Tristan H. Cockcroft is senior writer for fantasy baseball and football at ESPN. Tristan is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. He is also a two-time LABR and three-time Tout Wars champion.
Fantasy baseball's Week 14 features the scheduling twist we've all been waiting for -- a full week of seven games at Colorado's Coors Field, the first of its kind all season.
That's right, up until now, the Colorado Rockies had not played an entire week at Coors, splitting the first 13 scoring periods of the fantasy season between home and road series. That it's a seven-game week, in a week where only eight other teams play seven and one plays only five times, heightens their hitting matchup advantage. It's the first of what will be only four weeks all season that the Rockies spend entirely at Coors, and one of only two with seven games there (also Sept. 14-20).
That five-game team is the Kansas City Royals, who have picked up the pace in June with a 12-10 record and the majors' second-best runs per game average (5.77). The Royals' weekend series at Kauffman Stadium against the Philadelphia Phillies begins Saturday and runs through July 6 (Monday of Week 15), in order to accommodate World Cup Round of 32 matches at neighboring Kansas City Stadium on Friday.
Speaking of World Cup-impacted series, the Seattle Mariners' week-opening series against the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park will include a Wednesday day off, as a Round of 32 match takes place at neighboring Seattle Stadium on that date. The Angels-Mariners series takes place on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Saturday is Independence Day, and that means the annual morning game at Washington's Nationals Park. The Washington Nationals' home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates is scheduled for a 11:05 a.m. ET start time, so make sure to set your lineups early on that date.