This article is part of our DraftKings MLB series.
We're in a pivotal Game 4 matchup of the World Series that is likely to decide whether we have a competitive series, or whether Texas will be well on the way to its first World Series title in franchise history.
As a very brief explanation for those new to showdown slates, there are no position designations. Instead, managers have $50,000 to fill six roster spots ($8,333 per spot). One of those slots is a "Captain", who scores 1.5X points and also has their cost increase.
Pitchers
We have another underwhelming pitching matchup, with Ryne Nelson ($15,000 Captain/$10,000 Util) serving as the primary pitcher for Arizona and Joe Mantiply ($6,000/$4,000) opening. Mantiply has primarily pitched one inning at a time, but he's topped three DK points in six of his eight appearances in the playoffs. That's not a high bar to clear, but he's the cheapest player on the slate and is worthy of punt consideration, if necessary. Nelson has had a miserable postseason, failing to top 4.3 DK points in any outing. At his price, there's not a case to play him.
The biggest problem with Andrew Heaney ($15,000/$10,000) is that he's worked in short stints (once due to poor performance), so it's unclear how deep he'll work into the game. The results have been fairly underwhelming, so again this is a pretty thin play given the cost of rostering him.
Hitters
That leaves us with significant salary to spend on hitters. During his career, Heaney has given up 1.9 HR/9 to opposing right-handed hitters. As a result, there's a cased to made to target Arizona batters at a wide range of price points. Christian Walker ($12,300/$8,200) has had a disastrous postseason but posted a .319 ISO against lefties during the regular season. Combined with Heaney's propensity to serve up the long ball, perhaps Walker can break out of his long-term slump. Staying toward the top of the price range, Ketel Marte ($13,800/$9,200) had a .377 wOBA against southpaws, and has gotten base at an excellent clip during the postseason. Strong value options include Evan Longoria ($7,800/$5,200), Tommy Pham ($9,900/$6,600), Lourdes Gurriel ($9,600/$6,400) and Gabriel Moreno ($10,800/$7,200). As was noted in yesterday's write-up, Arizona has relatively flat contributions from their lineup this postseason, so I'd be willing to play several of these options.
Shifting to Texas, we also laid out how much this offense is powered by Corey Seager ($15,000/$10,000) and Adolis Garcia (side) ($14,700/$9,800) in Monday's article. Garcia could very well miss this game, with Robbie Grossman ($7,500/$5,000) or Travis Jankowski ($6,300/$4,200) the likeliest options to replace him. Either could be a decent value. Josh Jung ($12,000/$8,000) could move up the order in the absence of Garcia, and his potential to hit for power puts him on the radar.
Conclusion
I wouldn't start any pitchers, and would focus my builds through Seager. That's likely to be very popular, as will either Grossman or Jankowski due to the savings they offer. A darkhorse Captain option is Jung. On the Arizona side, I'd generally opt to build through a couple of the value options presented and would be less inclined to Captain one of their hitters.
