Here we go – the best single calendar day of the Baseball season. Four games, four series, one day, 2pm until whenever I pass out. You cannot ask for a better day of Baseball than what we have today and we have zero weather issues and some damn good pitching on tap as well.
The roof in Houston will be closed.
The roof in Milwaukee likely is going to close as well.
The roof in Tampa is ugly.
And of course, there is no roof thankfully in San Francisco.
As one would like with two series starting and the other two in game 2, we have good pitching going today. Better than I can recall though in recent years for the Divisional round.
Walker Buehler … Playoff Walker, there’s not much better than this. We’re all going to be waiting for the best series to start up late tonight and do not fall asleep like an old man on the couch in the bottom of the 8th inning here folks, there should be some good action in this one. Getting the W is going to be challenging tonight for Walker but I have more confidence in him pitching clean than just about anyone else today.
Charlie Morton … Leverage is HUGE today on this four game slate, and picking a leverage SP against one who will be popular is the best steal. I am on the Braves to take game one of their series with the Brewers today and expect their offense to do well against Burnes. Morton is a veteran who has pitched big games and should be trusted by the Braves to give them 6 strong innings today.
LINEUPS TO TARGET
Red Sox vs Rays … When the playoffs start you can immediately jump on hot streaks and fade cold streaks. The sample size to some might be too small but recent form right now in the playoffs is huge, plus teams have as much advanced scouting as they will ever have on matchups and you can tell when a team either cannot get a guy out or has a guys number. To me, neither of these teams are going to be able to shut each other down entirely and if Tampa can wait out Sale today they should feast on the Red Sox bullpen. Tampa has magic, they should win this game again to make it 2-0 and is an offense that likely gets overlooked too much. That said, Hunter Renfroe is going yard for Boston.
Atlanta Braves … There is obviously NO bad pitcher going today, so being contrarian with a stack against the top ranked pitcher in some ways has to be considered even more. That said, this isn’t just being contrarian for the sake of being stupid. Atlanta has hit Corbin Burnes well and is a sneaky offense against LHP if the Brewers decide to bring in Mr. Hader Choke too early in this game — which I think they will — and it will result in Freeman or Ozzie Albies going yard for the second time in the game. I love the Braves to start a HR parade in Miller Park with the roof likely closed.
POSITIONAL TARGETS
CATCHER
- Mike Zunino
- Yasmani Grandal
FIRST BASE
- Freddie Freeman … Has fantastic Miller Park numbers.
- Yuli Gurriel … We will take singles come playoff time
SECOND BASE
- Ozzie Albies
- Trea Turner
THIRD BASE
- Yandy Diaz
- Rafael Devers
SHORTSTOP
- Corey Seager
- Dansby Swanson
OUTFIELD – Mt. Rushmore
- Luis Robert
- Randy Arozarena
- Adam Duvall
- Kyle Tucker
OUTFIELD – Tier 2
- Hunter Renfroe
- Eddie Rosario
- Andrew Vaughn
- Nelson Cruz
- Ozzie Albies – 2B – Atlanta Braves – Chairman of the Dongers Club
- Mike Zunino – C – Tampa Rays
- Rafael Devers – 3B – Boston Red Sox
- Hunter Renfroe – OF – Boston Red Sox
- Corey Seager – SS – LA Dodgers
- Freddie Freeman – 1B – Braves
BETS
- Money Line Parlay: Braves, Rays, Dodgers, White Sox
- HR Parlay: Albies, Zunino, Renfroe, Seager
- Strikeout Props:
- Over: Morton, Buehler, Giolito
- Under: Valdez, Webb