Fantasy Baseball Forecaster for Week 23: Sept. 19 to 25 (2024)

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• Projected starting pitchers for the next 10 days

• Hitter matchup ratings for the next 10 days

• Week 23 hitting ratings

• Week 23 pitcher rankings

• The fantasy baseball championship weeks are here! In ESPN head-to-head leagues, Week 23 begins the two-week -- well, two-week-and-three-day, because the early-April, lockout-impacted postponements caused a three-day, Oct. 3-5 extension of the regular season -- championship matchups. Winners from the Weeks 21-22 head-to-head matchups advance, squaring off for all the marbles.

• Week 23 gets off to an early start, as the series finale of the five-game, Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Guardians weekend wraparound series, begins Monday at 1:10 p.m. ET. Originally a three-game, Sept. 16-18 series, that series expanded to five games in order to make up two of three April 4-6 postponements (the third game had already been made up as part of a June 28 doubleheader), so be sure to set your fantasy lineups knowing that there is now an earlier game on Monday.

• There are 98 total games in Week 23, three of those makeups, a busier schedule than in the week before with the result being that all 30 teams are scheduled to play at least six times. Consider this a quality-over-quantity week as far as matchups analysis. The other two make-up games come during the week-opening Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers series, as the teams make up two of three April 4-6 postponements (the third was already made up as part of a May 17 doubleheader) by playing a single game on Monday and doubleheader on Tuesday, meaning that both teams will enjoy eight-game weeks with minimal weather risk.

• For your daily lineup planning, Monday has two day games among nine total. Tuesday begins with the first game of the Diamondbacks at Dodgers doubleheader, scheduled for 3:10 p.m. ET and broadcast on ESPN+. It is the only day game among 16 total. Wednesday has two day games, the earliest being Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves at 12:20 p.m. ET, among 15 total. Thursday has five day games, the first being Los Angeles Angels at Texas Rangers at 2:05 p.m. ET, among 13 total. Friday's 15 games are all at night, beginning with Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates at 6:35 p.m ET. Saturday has three day games, beginning with Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees at 1:05 p.m. ET, among 15 total. Sunday's games begin with a pair with 1:05 p.m. ET start times, those among 14 day games and 15 overall. The day's slate concludes with Red Sox at Yankees on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball at 7 p.m. ET.

• Additional ESPN+ games for Week 23 include Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays on Monday at 6:40 p.m. ET, Pirates at Yankees on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. ET, which is tentatively scheduled to mark Luis Severino's return to the Yankees' rotation, St. Louis Cardinals at San Diego Padres on Thursday at 4:10 p.m. ET, Braves at Philadelphia Phillies on Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET, Detroit Tigers at Chicago White Sox on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. ET, and Cardinals at Dodgers on Sunday at 4:10 p.m. ET.

• The Colorado Rockies wrap up the Coors Field portion of their schedule with a seven-game week including four against the San Francisco Giants and three against the Padres. Though the Rockies' projected pitching opponents present a bit of a challenge -- Carlos Rodon (Tuesday), Logan Webb (Wednesday), Yu Darvish (Friday or Saturday) and Mike Clevinger (Sunday) are on the list -- the seven overall combined are 4-of-16 in quality starts with a 5.93 ERA lifetime at Coors, underscoring the difficulty all pitchers have succeeding in the mile-high environment. Predictably, the Rockies have baseball's best runs-per-game rate in their home games (5.84), and its worst on the road (3.00), and since the trade deadline that split has been even wider (second-ranked 6.65, versus a 29th-ranked 2.72). Enjoy this last week of Coors goodness, with the five righty starters projected especially good news for leadoff man-against-righties Ryan McMahon (36.7% available in ESPN leagues), a .255/.337/.443 hitter against that side. Michael Toglia (99.2% available) is also worth an NL-only or 14-plus-team mixed add-and-start, considering he continues to play regularly and has a 5.9% home run rate against righties at all levels combined this season.

• It's the opposing Giants who garner the bigger weekly matchups advantage as a result of Coors games, as in addition to their four there, they'll play three weekend games at Arizona's Chase Field while avoiding Zac Gallen in the Diamondbacks' rotation. As the Giants, a matchups-conscious lineup building team, are aligned to face six right-handed starters, Nos. 1, 2 and 4 hitters LaMonte Wade Jr. (98.6% available), Mike Yastrzemski (48.6%) and Joc Pederson (41.5%) stand out as strong fantasy plays, the latter especially due to his .269/.348/.527 rates against that side. Rodon should remain in your lineup, despite both of his starts coming at baseball's two highest-elevation venues (Coors and Chase), ballparks at which he has terrible histories (admittedly in miniscule samples). Alex Cobb (64.5%), 3-0 with a 2.29 ERA in his past seven starts, gets the biggest scheduling break of any Giant, working Friday at Arizona. This is also a smart week to get closer Camilo Doval (37.0%), 10-of-11 converting his saves with a 0.98 ERA since the trade deadline, into your lineups.

• The wild card-hopeful Seattle Mariners, however, have baseball's best all-around Week 23 schedule. After finishing up their four-game, weekend wraparound road series against the Angels on Monday, they'll visit the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals for three games apiece, with those opponents representing three of the four worst teams in the American League. Marco Gonzales (41.3% available) is the one member of the Mariners' rotation available in more leagues than not, he has four quality starts in his past five outings and gets a favorable Friday matchup in Kansas City. Julio Rodriguez has been dealing with lower back tightness, which cost him the team's Sept. 17-18 games, is day to day but at least gets a soft set of matchups with which to return. He'll probably play in limited fashion this week, but the schedule props him up as a viable start, unless you have an overwhelming alternative. Cal Raleigh (85.3%), who has started 20 of the team's past 27 games at catcher, is also a worthwhile add-and-start based on his power potential and this schedule.

• Max Scherzer (oblique, 15-day IL) threw 3 2/3 innings and 59 pitches of one-run, seven-strikeout baseball in a Sept. 14 rehabilitation start for Triple-A Syracuse, and he is expected to rejoin the New York Mets' rotation on Monday, to align for a two-start week with road assignments against the Milwaukee Brewers and Athletics. Even if he's capped in the 80-85 pitch range for the first outing, his exceptional talent makes him an easy top-five pitching play for Week 23.

• Among other pitchers returning from injury are the aforementioned Severino (lat, 60-day IL), who is expected to pitch for the Yankees on Wednesday against the Pirates, after posting a 3.48 ERA and 32.5% strikeout rate across three minor league rehabilitation starts. As he threw only 56 pitches in his most recent turn for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 15, he'll probably be capped near 70-75 pitches, but the matchup is favorable enough to warrant universally activating him. Zack Wheeler (forearm, 15-day IL) threw a successful Sept. 16 bullpen session and is expected to return to the Phillies on Wednesday against the Toronto Blue Jays. He's likely to face limited pitch counts initially, but even accounting for that is a top-30 single-start pitcher for the week. Aaron Civale (forearm, 15-day IL) wasn't effective in his first rehabilitation start for Triple-A Columbus on Sept. 15 (2 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 60 pitches), but he nevertheless is expected to rejoin the Guardians' rotation on Tuesday, to align for a two-start week with road outings against the White Sox and Rangers. His shaky outing makes him a risky play in fantasy for the week, however.

• The Dodgers' eight-game week comes entirely at home, where the team has a major league-leading .731 winning percentage, tilting things significantly in their favor. They'll play five games against the Diamondbacks, the other eight-game team, followed by three against the Cardinals, with perhaps the biggest drawback to their schedule being that they've got a magic number of only seven to render all of their remaining regular-season games irrelevant to their playoff cause (they'd clinch the National League's No. 1 seed with that mix of their wins and Mets losses, while their magic number over the Braves is six). Remember, the No. 1 seed gets a first-round playoff bye -- that means they have Oct. 6-10 entirely off -- so it might behoove the Dodgers to spread rest days across the roster over these next 17 days. This would also be a good week for the team to decipher its late-inning bullpen approach, as any of Craig Kimbrel, Chris Martin, Evan Phillips or Alex Vesia could factor into the closing mix, be it this week or in the postseason. Vesia is your deep Week 23 fantasy sleeper, available in 98.5% of leagues while posting a 0.44 ERA and striking out 33-of-77 hitters in his past 21 appearances.

• Though they'll play all six of their games at home, the Phillies don't have the easiest go of it during Week 23. A .500 (18-18) team since Aug. 11, the Phillies will play two against the surging Blue Jays and four against the division-rival Braves, facing three of the Player Rater's top 40 starters in the process, Kevin Gausman (Wednesday), Spencer Strider (Friday) and Kyle Wright (Saturday), with Ross Stripling (Tuesday) and Charlie Morton (Sunday) also plenty-talented pitchers on their schedule. This is an unappealing week for Alec Bohm, a .260/.301/.403 hitter in his past 19 games who has batted .263/.294/.357 against right-handers, as the Phillies are scheduled to face nothing but righty starters.