Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

Fantasy baseball's Week 16 is the final week of the MLB season's traditional "first half," even though the mathematical midpoint already passed a few days ago. After the conclusion of Sunday's (July 14) games, players will head into the four-day All-Star break, before play resumes Friday, July 19.

Bear in mind that, in ESPN leagues, the next scoring period encompasses both the upcoming week projected in this space, as well as the three-day weekend exiting the All-Star break, July 19-21. This means that if you play in a head-to-head league, your matchup will cover 10 days of action -- and if you play in any ESPN league with a weekly setting, your lineup will lock for all 10 days once each player's first game begins on Monday or Tuesday.

Unfortunately, as teams generally shuffle their rotations exiting the All-Star break, we won't have a sense of pitching rotations for those July 19-21 games until closer to their arrival (certainly past Monday), so this edition of the Forecaster projects merely the seven-day period ahead. We'll have another edition covering those July 19-21 games when they get closer and rotations are more solidified.

There is a doubleheader Saturday, as the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will play two at Busch Stadium, with one game making up for their May 24 postponement. That gives each team seven games for Week 15, making them two of the 12 teams that are scheduled for that many during the seven-day period. The Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres fall on the short end of the schedule stick, with only five games apiece.

Games at Oracle Park take on added significance during Week 16, as the San Francisco Giants are expected to welcome defending National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to their rotation. Additionally, the Minnesota Twins are scheduled to come to town from Friday to Sunday, bringing with them shortstop Carlos Correa, who nearly signed with the Giants following the 2022 season and ranks among the hottest hitters over the past month.

The American League East's top two teams, the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, square off again during the weekend, in a three-game set at Camden Yards. The last time these teams met, June 18-20, their placement in the division was reversed, and the Orioles won two of three games to narrow the gap to half a game. Baltimore has since taken over the division lead from the Yankees.