Welcome in to Ben’s MLB DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite MLB DFS plays for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my daily betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
Pitcher
Welcome into another season of Ben’s MLB Building Blocks! I believe this is my seventh season providing MLB DFS content and I couldn’t be more excited to have baseball back. Let’s dive into our Wednesday starters…
- Pablo Lopez
- Max Fried
- Michael King
- Grayson Rodriguez
- Ryan Feltner
This is my list in order of pitchers today.
This pitching slate is slightly better than yesterday’s, but we still have a top option throwing in Coors Field. Pablo Lopez is the best pitcher on this slate both in real-life and fantasy, and given his match-up against the White Sox it wouldn’t shock me to see him come in at 60% ownership or more. If you’re playing cash games, you are locking him in. In tournaments, you can always fade the highest-owned arm but it’s a bit harder when there aren’t a ton of high strikeout guys to pivot to.
Max Fried is next in terms of projected ownership, he still looks due for some positive regression coming his way in terms of run prevention and the Marlins have been striking out a ton as of late. He’s viable in all formats.
Michael King is someone I like a lot, but I just never want to play someone as chalk in Coors Field. Final own% numbers will dictate my stance here.
Grayson Rodriguez would be my top choice for a pivot off Lopez. He’s looked great this season and we know the pedigree he comes from. He can be used as an SP1 or in a pair with Lopez on DK.
My favorite GPP arm tonight would be the opposite side of Coors in Ryan Feltner. Feltner showed promise in the minor leagues, and he’s come out this season posting a 2.99 xERA. His actual ERA of 5.06 would indicate he’s been pretty unlucky and he’s striking out 27% of batters faced. These are the types of pivots you can make at SP2 to separate in tournaments.
Building Blocks
Ryan O’Hearn
O’Hearn has been one of the biggest surprises so far this season, putting on a hitting clinic the middle of this Orioles order. Through the first month of action, he leads all of baseball in barrles/PA and xwOBA. Griffin Canning has had a disaster start to the season for the Angels, and is allowing a .464wOBA and .326 ISO to left-handed hitters. We know that O’Hearn has power (.196 ISO last year, .302 this year) and his price doesn’t really reflect the torrid start to 2024. Baltimore is one of my favorite stacks tonight O’Hearn can be used there or as a one-off on both sites.
Trevor Larnach
Larnach was featured in this section yesterday, and we can go right back to the well today vs Erick Fedde. Fedde has overall been average for the White Sox this season. Coming off a monster season in the KBO, he’s pitched to a 3.10 ERA but that’s packed by an xERA two full runs higher. He really struggles vs left-handed pitching – and Larnach will once again be locked into the middle of the Twins order.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
