MLB DFS picks and pivots: September 5

BOSTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 4: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox rounds third base after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a game against the Minnesota Twins on September 4, 2019 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /

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BOSTON, MA – SEPTEMBER 4: Mookie Betts #50 of the Boston Red Sox rounds third base after hitting a solo home run during the first inning of a game against the Minnesota Twins on September 4, 2019 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /

MLB DFS – Building Our Bats

With so much savings at pitcher tonight, we are going to be able to spend up with our bats and what better way to start than with a Boston Red Sox lineup that has a slate high 6.4 IRT as of this writing, at home against LHP Martin Perez.

Perez is coming off a start against the Tigers where he lasted only 2.2 innings, giving up 7 ER and 9 hits to Detroit of all teams! This is actually the second time in his last five trips to the mound that Perez has given up 7 ER’s, with a 12 hit, 3 HR beatdown at the hand of the Atlanta Braves.

The simple truth is, that kind of blow-up potential combined with the best offense on the slate in Fenway Park will make the Red Sox a popular, albeit scary fade on such a short slate. 4 of the top 5 batters in this Red Sox lineup have .200+ ISO marks against LHP this season with J.D. Martinez leading the way with a ridiculous .496 ISO mark. Interestingly enough, the one bat at the top who is sub. 200 this year is Mookie Betts, who is coming off a 2 HR game on Wednesday and had a .290 ISO mark versus LHP spanning the previous two seasons.

Sure, the Red Sox are pricey, but the combination of cheap pitching and a value addition to the stack like Sam Travis ($6.3K) gives you a clear path to making this build work and you can opt to stay with a 5 man or go full-on 6 man stack on FantasyDraft by adding Andrew Benintendi.

With the likely popularity of the Red Sox here tonight, I think going all-in with 6 Red Sox is the best way to attack it as simply plugging in the chalk like Mookie, JD and Travis (value) will not give you any leverage, but expanding to the maximum number of Red Sox will give you more correlation and the ability to leapfrog those who only play the most obvious bats.