Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 4/25/22! 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
Max Scherzer
We have a weird Monday slate with different lock times across the sites. DraftKings is 6:10pm game which features Corbin Burnes, but I do think the slight edge still works in Scherzer’s favor. Burnes has the better strikeout match-up against the Giants, but that’s still a good offensive opponent and Max is $900 cheaper. Furthermore, Scherzer strikes out around 37% of right-handed batters and he projects to see six of them tonight. Overall, you’re splitting hairs between these two as the are two of the best pitchers in baseball but I think the savings gives and edge to Scherzer tonight.
Kyle Gibson
Gibson is set to be the chalk cheap SP2 on DK tonight, at home against the Colorado Rockies. I do view this as pretty good chalk, however, and I’m comfortable being overweight in this match-up. He doesn’t really have that name-brand value but he was very good down the stretch of 2021 when he changed his pitch mix up. That change involved more cutters — one of his best pitches. He’s continued that trend in 2022, and the Rockies are a team as a whole that really struggle with that pitch. To top it off, he’s extremely underpriced. I would think he’s a good option if he was close to $8,000 tonight and we are getting him at just $6,800. You can try and spend up for two aces, which I’m fine with, but I don’t view this as an avoid spot even at escalated ownership.
Building Blocks
Yordan Alvarez
Alvarez is a conviction play for me tonight against Dane Dunning. Dunning is a pretty average big league pitcher, and probably not someone I’d go out of my way to jam in a stack against on a big slate. This, however, is not a big slate and I love the individual match-up. He throws primarily sinkers to both sides of the plate — a pitch that Alvarez tees off against. Over the last few seasons he has the best numbers in this lineup against sinkers — including a .519 wOBA and .432 ISO. This is the exact type of pitcher I like to take Alvarez against, he should know what’s coming and is arguably the top hitter on the slate in my opinion.
Cody Bellinger
Bellinger has been too cheap all season, and clearly has been heating up. He homered twice on Sunday bringing his season wOBA mark to .401. He’s also hitting the ball harder than in recent seasons with a 51% hard-hit rate — in comparison to his 36% in 2021. Los Angeles is probably in the best spot on tonight’s slate against Merrill Kelly and a bad Arizona bullpen. Kelly allows a lot of hard hits and fly balls to lefties which fits into Belly’s game. He also has limited swing and miss ability which counteracts Bellinger’s strikeout troubles. He’s still underpriced and the top value for me on Monday.
Bold Call
The Astros combine for 4 homeruns!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
