We have an MLB game in the books! Let's overreact! Xander Bogaerts will be the MVP! Or not. Mostly what I am taking from the first game of this Seoul Series is that nobody got hurt, and we can probably expect the starting pitchers for Thursday, Joe Musgrove and the debuting Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to be pulled fairly early. Previous seasons mean way more to me than anything that happened Wednesday.
That's what I kept in mind as I set this intriguing FanDuel single-game lineup. At FanDuel you get $35,000 to give out to five players. Your MVP earns you double the points, and your Star 1.5 times the points. Now, onto that lineup.
MVP
Mookie Betts, LAD vs. SD ($9,000): Why not make your MVP a guy that has, you know, won an actual MVP? You could make the case that Betts should have won another MVP last season when he slashed .307/.408/.579 with 39 homers, 40 doubles and 14 stolen bases. While Musgrove is right-handed, lefties have hit a mere .216 against him since 2021, compared to .236 for righties (including .282 last year). Thus, give me one of the two or three best right-handed hitters in the game!
STAR
Fernando Tatis, SD vs. LAD ($8,000): Sure, you could note that I have opened with the best hitter for the Dodgers followed by the best hitter for the Padres. Do you want to get cute the second day of the MLB season? That's your business. I am going with the guys I can trust, especially since it was still easy to fill out my lineup around this expensive duo. We know that Tatis hit .257 with 25 homers and 29 stolen bases in 141 games last year after missing all of 2022. What do we know about Yamamoto? Well, he was great in Japan…and he had an 8.38 ERA in spring training. Now, I trust Yamamoto's Japanese resume more than I worry about a few exhibition starts, but it's notable nonetheless.
UTILITY
Teoscar Hernandez, LAD vs. SD ($7,000): Hernandez joined the Dodgers this winter, giving them another right-handed regular. He hit 26 home runs last year even though he said the sightlines in Seattle messed with hit play. To that end, he had a .643 OPS at home in his one season as a Mariner with an .830 OPS on the road. Now that he's away from Seattle, Hernandez could be in line to bounce back, as he had an .852 OPS in his final three seasons with the Blue Jays.
Will Smith, LAD vs. SD ($6,500): Smith is the rare catcher worth rostering even when one does not need a catcher in their lineup. While he's hit lefties slightly better, he has a .785 OPS against righties since 2022, plus an .810 OPS on the road. Given Musgrove's success against lefties for years, and his struggles with righties in 2023, I wanted a third right-handed bat from the Dodgers.
Tyler Wade, SD vs. LAD ($4,500): To finish out the lineup, I found a lefty from the Padres to go up against the righty Yamamoto. With Manny Machado DHing while he recovers from his elbow issue, Wade is currently the starting third baseman for the Padres. Now, he's never managed to have a regular role in MLB, and was signed to a minor-league contract by San Diego before making the MLB roster. Wade had a hit and a walk in the opener, while has hopefully earned him another start Thursday, and that makes him worth rolling the dice on.
