Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 4/9/22! In this article, I’ll break down by top overall plays for today’s main slate. Last year was an extremely big year for the Karma team in MLB, and we are looking to continue that success in 2022. I will be providing Core Plays for every main slate (and day baseball) this season — you can gain access to that as well as our premium discord here. You can also try out the Core Plays package with a $5 daily pass. Let’s get to the plays…
Pitcher
Ranger Suarez
This is a stone disaster of a pitching slate, with no top-end pitching to speak of. Suarez is expensive, but honestly may be the best overall pitcher on this slate — and that’s no disrespect to Alek Manoah. Suarez was great for the Phillies down the stretch as a starter, and over the last two seasons we have a solid 25% strikeout rate with 58% ground balls. The Mets are a good lineup no doubt, but no upper-end pitcher has a strong match-up tonight. It’s looking like Alex Wood is projecting for the highest ownership right now, and I’m just not comfortable using him at high ownership against the Padres. I may end up saving as much as possible due to the lack of options, but if spending up I’m leaning towards Suarez on Monday. Bonus note is that he is not projecting for ownership at all, which could move him even further up my board.
Luis Patino
Patino is catching early ownership and is cheaper than Suarez — but will likely throw less as well. It’s obvious that most starters have been going around five innings in their first starts this season, but with Patino only throwing a few innings in Spring we can barely project him for four tonight. The fact that this guy could realistically throw three innings tonight and is a top option shows you how rough of a pitching slate it really is. Overall, Patino is a promising young pitcher and begins this season at just 22 years old. He does have the best match-up on the slate against the Oakland A’s, who continue to trot out a Triple A team. The A’s projected lineup tonight owns a combined .260 wOBA since the start of 2020…woof! Overall, we are going to feel gross about our pitchers tonight and Patino is in play for me.
Dylan Bundy
And the cherry on top of tonight…Dylan Bundy. I simply cannot put into the words the state of this pitching slate if we are talking ourselves into Dylan Bundy…but here we are. The case for Bundy is simple, he’s every cheap and we have a track record of him posting decent strikeout ability. That’s about it. He’s always struggled with allowing the long ball, but on a slate like this we are forced into considering him. I will note 100% that if we approach lock and he has shifted to the first or second-highest owned pitcher on the slate — I will be pivoting to a Mariners stack. For now, he’s coming in third behind Wood and Patino and I am fine with his savings allowing me to jam in some bats. The best advice I can give tonight is to take some stands at pitcher and just go with it, everyone has to build from the same pool of mediocre options.
Building Blocks
Brandon Lowe
I love this spot for the Rays tonight against Paul Blackburn, who is one of the worst pitchers on this slate. Over the last two seasons, Blackburn has pitched to just a 14% strikeout rate while relying entirely on ground balls. When attacking a ground ball pitcher, we need to target hitters that hit the ball in the air, which Lowe does. Over that same span — Lowe has the best line drive rate on the Rays at 25% and that comes with an above-average fly ball rate as well. He also has far and away the most power in this lineup with a .276 ISO. Furthermore, Blackburn’s most-used pitch vs left-handed batters is his sinker — a pitch that Lowe crushes to the tune of a .400 wOBA and a 50% hard hit rate. Lowe is one of my top overall plays on Monday.
Marcell Ozuna
Ozuna was someone I wrote up a few days ago, and I’m going back to the well tonight against another mediocre left-handed pitcher. We have a limited PA sample-size of Josh Rogers in the MLB, but the early results have been terrible against right-handed batters. In just over 100 PA’s, he’s allowed a .388 wOBA and a .286 ISO in the split. We know Ozuna has major power vs southpaw pitching, and his .337 ISO is actually the top mark on the team over the last few seasons. Ozuna hasn’t been on fire to start the season, but it’s only been a few games and there is no reason to panic. I will continue to buy into him vs lefties, and he has actually dipped below $4,000 on DraftKings tonight.
Ji-Man Choi
For my last Building Block today, I’m going with another Rays player in Ji-Man Choi. Choi is cut from the same cloth as Lowe — he has the second-highest line drive rate vs righties, and he has the highest hard hit rate at 49% as well. He’s also another guy that excels vs sinkers, which has the Rays are really jumping off the page for me tonight. Choi is also affordable on all sites, and will allow you to jam in any pitcher or stack you want around him.
Bold Call
The Rays pop off for 10 runs!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
