With the weekend approaching and the end of your weekly fantasy match up also nearing, it’s important to pay attention to math cups and get the most out of your batters to help you win this weeks math cup.  To pull the trigger and bench a player with some tough games ahead can make all the difference between a win and a loss.  Not many batters are going to thrive in a series where they are facing Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, and Gio Gonzalez, making it important to look ahead, and rely on a bench player if need be.  Here is a look at some third basemen who may struggle this weekend due to some tough pitching match ups.  

Pedro Alvarez - Pittsburgh Pirates

Alvarez has a very tough weekend match up ahead with the Cardinals coming into town.  The cardinals bolster a strong pitching rotation with pitchers that know how to rack up the strikeouts.  That is especially concerning for a player like Alvarez who is known to strikeout more than his fair share of the time.  

Chris Johnson - Atlanta Braves

Johnson has a very uninviting match up this weekend, by having to travel to Washington to face what is one of the deepest and most dominant starting rotations in all of baseball.  There aren’t many batters at any position capable of having a good weekend against a staff, and it would be wise to assume Johnson is not one of the hitters capable of putting up valuable fantasy numbers.  Stash him on your bench for this three game series before placing him back in your lineup for a juicy match up vs. the Mets.

Chase Headley - San Diego Padres

Outside of the breakout 2012 season Headley has actually been at best an average third base option for fantasy.  He doesn’t provide much in the way of power, or batting average, but does have slight speed upside for his position.  The padres have a match up against the Marlins this weekend which doesn’t sound frightening but they have some good power arms who have done a good job at containing a potent Rockies offense.  Headley is hitless so far through two games and needs to be benched until he shows signs of life at the plate.

Pablo Sandoval - San Francisco Giants

Sandoval is a solid third base option who I would not normally recommend benching.  A series against the Dodgers is not going to be a fun one.  Despite Kershaw recently going to the disabled list the Dodgers still have good arms in their rotation with Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu.  

Kyle Seager - Seattle Mariners

Seager is one of those players that gets drafted each year with the hopes that this is the season he lives up to that power potential and delivers fantasy owners with numbers they’ve been waiting years on.  Even if this is that year I don’t believe that this is the series where he proves it.  Despite injuries Oakland still has a strong young rotation led by Sonny Gray.  Tom Milone and Daniel Straily are no slouches themselves and there’s always wildcard Scott Kazmir.  It doesn’t help too that playing in Oakland is a very unforgiving ball park for power hitters.  Leave Seager on the bench for this weekend’s four game series as there is just not much to like about his potential for these upcoming games.