MLB Daily Fantasy Baseball Playoffs – Tuesday, October 3, 2017
*Austyn Varney*
MLB Daily Fantasy Baseball Lineup Stacks – Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Put your favorite MLB daily fantasy baseball lineup stacks from the article below in our MLB Lineup Optimizer and hit calculate. You can let it fill in the rest of the spots for you or choose your personal favorites from the MLB Player Lab.
*Tuesday Night*
Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees
Match-Up – Ervin Santana Vs Luis Severino
Park – Yankee Stadium
Vegas – 7.5, NYY -235
Pitchers
Luis Severino is going to be the pitcher to own on this slate. The Yankees are a huge -235 favorite and Severino faces the weakest lineup of the 4. The other game is also at Chase Field, so that’s not a spot you love to target pitchers in anyways. Severino is at home, in Yankee Stadium, facing a Twins lineup that can be taken advantage of by righties. Don’t get me wrong, the Twins are a string lineup and they aren’t one to be taken likely. However, this is the playoffs now, so the relativity scale is a bit different. The Twins K 22% of the time against righties and have posted an adequate .318 team wOBA. They’re worse on the road and Vegas has them with an implied team total under 3. As for Ervin Santana, I have no interest. I guess he could go out and dominate, but I’m willing to take the L if that happens. The Yankees are the top offense around and we’ll get to that in a second. Wrapping it up, Severino is the top option in all formats and Santana is probably the worst of the 4.
Hitters
With just 4 lineups on the slate, we can’t be picky. If you’re targeting Luis Severino, you might as well ignore the Twins. If you’re going off the board with a different pitcher, you should certainly have some correlation plays from Minnesota. Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario are the 2 best hitters against righties and an HR out of either of them wouldn’t be surprising in Yankee Stadium. The rest of the order is in play if you dislike Severino, but it’s not necessary. As for the Yankees side of the diamond, they’re my favorite offense on this mini-slate. Ervin Santana is not that good of a pitcher and he’s a guy that can be taken advantage of by both sides of the plate. He’s allowed a .301 wOBA on the year, which is good. However, a .246 BABIP suggests we have a lot more to the situation than that. He’s allowing a 37% hard contact rate and a 24% LD. Gary Sanchez is the top catcher on the slate and he should be close to 100% with the other options to choose from. Judge is another top play on the slate and it’ll just come down to whether or not you can afford him. Didi Gregorius and Brett Gardner are also right in that mix, so I like them in cash games as one of the last guys you fill-in. The bottom of the order should be RBI opportunities and you can take any of them in tournaments. To reiterate, we only have 4 teams to pick from, facing 4 decent or better pitchers, so you’re not going to be able to be very picky.
*Wednesday Night*
Colorado Rockies @ Arizona Diamondbacks
Match-up – Jon Gray Vs Zack Greinke
Park – Chase Field
Vegas – 8.5, ARI -167
Pitchers
If this game was in a neutral or pitcher-friendly ballpark, both of these pitchers would be a lot more interesting. Chase Field is the 2nd best park in baseball for hitting and these offenses can be lethal. With that being said, these guys are very talented and we can’t just ignore them because of the ballpark. For once, they’re both used to these conditions. Greinke has been dominant in Chase Field this year and Gray has been pretty impressive in Coors. Greinke is my 2nd favorite arm on this slate, though it’s by a healthy margin. He has been one of the better pitchers in baseball and it’s evident by his home numbers. He’s posted a .282 wOBA against both lefties and righties while striking out close to 10 batters per 9 innings. He’s an elite pitcher and you have to consider him for that sole fact. The argument against him is the Rockies lineup and their potency against righties. We’ll get to it. As for Jon Gray, I don’t have much interest. He is a very good pitcher, but he’s still young and I don’t think he has a leash longer than 1 run here. The Rockies have a decent bullpen and they will not want to fall behind against Greinke. This D-Backs lineup is too strong at home and I just see no reason to target Gray. However, I do like him more than Santana.
Hitters
There isn’t a single hitter in this game that isn’t at least a decent play. LIke I’ve said over and over, we don’t get to be picky on this one. We have 4 good pitchers and 4 good lineups to look at. In Chase Field, there’s nothing wrong with staking either or both of these teams. I definitely like the D-Backs a bit more and their insane 1-5. They are all cash game viable and will be a staple in cash games. The bottom of the D-Backs order (Iannetta, Drury) has a lot of boom/bust. Don’t hesitate on any of those guys if you think they will fall under 10 or 15% owned. As for the Rockies, they’re fine, but I won’t go searching them out. Gerardo Parra is probably my favorite as a decently priced OF’er with some upside. Guys like Arenado and Blackmon are phenomenal GPP plays, nut I’d certainly rather have some combo of Sanchez/Judge/Goldy/J.D. They are my priorities on this slate and targeting Greinke isn’t. All in all, this slate is tough. You never know what can happen in baseball and that’s only magnified in a 1-game playoff series. Good Luck!!