Week 4 Fantasy Baseball FantasySP Expert Picks

Baseball has plenty of moving parts during the season. With 162 games over more than six months, teams and players are going to go through slumps and look cooked only to bust out the next week and go on a tear.

A 10-day IL stint means that a position player will miss at least seven or eight games, rather than other sports where a week on the shelf only costs them three or fewer games. In the fantasy baseball world, those days off drag on forever, especially when one of your top guys is busy rehabbing.

With so much up in the air, we are here to give you a few nuggets based on player and team performance early in the season. Morgan Rode and Daniel Hepner answered five questions related to fantasy baseball for the upcoming week.

1. Give us one or more teams who have good matchups this week.

Daniel: The Nationals have the best week in terms of the quality of teams they are facing. First, they play four games at Pittsburgh on Monday-Thursday, then they head to Colorado to face the Rockies Friday-Sunday.

Morgan: The Mets have pretty solid matchups all week. New York has a three-game set against Minnesota, then a four-game series against St. Louis.

2. Who are some offensive players with positive outlooks who might be available as free agents?

Daniel: The Royals play seven games against the Yankees (three) and Tigers (four), two teams that are in the top 10 in both most runs and home runs allowed. Texas plays six games against the Angels and Dodgers, two teams that meet the same criteria.

For KC, you might be able to grab infielders Jonathan India and Maikel Garcia, and you can definitely pick up outfielders Michael Massey, Hunter Renfroe, Kyle Isbel, and MJ Melendez. Those guys are among the top available Royals in at-bats.

For Texas, Leody Taveras, Joc Pederson (who has been horrible), Jonah Heim, Josh Jung, and Josh Smith are the guys you could pick up who get in the lineup often.

Morgan: San Francisco's Jung Hoo Lee is still available in a few leagues and has matchups against the Phillies and Angels this week. He's got more projected fantasy points than a ton of other players for the coming week.

Tampa Bay's Brandon Lowe also has good weekly projections. He's got matchups against the Red Sox and Yankees - only one of the starters he's set to face has an earned run average under 4 so far.

3. How about a few pitchers that owners can pick up who have at least one good matchup this week?

Daniel: The Dodgers get three games against the Rockies (in LA) and three against Texas, two teams in the bottom 10 in a majority of offensive box stats. Same story for the Blue Jays, who get three games apiece against the floundering Braves and Mariners. Pitchers from those two teams will have valuable matchups this week.

With the Nationals having such great matchups, their pitchers will also have value, though the weekend games are at Coors Field. Washington closer Kyle Finnegan is available in a lot of leagues, and he could be in line for a run of saves against the weak Pirates and Rockies.

Morgan: Athletics' Jeffrey Springs has scheduled starts against the White Sox and Brewers. Chicago is one of the best fantasy matchups for a pitcher, while Milwaukee is probably average at best right now.

Boston's Tanner Houck has games against the Rays and White Sox. We already talked about the White Sox, but Tampa Bay is also a very favorable matchup on paper.

4. Is there a trade target who has started slow but is likely to pick up their performance?

Daniel: This can relate to any player with expectations who has struggled early. People overreact in fantasy sports, and patient owners can reap the rewards by believing that a guy will figure it out after a stretch of poor play.

Hitters who are on teams that were supposed to be good but are playing poorly are often solid bets. The Atlanta Braves, for instance, are currently struggling hard while Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II, and others have hit around .200. Any of those three would be a good buy-low target if their current owner is panicking.

Morgan: There's a number of trade targets who I've pointed out over the last couple weeks. Hosuton's Yainer Diaz and Christian Walker, St. Louis' Willson Contreras, Philadelphia's Alec Bohm and Baltimore's Gunnar Henderson are some hitters to potentially target.

Atlanta's Chris Sale, Philly's Aaron Nola, Toronto's Jose Berrios, Los Angeles Angels' Yusei Kikuchi and Arizona's Zac Gallen are a few starting pitchers to potentially go after.

5. How about someone who started hot but is likely to regress and could be traded as his peak?

Daniel: It's easy to go with the opposite of my previous answer: find guys who have started hot on teams that are likely to be bad the rest of the season. Those players are likely to regress, and if the team's overall performance also falls, they will have fewer chances for RBI and scoring runs.

The Giants and Angels might fit the bill. San Francisco has Wilmer Flores tied for the league lead in home runs and third in RBI (as of Saturday), while Jung Hoo Lee is tied for tops in doubles and is batting .333. Both guys could keep up a hot streak, but Flores plays first base, the easiest position at which to find fantasy production, and Lee produced at a much lower level last season in limited action.

Kyren Paris of Los Angeles might be the best example: he has gotten off to a blistering start, batting over .400 with five home runs. The most likely outcome is that Paris will cool off and perform more like an average player who is easy to find in fantasy baseball. If someone is willing to overpay for him now, it would be prudent to make that move.

Morgan: As much as I've been saying to target Athletics' Tyler Soderstrom, I also think some big regression is coming with him. I'd look to trade him before his numbers drop too much.

Texas' Nathan Eovaldi is the top pitcher I'd look to move. He's a serviceable starter every five days, but isn't likely going to remain one of the top fantasy talents in the game. Sell him before his value plummets.