This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
An interesting first day sets us up for plenty of narratives to choose from on Saturday. Due to timing, I'm not at the luxury of seeing the final results of Mets-Padres, so for now, we have two road teams winning Game 1. Will they close it out, or do we get comebacks from Toronto and/or St. Louis, forcing a decisive third game? There's more pricing disparity across pitchers than there was Friday, where things were tightly packed.
Pitching
Personally, I'm out on the top two options of Jacob deGrom ($11,300) and Kevin Gausman ($10,800), as they're just too pricey. Outside of that, I'm fine using any option other than Miles Mikolas ($9,200).
Honestly, take your pick. We saw runs were at a serious premium Friday, and there's no reason to expect an explosion Saturday either. Tyler Glasnow ($8,900) has minimal innings potential, but huge strikeout upside if it clicks, making him a nice GPP option. Perhaps we fade Aaron Nola ($10,400) too just save additional funds and really hone in on Triston McKenzie ($9,900), Robbie Ray ($9,700) or Blake Snell ($9,400). Stealing a stat from ESPN, at the mid-way point of the second inning, 56 percent of the runs scored Friday came via home run, with the regular season average being 40 percent. Tampa doesn't hit home runs, so that seems to set McKenzie up for upside with a safe floor to boot. Ray and Snell get their upside from strikeouts. I believe I've talked myself into McKenzie as the target, and would rank those three as priced.
Top Targets
As noted yesterday, you simply can't miss when paying for a bat. So many of these lineups are so deep, it's a coin flip on who produces. Jose Ramirez ($4,500) is the exception, as he's a one-man wrecking crew who absolutely delivered yesterday. I hate that his price is the highest, and I hate that I like him and his pitching teammate as my preferred choices, but that's playoff baseball.
Slumping stars squaring off against each other are priced so far down we have to take note. Bryce Harper ($3,600) and Paul Goldschmidt ($3,600) both saw their prices fall nearly $1,000 from Friday. One can send his team into the next round, while the other can force a decisive third game. Both have big potential that we don't have to pay much for. Brandon Nimmo ($3,700) is priced higher, which seems to be begging for high usage, but that's okay if everyone else follow suit.
Bargain Bats
I feel like my job is to highlight less than obvious plays, especially in this section. But FanDuel, what are we doing? Juan Soto ($3,300)? Form or matchup, I don't care, that's just a ridiculously low number.
Randy Arozarena ($3,200) saw his price fall some $700 from Friday, and we know the playoff history there. Both him and Soto are going to come highly used.
Whit Merrifield ($2,700) seems likely to move up the Jays lineup against a lefty, as he has a .381 wOBA, 153 wRC+ and .367 ISO since coming Toronto.
Stack to Consider
Mets vs. Cardinals (Blake Snell): Pete Alonso ($4,000), Jeff McNeil ($3,100), Starling Marte ($2,500)
Marte's return seems to make this a no brainer. I personally think the Mets are done, but think they'll battle hard here, and this stack oozes slate-breaking potential. Alonso needs one swing, McNeil is a contact machine and Marte is so underpriced he needs to reach once to return. The Mets allowed him to run Friday, and with a team-leading .380 wOBA and 153 wRC+ against lefties, I could see him moving up in the order with the Mets in must-win mode. He's what makes them go, and has huge standalone appeal.
