SERIES PREVIEWS
Today’s starters listed in ()’s
Phillies (Suarez) at Braves (Fried)
Can the Phillies win this series? Absolutely, and in fact I am giving good chances to three of the four wild card teams who moved on and you have to consider the Phillies among the best positioned of them with how Wheeler and Nola look to be locked in right now. Unfortunately, they are facing the Braves who have the perfect set of arms in the bullpen for a five game series and have their pitching lined up to win games 1 and 2 at home. But I am sticking with my prediction before these series kick off and thats Atlanta & L.A. losing
Prediction: Phillies in 5
Mariners (Gilbert) at Astros (Verlander)
This is the one spot I do not see the wild card team having any chance. Seattle has yet to really get over the Houston hump and much like Atlanta, the Astros are setup perfectly for their rotation compared to what Seattle has. The major difference is I trust Houston’s hitting a little bit more than Atlanta’s out of the gate. So look for Houston to make quick business with a 4 game series win. I’ll give Seattle one win at home.
Prediction: Astros in 4
Guardians (Quantrill) at Yankees (Cole)
My favorite upset in the American League is going to be the Guardians over the Yankees. I think New York is a flawed team in many regards and the Guardians are that not great, but just perfect team to come in and give the favorites a headache in a short series. Cleveland’s pitching is going to dominate and the hitting will be sneaky on every DFS slate in this round.
Prediction: Guardians in 4
Padres (Clevinger) at Dodgers (Urias)
And now the series I didn’t think we would see, but here we are. Should this one have the most juice in it? Absolutely. It’s going to go five games and I would bet that every game is the opposite of the first one, which means tonights game decides the series in a weird way.
Prediction: Padres in 5
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WEATHER
No issues and some great fall weather once again.
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Max Fried
Fried will go 100+ pitches, not give up a ton of hard contact, strike out a few Phillies and go from there. I am concerned about early inning walks and if the under busts, that’s how it busts…
Justin Verlander
We saw Max not live up to his hype and there’s a chance JV has just an average strikeout game, but like Fried, he will have a long leash in this game and I prefer him greatly over Cole.
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DARK HORSE
Cal Quantrill
Sorry but I still do not buy into the Yankees being a good offense. Outside of Gleyber Torres down the stretch they really weren’t amounting to enough to make me shy away from Quantrill as a punt SP2.
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ASTROS
BvP matters in the post-season when picking one offs and the Astros have three CORE players who have hit Gilbert well. Altuve is 8-19 with 5 doubles and a homer, Yordan is 5-17 with 2 doubles and a homer and Bregman is 7-17 with a double and a homer. I also love Trey Mancini a good amount today as well.
GUARDIANS
Put the ball in play and get on base. A winning formula in the playoffs and who wouldn’t love to see Cole implode early tonight?
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CATCHER
- Travis d’Arnaud
- Austin Hedges
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FIRST BASE
- Trey Mancini
- Josh Naylor
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SECOND BASE
This is one of two good sneaky positions today with the other being shortstop. If you are into some SGP or prop bets, throw some action down on Jean Segura over 1.5 total bases.
- Jose Altuve
- Jean Segura
- Andres Gimenez
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THIRD BASE
- Alex Bregman
- Jose Ramirez
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SHORTSTOP
Look for some good production here today from a couple key one offs. Turner and Swanson most notably stand out to me.
- Trea Turner
- Dansby Swanson
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OUTFIELD
- Yordan Alvarez
- Wil Myers … At 2800 vs a LHP I hope he is in the lineup
- Steven Kwan
- Cody Bellinger
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- Dansby Swanson – SS – Braves – Chairman of The Dongers Club
- Alex Bregman – 3B – Astros
- Trey Mancini – 1B – Astros
- Andres Gimenez – 2B – Guardians
- Cody Bellinger – OF – Dodgers
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CORE
Max Fried
Mancini, Bregman, Swanson, Alvarez
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BETTING PLAYS
Phillies/Braves UNDER 7.5
Mariners/Astros OVER 6.5
Guardians ML
Padres ML
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