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          Fantasy Baseball Forecaster: Week 25 rankings, lineup picks

          Riley Greene and the Detroit Tigers have just a little bit of time left to make a playoff push. Getty Images
          • Tristan H. Cockcroft
          Sep 16, 2024, 10:08 PM

          Fantasy baseball's Week 25, the penultimate week of the 2024 MLB season, is another busy one -- and it's not even by virtue of makeup games that have been added to the schedule. There are 97 total games on the schedule, the second-most that will be played in any week all season (barring postponements). We have 14 of the 30 MLB teams playing on all seven days, with the other 16 each scheduled to play six times.

          In other words, this is the week to make up ground in your leagues' championship races. For those of you in ESPN standard head-to-head leagues, be aware that this week begins those two-week championship matchups. Since the schedule is much more loaded this week than next (where all 30 MLB teams are currently scheduled to play no more than six times) this is the one in which to aim for a big matchups head start. Remember, both playoff-bound and mathematically eliminated MLB teams often rest regulars during the season's final week.

          Speaking of playoff-bound teams, Week 25 might be the first in which we see playoff spots, and perhaps even specific seeds, begin to be clinched. The Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies each possess at least a nine-game lead in their respective divisions, while the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees have similar magic numbers to those two teams to secure playoff/wild-card spots.

          The Detroit Tigers, baseball's best-performing team since Aug. 11, are in the midst of a critical-yet-challenging stretch of their schedule. They'll spend Week 25 on the road, playing three-game road series against the similarly playoff-hopeful Kansas City Royals and Orioles. Detroit's rotation could be bolstered by the healthy return of Reese Olson, their fourth best-performing pitcher in terms of Wins Above Replacement, on Monday.

          Lineup lock times

          Scheduling quirks for Week 25

          Starting pitchers for Week 25

          Hitting charts for Week 25