Summer weather is starting to wind down in many MLB cities. This has two implications. First, the best hitting environments of the summer are pretty much gone as very few remaining games will be played in hot and humid weather. Second, those typically chilly west coast games won’t be that much colder than games in the rest of the country, so the lack of extreme temperature differences means hitting environments will be more uniform across the U.S. For this week in particular, watch out for rain because a couple cold fronts will be high rain chances to a few cities, especially during the first half of this week.

Targets: This Week’s Best Hitting Environments

Here are the best hitting conditions this week:

• Atlanta at Philadelphia (Monday & Tuesday; temperatures close to 80 both days with decent humidity)
• St. Louis at Baltimore (Monday & Tuesday; temps around 82 both days)
• San Diego at LA Dodgers (Monday; temps near 80)

Overall, the best day for hitting weather will be Sunday, September 17. Temps will be 80-85 degrees for several series finales on that day including:

• Tampa Bay at Baltimore
• Cincinnati at NY Mets
• Philadelphia at St. Louis
• Houston at Kansas City
• San Francisco at Colorado

Avoids: This Week’s Worst Hitting Environments

Rain will threaten several games this week (see section below). Cool weather will make quite a few games stand out for their relatively poor hitting environments including:

• Tampa Bay at Minnesota (Monday-Wednesday; entire series will be played in temps near 62 degrees)
• Cleveland at San Francisco (Monday-Wednesday; temps only near 65 degrees for all three games)
• Washington at Pittsburgh (Wednesday-Thursday; temps in the lower 60’s during both of these games)
• San Francisco at Colorado (Thursday-Friday; Coors is typically very good for hitters but temps of just 63 degrees will siphon off some of the excitement for hitters in the first two games of this series)

This Week’s Greatest Rainout/Postponement Risks

Monday and Wednesday are this week’s rainiest days and contribute to this list being one of the longest of the year. Most weekend series will be dry.

• NY Yankees at Boston on Monday (High risk)
• Arizona at NY Mets on Monday (Medium risk)
• Kansas City at Chicago White Sox on Monday (Medium risk)
• Washington at Pittsburgh on Tuesday (Medium risk)
• Arizona at NY Mets on Wednesday (Medium risk)
• NY Yankees at Boston on Wednesday (Medium risk)
• San Francisco at Colorado on Thursday (Medium risk)

Please remember that I am not suggesting that a slightly worse hitting environment is enough reason to bench your superstars (rainouts, however, are a different story). Instead, use weather information as one of the pieces to help you decide when you’re weighing start/sit decisions, mainly for your non-superstars.

If you have a specific question, you can hit me up on Twitter (@LarryV86). Also, check back here on SportsEthos by Friday morning for the weekend update.

————————————————————————————————————

Larry is a meteorologist who was fortunate to have a 36-year career “doing his hobby” with the National Weather Service. He’s a weather weenie who was fascinated by weather in elementary school and graduated with a degree in meteorology from Penn State. He obsesses about fantasy baseball, weather and the Phillies.