MLB premium

FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Tuesday 10/1/19

The Nationals and Brewers get this year's MLB playoffs started in the NL Wild Card Game. Who should you roster on Tuesday's single-game slate?

The MLB playoffs have arrived, with the Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Nationals getting things started in our first wild card matchup. Brandon Woodruff will be toeing the rubber for the Brewers, while Max Scherzer takes the mound for Washington. The game checks in with a modest 7.5-run over/under on MLB odds.

For those unfamiliar with the single-game daily fantasy baseball format, scoring is identical to its full roster cousin, except you only roster hitters and lineups consist of five flex spots. The one twist? One of the five roster spots is your designated "MVP," who receives 2-times his total fantasy points, along with an "All-Star" slot that gets 1.5-times the points. Naturally, it's crucial that you choose your MVP and All-Star carefully if you want to be at the top of the leaderboards when it's all said and done.

On that note, let's highlight some of the top options for today's FanDuel single-game slate.

MVP Candidates

Anthony Rendon ($9,000), Trea Turner ($9,500), and Juan Soto ($8,500): Brandon Woodruff may present a tough matchup for the Nationals -- he posted a 3.60 SIERA, 29.0% strikeout rate, and 6.1% walk rate over 121.2 innings -- but following a two-month absence from an oblique injury, he's only thrown two innings in each of his two September starts, staying below 40 pitches in both appearances. It's pretty evident he'll hand things over to the bullpen fairly quickly.

Much like last season, the Brewers have a strong array of hurlers in the 'pen, and while it isn't clear who will fill the middle innings before Josh Hader, you have to prefer the Nats' chances against someone like Jordan Lyles compared to the Brewers' spot against Max Scherzer. Washington checks in with a 4.24 implied total, while the Brewers are only showing a 3.26 mark.

With that in mind, the Nats ought to be the more popular of the two sides, but it's hard to go wrong with any of their high-priced bats in your MVP or All-Star slots.

Anthony Rendon is coming off the best campaign of his career, ranking sixth overall in xwOBA and ninth in xSLG. He excelled against lefties and righties alike, too, making him a tough out regardless of who the Brewers throw out there.

Trea Turner is the most expensive bat on the slate and lacks the same pop of either Rendon or Juan Soto, but the upside is readily apparent from a leadoff man who can pair a solid .200 ISO with elite sprint speed. Despite missing over a month with a fractured finger, Turner still swiped 35 bags -- good for fifth in the league.

The left-handed Soto is arguably the riskiest of the trio, as he's not quite as dangerous in same-sided matchups (.194 ISO), so the Brewers could counter with their slew of strong lefties in Josh Hader, Drew Pomeranz, or Brent Suter. Still, we're talking about a hitter who was top-10 in xwOBA this season, and he could still take advantage of his non-lefty matchups, converting a 43.5% hard-hit rate and 38.6% fly-ball rate into a .303 ISO versus righties.

To read all premium content, upgrade to a Premium account with numberFire

If you're not a Premium subscriber, it takes just a few seconds to sign up. You'll get access to all of our insider information, game projections, handicapping advice, DFS tools, advanced statistics, and more.

Log In Go Premium