There are entire industries based around the cultivation of focus. For neurodivergent people, focus is something we kind of tap into; we don’t necessarily have it every minute of the day, but when I put music on and start my fingers typing at the keyboard, the flow state comes and I’m able to direct my thoughts in a manner that stays, “Marcus Stroman good. Use him.” I mean, it’s the last week of the season, and we’re in baseball chaos right now. Jack Flaherty pitched to, what, four batters the other night? He was supposed to be your SP1 this year. Gerrit Cole’s given up like 10 runs in his last two outings. We’re in the wild, wild west right now, and the best thing you can do is follow your own flow state, and to tap that (hehe!), I recommend going with the Str0 State. Also, this is my final DFS article for the year. So sad to see the regular season go! (not)
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Starting Pitchers:
Chalk: Chris Sale, Walker Buehler, Charlie Morton
Use These Guys Instead: Marcus Stroman, Logan Webb
Contrarian: Yu Darvish
How did we get to the point that Yu Darvish is a contrarian start? Darvish’s velocity has plummeted over the last month, and his starts have been incredibly volatile to close out the season. That said, Darvish is supposed to be one of the top pitchers in baseball and he likely wants to finish the year on a solid showing rather than the blowouts he’s allowed in August and September. Marcus Stroman will be under-utilized because the Mets are a mess, and Logan Webb is similarly one of those names that flies under the high-utilized radar. Those are the pitchers you’ll want to roll with to afford bigger bats.
Hitters
Juan Soto, Lane Thomas, and Trevor Story: Washington faces off against Kyle Freeland in Coors in what is a meaningless game for two MLB teams that are tanking but is a massively meaningful game for fantasy managers. Sexy Dr. Pepper and the Taleteller are two first round talents that are likely vying for many a fantasy crown this week, and Lane Thomas is just another hot bat that plays well with this combo. Feel free to fill in with more Rockies and Nationals — if you went Logan Webb as your pitcher, you can afford the whole stack.
Mookie Betts and Trea Turner: Well, Yu Darvish is contrarian, right? Darvish has allowed more blowups in the past 6 weeks than a party planner for children’s birthdays. This might be a popular combination, but you could always diversify your WAS/COL players with LAD bats.
Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics: There’s a tight race for the AL Wild Card, and every game counts right now. These teams are basically in playoff mode, and they’re gonna ask every major batter to give everything they’ve got. TOR goes against the Yankees, which is tough, but BOS goes against BAL, which is so, so rich. Again, we’re in total MLB chaos mode, so make multiple lineups featuring these batters — quite literally, any player if you’re in GPP, and the top 5 in the order if you’re in cash/smaller entries — and mix and match with the LAD/WAS/COL options.
I’m Only Happy When it Rains:
Rain leaving the east coast, could give a slight delay to games but there’s no rain behind it and no time left in the season, so they should play.
Doing Lines in Vegas:
I’m writing this article way early but the opening line on the Mets/Marlins is in favor of the [checks notes] Marlins. Huh. Mets are +160 at the time of writing. Eew. Take that. Stroman is the second-highest rated pitcher on the Streamonator for the day, and that’s on a day featuring Zack Wheeler, Yu Darvish, Chris Sale, Charlie Morton…yeah. Inefficiency.
