In the last week of the season, you will see a lot of things happening that didn’t happen over the first 25 weeks. You will see teams who have already locked up playoff berths sit their starters to make sure they are fresh for the playoffs.

Starting rotations will be jumbled as aces will be bumped a day or two to position them for specific days of playoff action. Rookies will get more playing time and vets will sit as teams out of contention look to the future.

There is no rhyme or reason to some of the decisions made, just be prepared to watch your pitching matchups vanish into thin air or your stud hitter watch more games from the bench then from his usual fielding position.

This week, Cleveland, New York (AL), Arizona, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles (NL), Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington are all on the docket for six. All others are scheduled for seven games this week.

Now, the projected two-start pitchers for this week. For those of you in leagues who require you to set your lineup at the beginning of the week, these are guys you should strongly consider:

American League
BAL Brain Matusz, Brad Bergeson
BOS Clay Buchholz, John Lackey
CWS Mark Buehrle, Edwin Jackson
CLE Carlos Carrasco
DET Armando Galarraga, Max Scherzer
KC Kyle Davies, Sean O’Sullivan
LAA Ervin Santana, Dan Haren
MIN Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn
NYY A.J. Burnett
OAK Brett Anderson, Dallas Braden
SEA David Pauley, Felix Hernandez
TB Wade Davis, David Price
TEX C.J. Wilson, Cliff Lee
TOR Marc Rzepczynski, Kyle Drabek
  
National League
ARI Rodrigo Lopez
ATL Tommy Hanson
CHC Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster
CIN Edinson Volquez
COL Ubaldo Jimenez, Jeff Francis
FLA Alex Sanabia, Anibal Sanchez
HOU Wandy Rodriguez
LAD Ted Lilly
MIL David Bush, Randy Wolf
NYM Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese
PHI Roy Halladay
PIT Charlie Morton, Brian Burres
SD Tim Stauffer, Mat Latos
SF Jonathan Sanchez
STL Kyle Lohse, Jeff Suppan
WAS John Lannan


Rick’s Picks
Five best bets for double-start pitchers this week

1. David Price gets Baltimore on the road then Kansas City at home. He will most likely start two games this week as the Rays are in contention for the division title and top record in the American League. The opponents are already making off-season plans, so Price should be in for a big week.

2. Wade Davis’ week looks just like Price’s above. Davis problem has been a sore shoulder that landed him on the disabled list last month. He has been very good since returning, so it looks like the rest did him well.

3. Jonathan Sanchez gets two weak offenses at home (vs ARZ, vs SD) as the Giants look to lock up the division and head for the playoffs. Since Sanchez is unlikely to be on the front end of the Giants playoff rotation, he will almost assuredly get both starts this week.

4. Edinson Volquez is trying ot prove that he belongs in the playoff rotation and will have two home games (vs HOU, vs MLW) this week to show his stuff. Look for Volquez to have a big week.

5. Tommy Hanson has scuffled in his sophomore season, but is still a good pitcher. With the Braves fighting for their playoff lives, they get the Marlins and Phillies at home. The Marlins are playing out the streak and the Phillies will be resting their starters for the upcoming playoffs, so Hanson is a good bet this week.

Note: If Roy Halladay gets two starts this week, he is easily the No. 1 choice for the list. But since the Phils will likely bump him from his second start to allow him to start game 1 of the NLDS, don’t count on him taking the mound twice this week.

Rick Milleman is the head fantasy baseball contributor at DraftBuddy.com. Check his annual player projections included in the Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy to help draft your championship team.

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