Morning Coffee: Ohtani, Judge headline star-studded World Series

Nothing stings like realizing you traded a win for a loss.

If you’re a regular reader of this column, then you’ve likely seen a similar sentiment from me here in the past.

There’s nothing worse than giving out a bad pick when your instincts gave you a winner.

It’s a special kind of regret that anybody who wagers on professional sports long enough comes to understand.

It’s the ghost that whispers, “I told you so”.

On Thursday morning, I typed out a detailed breakdown of why I liked a Same Game Parlay with Cooper Kupp 5+ receptions and Justin Jefferson 5+ receptions as a FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday Night Football.

As I saved the document and prepared to hit send on the email to my editor, I had a thought.

In a game in which I thought Kupp would have eight or nine catches, was it worth it to take him to get 5+ and parlay it with Jefferson 5+ catches.

I was still asking myself that question on our morning call, when I proposed that question to my teammates here in the betting department at TSN.

Ultimately, I went with Kupp over 6.5 receptions as my FanDuel Best Bet in Morning Coffee.

Then I had to watch Jefferson go off with eight catches for 115 yards, while Kupp was held to exactly five catches for 51 yards and a touchdown on eight targets.

Nightmare fuel.

At a time when so much key information is just one click away, all of data we need to make accurate projections is readily available for all of us to find.

The tough part is sorting through that data, separating the useful from the irrelevant, and finding a winner.

On Thursday morning, I let another winner get away.

Once again, as I’ve stressed in this column multiple times of late, it’s a testament to the importance of responsible gaming and bankroll management.

The FanDuel Best Bets in this week’s columns should be 5-1.

Instead, they are 4-2 after a poor decision on my part.

The good news is that one bad pick only cost me one unit, and anybody who tailed the FanDuel Best Bets in this column is already locked into a profit for the week.

With a full slate of NFL Sunday Week 8 games on the horizon, make sure you give me a follow @Domenic_Padula on X for all my plays.

In the meantime, we’ll set the stage for a potentially epic conclusion to the 2024 MLB season with two of baseball’s most storied franchises set to meet on the biggest stage.

This is the Morning Coffee for Friday October 25th, 2024.

Ohtani, Judge headline star-studded World Series

It doesn’t get better than this for Major League Baseball.

The two most valuable franchises in baseball are set to meet in a World Series that features plenty of star power.

The NL MVP favourite Shohei Ohtani leads a talented roster for the Los Angeles Dodgers that features Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman.

The AL MVP favourite Aaron Judge leads the New York Yankees along with Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton.

It’s the first time these franchises will meet in the fall classic since 1981 and the 12th time overall.

It’s also the first time that two players that hit at least 50 home runs in a single season meet in the World Series.

The Dodgers are a -130 favourite to win Game 1 tonight and -122 to win the series.

The Yankees are +110 to pull off the upset tonight and +104 to win it all.

With LA as the favourite to win it all, Ohtani is an obvious favourite for World Series MVP after set a postseason franchise record by reaching base 17 times in the NLCS.

Ohtani is 8-for-13 with nine RBI with runners on base so far in these playoffs.

All eyes will be on baseball’s best talent to see what he has in store for his first World Series appearance after he delivered unprecedented numbers in a remarkable year.

Meanwhile, Judge led the majors with 58 home runs and a 10.8 WAR during the regular season.

While he hit a pair of home runs and drove in six RBI in the ALCS, he also owns a .161 batting average so far this postseason.

Stanton and Soto have both been excellent for New York.

In case you missed it, our Luke Bellus wrote an article with his thoughts on FanDuel’s market for Soto’s next contract that is worth a read.

New York is nearly even-money to win this series and that number will improve even more if they can salvage a split in Los Angeles.

The Yankees are 3-0 with Gerrit Cole on the mound this postseason, outscoring their opponents 15-9.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers will counter with Jack Flaherty, who was touched up in losses to both the San Diego Padres and the New York Mets this postseason.

Stanton and Soto are red-hot right now, and if Judge can get things going this lineup for New York will be tough to beat.

At the same time, Flaherty has been better at home than on the road and if you believe in a home-field advantage than perhaps you will lean Dodgers as a home favourite.

For my FanDuel Best Bet, I’m going with the over 5.5 games in the World Series at -170.

Sure, I don’t love the juice, but you could parlay that pick with your favourite NBA moneyline bet tonight to address the juice.

Does the over 5.5 games in the World Series parlayed with the Boston Celtics to beat the Atlanta Hawks outright on Saturday at -120 odds make sense?

I’ll likely have the World Series over 5.5 games in a couple of parlays that I lock in at FanDuel this afternoon.

Hopefully, the fall classic lives up to the hype.

Have a great day, everyone!