On-Deck

The Week Ahead - April 23 - April 29

One of the new features that we'll be bringing you each week will involve each team's upcoming schedule. This can be a major boost for those of you who keep a flex spot on your roster so that you can pick up players and use them as plug and play options. By knowing not only who they'll be facing, but also where they'll be facing them, this should give you some insight as to who the hot pickups for next week might be a few extra days in advance.

On Tuesdays, we'll be publishing our ballpark data from last season and a three year average for each stadium so that you'll be a little more familiar with how each stadium plays and what, exactly, it plays well to (it's a myth that all hitter's parks only play extremely well to power hitters). For now, we'll be using some of the top hitter's and pitcher's parks based on that data to compile which offenses have favorable schedules coming up and which offenses will be playing in parks that are more geared toward pitchers. As the year wears on, each team's opponents will factor more into the equation, based on how they have performed.

Home games are listed in CAPS, while the number in parentheses shows how many games they'll be playing each team.

Favorable

Chicago White Sox: Kansas City (2), DETROIT (2), LOS ANGELES ANGELS (3) - Any time a team plays five in the park that has played best to power three years running, it comes in handy. When you toss in that their two road games are against the weak Royals' staff and that they'll miss the two big young guns of the Tigers, it becomes a major windfall.

Philadelphia Phillies: HOUSTON (1), WASHINGTON (3), FLORIDA (3) - Seven at home in the NL's best park for home runs. Toss in the Nats' pathetic starting staff and they should score a ton of runs.

Texas Rangers: SEATTLE (2), Cleveland (2), Toronto (3) - The first two at home should be a breeze, particularly since they'll get Felix Hernandez' replacement (presumed to be Brandon Morrow, who some fans may mistake for Stars' captain Brenden Morrow) in one of the two games. While the bats may quiet a bit in Cleveland, they'll jump back into action in Rogers' Centre, which played top ten for hitters.

Arizona Diamondbacks: SAN DIEGO (3), SAN FRANCISCO (3) - Six at home in a top five hitter's park.

Milwaukee Brewers: Chicago Cubs (3), Houston (3) - While many are 50/50 on Minute Maid Park, it does play exceptionally well to power. Wrigley plays well to just about anything that's hit on the field of play.

Unfavorable

Tampa Bay Rays: NEW YORK YANKEES (2), Los Angeles Angels (2), Oakland (3) - Though they start out with two at home against a banged up pitching staff, one of those two will be against Chien-Ming Wang, who absolutely killed them last year. The West Coast Swing takes them to two of the top ten pitcher's parks in baseball.... and they'll be facing top-notch starters.

Cleveland Indians: Minnesota (2), TEXAS (2), BALTIMORE (3) - Two in the neutral-pitching Metrodome, including a game against the best pitcher in baseball, to start. They follow it up with five at the Jake, which played as the seventh best pitcher's park in baseball last season.

Cincinnati Reds: Pittsburgh (3), St. Louis (3) - PNC plays well for average, but poorly for power (Cincy's strength). The new Busch Stadium played horribly for hitters across the board in its first season.

New York Mets: COLORADO (3), Washington (3) - The bats may come alive because of suspect opposition, but the fact remains that they'll play three at home in the fourth best pitcher's park in the league and three in Washington, which played sixth best for pitchers last season.

St. Louis Cardinals: CINCINNATI (3), CHICAGO CUBS (3) - Six at home in the new Busch Stadium, which played as an extreme pitcher's park last season. Toss in that they're just 1-6 at home this season, and it could be a long week for the Cardinal bats.

All fourteen AL teams plus the Astros and Phillies from the NL will play seven games this week. Every other NL team plays six.

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