We are down to the final four. This is usually when pitching has the upper hand so finding offense amongst the four teams can be a challenge when building lineups. Last night Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros and Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays were very stingy. Both bullpens were on point as well. If you didn’t own Jose Altuve or Randy Arozarena you likely didn’t cash in for tournament play. Tonight it’s Walker Buehler versus Max Fried for game one of the NLCS. For the American League, it will be game two, Charlie Morton up against Lance McCullers Jr. Let’s get right to it and make some Diamond Picks for Monday, October 12.
Pitcher
The two offenses that are in the best spots tonight are the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Astros. This is nowhere near a slam dunk as all four pitchers have a good chance of success tonight. It’s slightly easier to back Buehler then it is to back Fried but not by much. Both teams are loaded offensively. As for the ‘Stros and Rays, a bounceback against Morton seems more likely than the Rays doing heavy damage against McCullers and the surprisingly good Houston bullpen.
Infield
Jose Altuve 2B HOU
Playoff Altuve is making his presence known again, and this spells trouble for the Tampa Bay Rays. Altuve finally found his stoke versus the Athletics in the Divison series after having a miserable regular season that saw him hit an unthinkable .224. Altuve carried the momentum into game one last night as he leads the Stros in hitting going 2-5 with a homer. He now has five homers and 11 RBIs in his last 11 games (playoffs and last four games of the regular season).
Ji-Man Choi 1B TB
Man-Choi is very cheap tonight on DraftKings at just $3,800. He is highly likely to get the start versus the right-handed McCullers and is usually slotted in the four-hole for Kevin Cash‘s Rays. Speaking of McCullers, he features plenty of breaking pitches in his arsenal, notably his devasting curveball. Man-Choi has fared well off of this pitch throughout his career as he is hitting .275 in 80 at-bats.
Outfield
Kyle Tucker HOU
Probably my favorite play of the night is Tucker. He is going to be a really good big-leaguer, he is just recently figuring things out early in his development. Over his last 10 contests, Tucker is hitting .333. He has a good matchup tonight against Morton. The Rays righty has really struggled over the course of his career against left-handed hitting. Lefty bats are hitting .270 and are slugging almost 80 points higher than right-handed hitters versus Morton. The HR/9 rate takes a noticeable uptick as well. Versus righties, it’s 0.61, it goes all the way to 0.95 when matched against bats from the left side.
Michael Brantley HOU
For all the reasons above and the fact that Brantley is priced at just $3,700, it’s hard to pass up on Dr. Smooth. If you want to go even cheaper, Josh Reddick is also well worth consideration. His head to head career-wise is more favorable then what Brantley has done off of Morton. Reddick has gone 3-6 while Brantley is just 3-18. Brantley hits higher in the lineup and is hitting nearly .300 while averaging 9.2 DraftKings points in his last 10 games.
Check us out on our socials:
Twitter: @PTSTNews and @TalkPrimeTime
Facebook Page: Prime Time Sports Talk
Join our Facebook Group: Prime Time Sports Talk
Instagram: @ptsportstalk
Follow Joel Dorcas on Twitter @Joel_Dorcas6
Main Image Credit:
Embed from Getty Images
