Week 9 Hitting Planner (2024)

The Fantasy Baseball Hitting Planner is the essential guide to setting your lineup for the upcoming week. Every Saturday, we provide you with favorable hitting matchups for teams, as well as which hitters are hot or not. The Pitching Planner, complete with upcoming two-start pitchers, will be posted on Sunday.

Taking BP: Akinori Iwamura (strained oblique) is ready to return to the Devil Rays from the 15-day disabled list on Monday. He will start at third base again, with Ty Wigginton likely moving back to second base, while Elijah Dukes and B.J. Upton share DH duties ... Johnny Damon's calf cramps appear to be a problem for the center fielder for the first part of the upcoming scoring period. Melky Cabrera continues to start in center field for the Yankees, although Damon did pinch hit Saturday ... Chad Tracy (ribs) has been taking grounders in batting practice, but it's doubtful that he'll be ready to return once he's eligible (May 31). So the red-hot Mark Reynolds (.459, 3 HR and 11 RBI) will continue seeing at-bats in his place. He even hit cleanup against Houston on Friday, belting two homers at home ... Morgan Ensberg has homered in two of his past three starts. Mike Lamb has received three times the at-bats as Ensberg over the past two weeks, but he hit under .200 and the chance for him to steal the job appears to have slipped by ... Mike Napoli is batting .357 (15-for-42) during his current 12-game hitting streak ... Josh Hamilton, the leading candidate for the NL Rookie of the Year award, is set to start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Louisville now that his bout of gastroenteritis is behind him. Once he is able to return around June 3, expect the Reds to send Edwin Encarnacion back down to the minors ... Ryan Braun looked good in his major-league debut at San Diego Friday night. He was aggressive at the plate, hit the ball hard, and notched two RBI. The Brewers now have one of the best young group of infielders in the majors ... Shawn Green has a broken bone in his right foot and is considered day-to-day. Even if he does play this week, the pain in his foot will likely affect him in the batter's box. With Moises Alou (quadriceps) expected to be activated from the DL on Tuesday, the Mets will be mixing and matching in the outfield this week.

Projections are for May 28-June 3 games. All stats are through Friday's games.

Taking into account all games with at least a 50 percent chance of precipitation according to the Weather.com, the following might be threatened by poor weather: Arizona at N.Y. Mets (60 percent chance), N.Y. Yankees at Boston (60) and L.A. Dodgers at Pittsburgh (60) on Saturday.

Five other favorable hitter schedules

1. Detroit Tigers -- at TB (3), at CLE (4)

• While seven road games isn't ideal, the two staffs the Tigers face are among the worst 10 in the majors.

• The Reds have seven games in Week 9, and while six are on the road, they are also in hitter's parks, including three in Denver where the Rockies have a 5.21 home ERA.

• The Twins are above-average, but the A's get six home games, three of which are against the second-worst staff in the majors.

• Six home games against two struggling staffs makes Houston hitters solid starts.

• Seven home games for the Halos and three are against the 28th-ranked pitching staff of the Mariners.

Five other below-average hitter schedules

1. Minnesota Twins -- vs. CHW (3), at OAK (3)

• The Twinkies face the best staff in the AL (OAK) and the fourth-best staff in the AL (CHW).

• The Bucs only have six games this week and they are against two of the best staffs in the majors this year.

• While the Rangers have seven games, they are all on the road and three are against the best staff in the AL.

• The Braves are on the road all week with series against two staffs ranked among the top-10 in the majors in home ERA.

• The O's will love facing the Royals' pitchers early in the week, but the Angels have the second-best home ERA in the majors (2.71).

You can e-mail your Fantasy Baseball questions to DMFantasyBaseball@cbs.com. Be sure to include "Attn: Hitting Planner" in the subject heading. Please include your full name, hometown and state. Be aware, due to the large volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee personal responses or answers to all questions.