Posted by Eric Polsky on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 3:42 pm

If your fantasy league is anything like mine, your trade deadline is this week. But fantasy playoffs don’t start for another four or five weeks…

If your fantasy team is anything like mine, you’re a buyer at your trade deadline and you’re locked in for a playoff spot….

So what does this mean? Well, over the next four or five weeks you might be in the fortunate position to coast into the playoffs and instead turn your focus on your players’  playoff schedules. As you can see from the chart below, certain teams have very favorable playoff schedules, like the Dodgers, and others have tough matchups or even five game weeks.  Knowing this in advance could make a difference in whether you’ll want to acquire a certain player for that championship run.

Here’s the table, and following that I’ll highlight the teams you may want to target. Obviously each league is different, as some leagues run playoffs from week 22-25, while others go from weeks 23-25 or 23-26.  And if you’re locked into a first-round bye at this point, you can narrow your focus even further.

 
Favorable playoff schedules for pitchers:
Detroit:

• in weeks 22-25, six games against Kansas City, four against Toronto and six against Cleveland

Minnesota:

• six games against Cleveland in weeks 22 and 24;
• three against Oakland in week 23;
• six against KC in weeks 25-26.

Texas:

• three games at Cleveland and three games against Seattle in week 23;
• seven games vs Oakland in weeks 24-25

L.A. Dodgers:

• six games against San Francisco in weeks 23-24;
• seven against Pittsburgh in weeks 24-26;
• five against San Diego in week 22 and 26;
• three at Washington in week 25;
• four against Arizona in week 22.

Favorable playoff schedules for hitters:
Cincinnati:

• in week 23, four games at Coors, three at Wrigley;
• in week 25, three at Pittsburgh, three at Houston;
• seven games each in weeks 22-24

L.A. Dodgers:

• seven games against Pittsburgh in weeks 24-26;
• five against San Diego in week 22 and 26;
• three at Washington in week 25;
• three at Arizona in week 23

Texas :

• 16 home games in weeks 22-25;
• three at Baltimore in week 22;
• three at Cleveland in week 23.

Negative playoff schedules for pitchers:
Baltimore:

• only 5 games in week 23, at Fenway and Yankee Stadium;
• nine total games against the Yankees in weeks 22-24. 

Tampa Bay:

• only 5 games in week 25, three of those at Texas;
• four games at Yankee Stadium and three at Fenway in week 23.

Toronto:

• only 5 games in week 24, two at Yankee Stadium, three at Tampa Bay;
• three games in Detroit in Week 23
• Toronto is the only team with 8 games in any of these weeks (week 22), but with four of those in Texas and 4 against the Yankees, those 8 games are not favorable for Blue Jays pitchers.

Pittsburgh:

• seven games against the Dodgers in weeks 24-26;
• three at Minute Maid in week 23
• four at Cincinnati in week 22

Milwaukee:

• nine games against St. Louis in weeks 22-23 and 26;
• seven games against Chicago in weeks 24-25;
• three in Coors in week 26;
• three at Arizona in week 23

Negative playoff schedules for hitters:
In weeks 22 through 26 total, there’s not much negativity other than a slight disadvantage to Baltimore as noted above. But if you can narrow your playoff schedules down to three specific weeks, you may be able to find some unfavorable matchups, or even some more favorable matchups than those listed here.

Here’s one last tip. Focus on players on teams that are in contention.  Veterans on teams that will be out of the playoff race around weeks 22 through 26 might be sitting more often than not, as September call-ups work their way into lineups. Best of luck to everyone in their playoffs. “Playoffs?!?!”