Albert Pujols just may be the most hated man in Chicago, and rightfully so, as he feasts on Cubs pitching every season.

For the last two weeks I’ve been telling you about all of the great content we’re running here on Sports Grumblings, all for the sole purpose of helping you win your fantasy league. This week, I’m going to show you a couple of tools that we have here that will help you with some of the many decisions you have to make regarding which players to pick up and/or start or bench each week (or each day!). First, we have the FFRS Team Power Rankings. Mighty Max, our staff number cruncher and statistical guru, runs a series of sophisticated algorithms and calculations each week to determine which teams have been most productive in all of the fantasy categories commonly used in fantasy baseball. He uses those results to produce Team Power Rankings that will tell which teams have the most productive players, information that will help you target which teams you should look to acquire players from. For instance, the Arizona Diamondbacks are currently the top ranked team in the Power Rankings. If you have the chance to acquire either Stephen Drew, or maybe Cristian Guzman of the Nationals (currently ranked 26^th), you should go for Drew, even though Guzman’s stats are slightly better. Drew clearly plays on the better team. The Power Rankings also help with pitching so they are quite useful. Next, we have the FFRS Weekly Player rankings, which calculates which players are expected to be most productive for the upcoming week.  Mighty Max presents this information broken down either by position, or as a Top 250 list – whichever best suits your fancy. Are you wondering which second baseman is in for a great week next week? Mighty Max likes Brian Roberts for Week 5, and ranks him first among second baseman. By the way, Max updates the weekly rankings every Saturday night. That’s his idea of a good time. Indispensable that Max is, simply indispensable. Finally, if weekly rankings just won’t do, Mighty Max runs his numbers every day too! The FFRS Daily Rankings come out every morning around 10 AM, and rank players for that day’s games. Need a little help making lineup decisions in your daily league? Sports Grumblings, and employee extraordinaire, Mighty Max, have you covered. Check these rankings out, and give them a whirl the next time you’re not sure who you should have active. Max is uncannily accurate! Now, on to the business at hand, with this week’s Leading Off games to watch and fantasy lineup tips for Week 5.

Series of the Week – Weekday Edition – Yankees vs. Tigers – Mon.-Wed.

This is the first meeting of these two teams this season, both still looking to find their groove after a mediocre start. The Tigers began with a dreadful 0-7 run, and have finally begun to turn things around, winning 6 of their last 10 games. Last week, the return of leadoff man Curtis Granderson, sparked a three game sweep of the Texas Rangers in which they scored 37 runs. The Yankees meanwhile are still trying to get some momentum going, overcome minor injuries to Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, and get their young pitchers, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, their first wins this season.
The Yanks and Tigers split their 8 meetings last season, with the Tigers hitting Yankee pitching for an average of .267 with 9 home runs, while the Yankees hit Tiger pitching for an average of .276 with 10 home runs. Neither team will be using their best pitcher against the other from last season, as neither Chien-Ming Wang (2-0, 2.57 ERA vs. Tigers in ’07) nor Justin Verlander (2-0, 2.19 ERA vs. Yankees in ’07) are scheduled to pitch in this series. Game one will feature Phil Hughes (0-3, 7.35) against Kenny Rogers (1-3, 7.66), while game two pits Andy Pettitte (3-2, 3.23) against Jeremy Bonderman (1-2, 4.28), and game three will feature Ian Kennedy (0-2, 9.64) versus Nate Robertson (0-3, 6.91).
Although the statistics show the teams to have been somewhat evenly matched last season, there were several hitters on both teams that had outstanding performances during the eight games they played against each other.  For the Yankees, keep an eye on Bobby Abreu, who hit Detroit pitching at a .429 clip with 2 home runs and 5 RBI, and Jason Giambi, who hit 3 homeruns and maintained a .286 average against Detroit. On the Tigers end of things, watch out for Carlos Guillen (if he is healthy enough to play) as he hit the Yankees at a .294 rate, with three home runs, and Curtis Granderson, who hit Yankee pitching at a .286 clip with a home run and 2 stolen bases.

Series of the Week – Weekend Edition – Cardinals vs. Cubs – Fri – Sun

The Cardinals – Cubs rivalry does not get the hype and media play that the Yankees – Red Sox match up gets, but ask any Cub or Cardinal fan about it, and you will find that they approach their rivalry with the same degree of hatred and vitriol as any Yankee fan or member of Red Sox Nation. The I-55 series, as it is sometimes known is actually older that Yankees – Red Sox, and was born of true regional competition. In many ways, it is more real than Red Sox – Yankees, which seems to be media-driven and curse sustained, rather than the truly fan-driven rivalry that is Cubs – Cardinals. This is their first meeting this season, in what is sure to be another great series of games.
Last season, the Cubs won 11 of the 16 games played against the Cards, with their pitching staff compiling an ERA of 3.34 and holding Cardinals hitters to a .237 batting average against them. The Cubs hitters to watch in this series are Derrick Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Against the Cardinals last season, Lee batted .349 with 3 home runs, while Ramirez had 4 home runs, 11 RBI and batted .333.  Against Cubs pitchers Albert Pujols simply raked, with 7 home runs, 13 RBI, and a .328 batting average.
The pitchers scheduled to take the mound for this series are Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, and Todd Wellemeyer for the Cardinals, and Ted Lilly, Rich Hill, and Jason Marquis for the Cubs.