This article is part of our FanDuel MLB series.
Game 4 comes to us Saturday night, with first pitch at our typical 8:09 p.m. ET. Rain looks like it will clear out before the game starts, but cool and damp conditions are again in store. The ball wasn't carrying Friday, and it's hard to expect supremely different results here as well.
Pitching
As of early Saturday morning, Atlanta had not made their pitching intentions known, but we know it will be a multi-arm approach. Any of Drew Smyly, Tucker Davidson and/or Kyle Wright are going to be called upon to work multiple innings, Saturday and/or Sunday. Jesse Chavez could also feature as an opener. Regardless of the choice, manager Brian Snitker has made it a point to not mess around and he'll have a short leash, preferring to win/keep games close now, and figure out the next inning and next game later.
Houston will turn to Zack Greinke in an effort to even the series. He has only made two postseason appearances thus far, and hasn't made it out of the second inning in either, and he hasn't thrown more than five frames since August 23, so this is essentially a bullpen game for the Astros as well. Atlanta bats haven't faired terrifically in 'pen games, as the lineup typically works better when seeing arms a second and third time through. They'll likely need to get to Greinke early and not bank on success against the Astros' relievers.
Hitter Correlation
Yordan Alvarez ($9,500) remains the easy cash game MVP pay up over his teammates or any Brave bat, but we saw even he isn't foolproof with his 0-fer Friday. More interestingly is the case for Jose Altuve ($8,500), who is amazingly hitless across all of the Astros' postseason losses. He hasn't been perfect in their wins either, but if you're expecting them to pull even, he's my GPP MVP target. The price on Yuli Gurriel ($7,000) is getting a hair too high for me given his lack of power, but you're obviously paying for stability. I'd personally rather pay a hair more for Kyle Tucker's ($7,500) upside or less for the same stability in Michael Brantley ($6,000).
Freddie Freeman ($9,000) hasn't returned better than 1x in this series, so he's difficult to pay up for. Ozzie Albies ($8,000) saw an 11-game hitting streak snapped last night, while Eddie Rosario ($7,500) got back into the hit column after a 14-game streak was stopped in Game 2. Nothing screams target any particular Brave bat here, so I like the thought of paying for Alvaraez and coming back with some lineup depth across this offense. Jorge Soler ($6,500) continues to hit balls hard and draw walks, looking like a bargain at this number in the process. Both he and Rosario have had moderate success against Greinke, where as Freeman and Albies have not.
One-offs
Austin Riley ($6,000) remains a tremendous value despite his current form. He's regressed to trying to pull the ball too often rather than driving it the opposite way, but hitting out of the cleanup spot will have his chances to make a mark. Travis d'Arnaud ($5,500) is the exact opposite. He's homered in consecutive games but hitting seventh isn't in a position where he can do much more than help himself. He's also taken Greinke deep once in seven ABs, but is no lock to actually see him.
Alex Bregman ($6,500) looks completely lost, and Carlos Correa ($7,000) is not much better. Pairing these two with Altuve could be a way to differentiate in GPPs, and there's obvious upside despite not seeing it in a long, long time.
