Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there!

This week’s schedule has the majority of teams, 18, playing six games.  Five teams have five games on their schedule, so the players you might want to sit are Chicago White Sox, Colorado, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle and San Francisco.  At the other end, the teams with seven games are Baltimore, Houston, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland and Texas.  Plus, you’ll want to start players on Atlanta that have eight games thanks to a doubleheader with the Mets on Monday. And the Mets play seven with two doubleheaders, adding one against Philadelphia on Thursday.

There are some two start pitcher weeks worth noting.  At the top of the list would be Jacob DeGrom with two home starts against Atlanta and Philadelphia.  He played catch and said all is fine, so you need him in your lineups!  Ian Anderson and Charlie Morton get two starts for the Braves at the New York Mets and Cincinnati. Tyler Mahle gets the Twins in Minnesota and Braves at home. And Aaron Civale gets the Cubs at Wrigley and Twins at home.

One of the better young pitchers, and a guy who might be on your waiver wire, Tarik Skubal gets two home starts against the weak hitting Cardinals and Astros.  Both Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw get two starts against the Padres and Cubs.  Another good young pitcher, Trevor Rogers, gets two home starts against the Reds and Indians. Gerritt Cole gets the Royals at home and Red Sox at Fenway.

Frankie Montas and Cole Irwin will both get two road starts at Texas and San Francisco. Yu Darvish gets two home starts against the Dodgers and woeful Diamondbacks.

A couple more waiver wire gems for this week could be the Johan Oviedo, who starts at Detroit and at home against Pittsburgh. Ryan Yarbrough is a nice pickup with two home starts against Boston and Los Angeles Dodgers. And Rangers starters Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles both get two home starts against Oakland and Kansas City.

A couple others pitchers getting two starts, but I’m not keen on are Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriquez, Jake Odorizzi and Russ Stripling.

Shortstop Woes, injury bug bites

Two of the games best young shortstops, Fernando Tatis and Alaberto Mondesi, are still having injury woes.  Reports out of San Diego are Tatis should be back Monday for the series opener with the Dodgers, but expect Mondesi to miss a few games and perhaps another IL stint with a side issue. Carson Kelly hit the IL with a wrist injury, and the Rockies best pitcher of late, Austin Gomber, went on the IL with forearm issues.

Help is on the way

The Yankees will have Luke Voit back in the lineup Tuesday, and the Dodgers are hopeful of getting both Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy back during the Padres series.  In a strange one, Houston outfielder Kyle Tucker, who may or may not have been bitten by the mad bat, is expected back also.  He went on the Covid IL on Wednesday, but never tested positive.  He did lose 10 pounds while fighting whatever it was, but is expected back this week.

Going out on a limb

In one of my deeper leagues, the 15-team mixed Tout Wars, starting pitchers on the wire wire are really slim.  So this week I’m rolling the dice with two New York pitchers, Jonathan Loaisiga and Seth Lugo.  Both middle innings guys, but Loaisiga picked up his seventh vulture win yesterday and sports a 1.63 ERA with strikeout ability.  I’m rooting for three outings of two innings, which is more than a lot of starters are giving me.  Hopefully, another vulture win and five to six strikeouts.  Lugo has been dominant since his return from his injury and with the Mets playing two doubleheaders this week, I could see him in four to five games, getting maybe eight innings, seven to eight strikeouts and perhaps a vulture win.  Sometimes you have to look outside the box.

Have a great week!

Charlie Wiegert was the sixth person to be inducted in the Fantasy Sports Hall Of Fame in 2001. He is a founder of CDM Fantasy Sports and Fantasy Sports Trade Association. He has been playing and winning fantasy baseball leagues since 1984. If you have any questions for Charlie, email them to cwiegert@cdmsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @GFFantasySports.