FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Helper: Friday 10/5/18

We're treated to a four-game slate on Friday, with the NLDS squads moving to their Game 2s, while the ALDS gets their first games underway. We won't have too many more "big" slates like this, so jump in while you can! Note that the first game starts at 2:05pm ET, so we may not know all the official lineups when the slate locks.

Our daily helper is available every day to analyze FanDuel's main slate and help give you a starting point when you're building lineups. Be sure to also incorporate our great tools into your research process. Whether you're looking for daily projections, the latest starting lineups and weather, or batting and pitching heat maps to find the best matchups -- we've got you covered!

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

Pitchers to Target

Justin Verlander ($11,800 on FanDuel) and Chris Sale ($10,800): Following some mostly lukewarm pitching matchups this week, it's finally starting to really look like the postseason with a plethora of aces taking the mound on Friday. On a short slate, guys like Corey Kluber ($11,300) and Clayton Kershaw ($10,300) are certainly viable, but the conventional choice is Justin Verlander, who was nearly unstoppable down the stretch with a 2.16 SIERA, 38.9% strikeout rate, and 4.3% walk rate. Even the vaunted Cleveland Indians offense is only showing a 2.94 implied total against him today. However, Verlander is also quite expensive, so it's wise to weigh your other options and Chris Sale is the real wild card of this slate. When healthy, Sale is arguably the best pitcher in the game, and his 2.27 SIERA, 38.4% strikeout rate, and 5.5% walk rate this season certainly supports that. But a lingering shoulder issue held him to just 29 innings in the second half, and his velocity was alarmingly low in his final regular season start. If you have guts to go here and the dominant Sale shows up, you'll be handsomely rewarded, but the truth is you can also consider using the New York Yankees against him as well. If you're making multiple lineups, it might be wise to attack this situation from both sides.