Houston @ Boston

Pitching: 

Charlie Morton - Morton really had a strong 2017 campaign and was really good over the final two months of the season. He averaged 19.7 DK points per start over his last 10 games, including a 17.6 DKP outing against the Red Sox just 10 days ago. Morton’s notched four or more strikeouts in 14 straight outings, which is big facing a team who doesn’t strike out very often. Morton’s kryptonite is right-handed hitters. He allowed a stellar wOBA of .249 against LHH, but righties tagged him to the tune of a .345 mark. Red Sox had a decent 4.53 implied runs total, but are 110 underdogs according to Vegas. I tend to side with Vegas in this one.

Rick Porcello - Because the Red Sox were forced to use David Price on Sunday, Porcello slots in as their Game 4 starter. Porcello didn’t exactly end the season on a high note, allowing four earned runs or more in three of his last five starts. He’s been really crappy at home this season, allowing a .304/.345/.515 slash and those numbers creep up even higher versus lefties at home, as LHH slashed .315/.361/.561 at Fenway Park. Although we do prefer the lefties, everyone is in play. Righties also posted a .340 wOBA and a 34.7-percent hard hit rate against the Red Sox right-hander at home.

Bats:

As we mentioned in Porcello’s section, we love the lefties, but also like the right-handers as well. Josh Reddick could be our favorite play from this one. He’s 3-for-10 with a homer off of Porcello and notched a .314 AVG and a .369 wOBA against right-handers this season. Some great value on the Astros side could be Carlos Beltran. He has a 27 at-bat history against Porcello in which he’s notched 10 hits including a homer. He’s just 3.1K on DK and the minimum on FanDuel. Check to make sure he’s in the lineup. Obviously the big boppers like Altuve, Springer and Correa are in play too as the ‘Stros have the highest total on the slate.

If we’re using anyone from Boston’s side, it’s the righties. Mookie Betts has a hit in each of the three games this series and if he goes off, we’ve seen the type of monster game he can have. Hanley Ramirez could be the sneakiest play on the slate as he’s caught fire in the postseason. Han Ram is one of those guys you ride when he’s hot, and he’s coming off a Sunday afternoon in which he was 4-for-4 with three RBI. Avoiding all the left-handed bats here, just to reiterate. 

 

Washington @ Chicago

Pitching:

Max Scherzer - Even though he hasn’t pitched since September 30, Scherzer is the top arm on the slate. He faced the Cubs once this year, allowing one run while striking out six over six innings for 25.7 DK points. The hamstring is slightly a concern, but there is a reason we’re only playing GPP’s; he’s worth the risk. The one thing we may want to keep an eye on is the at-bats the Cubs powerful lefties have. Scherzer was absolute NAILS versus right-handers but versus LHH, he struggled at times, allowing a 1.44 HR/9 and a 4.54 xFIP. I wouldn’t consider him safe, nor would I consider any pitcher safe because it’s the postseason and crazy stuff happens with regularity.

Jose Quintana - Quintana closed his 2017 regular season campaign pitching well and missing bats as he struck out five-plus opponents in eight consecutive starts. He allowed 23 homers on the year and 22 of them were hit by righties, which Washington will have a lot of in their lineup. During the regular season, Washington ranked top-seven in baseball in AVG, SLG, OPS, ISO, wOBA and wRC+ against southpaw pitchers. Quintana will have his plate full in this one.

Bats:

It’s really hard to get excited playing bats against Max Scherzer, but there are some things we can look to take advantage of. As we mentioned earlier, he struggles with lefty power to an extent. Ben Zobrist and Anthony Rizzo have both taken Mad Max deep in the past and Zobrist has left the yard three times against him. Avoid the righties unless you don’t mind essentially throwing away all your football winnings from this past weekend.

On the Nats side, we really like the guys from the right side here. We harped on how good Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmermann and Howie Kendrick were vs. LHP all year long so why stop now? You could go with a full stack here seeing how five Nationals with 40-plus at-bats versus left-handed pitching are hitting .300 or better.

 

Indians @ Yankees

Pitching:

Trevor Bauer - Bauer flat out dominated this Yankees lineup in Game 1 and will look for a repeat performance in Game 4. It’s not crazy to think he’ll have a similar game plan as to the one he had in that first game, especially to Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. He threw both hitters nothing but breaking stuff and they both couldn’t do anything with them. This will be the fourth time Bauer’s faced the Yankees this year and if it goes anything like it has, we’re in for a pitching exposé. He’s averaged 25.9 DK points vs. NYY as he’s allowed just two ER over 19.2 innings while striking out 19. Bauer could get himself into some trouble if he walks the farm, which happens at times. 

Luis Severino - There’s no way Severino hasn’t been chipping at the bit to get back onto the hill after his disappointing Wild Card outing that saw him last 0.1 inning. He’s the third prices pitcher on both DK and FD which is definitely a risk. We should take that Wild Card start as an aberration, however, because he was one of the best pitchers in the game this entire season. Yankees pitching struck out 11 last night, including seven from Tanaka. Tanaka had a lot of success burying his two-strike pitches in the dirt and getting Cleveland hitters to chase. Severino’s lethal slider will allow him to do the same thing and similarly to last night, we might get quite the pitchers duel in this one.

Bats:

Bats from both sides are quite risky in all honesty. Bauer struggled way more versus the left side of the dish this year, so if you wanted to use a Gregorius, Bird or Gardner one off, that would be a fine play. Left-handed batters ended the season with a .356 wOBA and obviously that short porch in RF is tailored for LH power. It was mentioned above that Bauer’s found his game plan versus Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez and shouldn’t, and most likely won’t deviate from it. If that’s the case I’m limiting my exposure here.

Similarly to the exposure on the Yankees side, there’s not much here. Jose Ramirez is 3-for-10 with two homers vs. Severino but has really struggled this series. Severino has allowed a 32.7-percent hard hit rate to lefties compared to a 24.9-percent clip vs. righties, so if rostering anyone, play those hitting from the left side.

 

Los Angeles @ Arizona

Pitching:

Yu Darvish - Darvish’s last three starts as a Dodger were super encouraging. He stunk for over a month until those last three starts in which he threw 19.1 innings of two run (one earned) ball while striking out 21 and walking one. Darvish is one of the more electric pitchers in all of baseball as been eluded to over his last three games. In his one meeting versus the Diamondbacks this year he struck out 10 in just five innings. The Diamondbacks lineup is pretty tailored to be dominated by Darvish due to how much they swing and miss. Darvish could put up a huge score in this one if he continues to pitch well.

Zack Greinke - Down 2-0, the D’Backs are turning to their ace for Game 3. Greinke’s been bad of late, totaling -1.4 points if you combine his DK point total from his last three starts. He hasn’t missed bats like normal either, striking out no more than four in any of those aforementioned three starts. The Dodgers’ offense is clicking on all cylinders and avoiding Greinke — with how bad he’s looked of late — might be the best course of action.

Bats:

There are quite a few Dodger bats that stick out from the BvP perspective. Most notably is Corey Seager who’s 6-for-11 with two homers and a .722 wOBA. We also have Justin Turner who’s 7-for-22 with a homer, Cody Bellinger is 3-for-9 with a bomb and Yasmani Grandal who’s gone deep twice off of Greinke. I wouldn’t stack this team by any means, but a few one off’s could definitely work here.

With Darvish pitching the way he has, I’m avoiding this D’Backs team. Arizona’s back is all the way up against the wall down 2-0 and I’m not sure they’ll be able to get off it. Fading all Diamondbacks personally, but obviously a case can be made for an elite hitter such as Paul Goldschmidt versus anybody.