantasy fourth and fifth starters it can be about the matchups. It’s especially helpful to keep this in mind for H2H leagues where on any given Sunday a team can win or lose. Hooah! I decided to look at teams in general to see what their overall stats could tell us about potential fantasy baseball matchups.
Most Team Strikeouts – Arizona Diamondhacks. As great as Krispie’s season has been, when you see him leading off you have to wonder if the ‘Hacks could strikeout out 10+ times against Livan Hernandez.
Worst Home Slugging – Seattle Mariners are leading the league in just about every worst of category at home and on the road. Well, them and the Astros. But, where the Astros have actually been doing better recently, the M’s are actually getting worse. Ichiro and then pray for eight HBPs.
Terrible Against Lefties – Orioles, M’s, Indians, Blue Kays and Astros are the bottom five teams for OPS vs. lefties, disrespectively. The surprising one (for me, at least) is the Blue Kays. They lead the majors in homers and lead everyone but the Astros in taking a dump against southpaws. Wells has 3 homers and a .203 vs. lefties, Bautista has 5 homers and .221 and Hill has 2 homers and .123. They are all righties. If anyone can explain the Blue Kays this year, please do.
Terrible Against Everyone – Padres, O’s, Pirates, M’s and Astros are the bottom five teams in OPS in the Major Leagues. No real surprises here. The Padres are winning games because of their pitching and to spite Jake Peavy.
Easiest Teams To Steal Against – Pirates, Mets, Red Sox, Yankees. Posada or Cervelli, they’re equally easy to steal on. Barajas has caught 4 of 26, not great. V-Mart will be a nice boost to opposing baserunners once he returns. But leading the world in allowing the extra base is Ryan Doumit with 68 steals allowed and only 8 caught. His defense is making a compelling case for him to DH in the AL one day, too bad his offense isn’t.
Crazy Home/Away Splits – The Rockies aren’t surprising with their Home/Away Splits (.484 SLG in Coors, .364 in Away games). Two other teams that are not road scholars are the Diamondbacks (.469 Home; .372 Away) and the Rangers (.463 Home; .382 Away).
Day/Night Splits – The Rangers show up again as a team that is much better at night. Probably because their day games in Texas hover around 120 degrees in the shade. The Royals actually lean the other way. Their OPS is 72 points higher in day games. Someone in the peasant Royals organization might want to consider just removing the stadium lights rather than trading for unproductive vets.
