Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 4/26/22! 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
Shohei Ohtani
A few weeks ago I wrote up Carlos Rodon against this Cleveland team and said that I hadn’t felt that much conviction with a play yet this season — this is another one of those spots. I typically have a tight pitcher pool regardless, and by the top the evening rolls around I’m deciding between two (maybe three) guys for my SP2 on DraftKings. Last night I landed on Chris Paddack, and it worked out and was a great overall night for me and our subscribers. Tonight, I will 100% be rostering Ohtani and it would take me a lot of teams to not use him in one. We already know he’s one of the best and most electric pitchers in the league, but he has reached new heights in 2022. He’s striking out 44% of batters, with under 7% walks. He’s throwing harder than last season, and his dominant slider from a year ago has been one of the best pitches in baseball generating over 70% whiffs. This Cleveland team really struggles with sliders — only Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes have respectable offensive numbers vs the pitch and Reyes is in the midst of a horrific slump. This is one of the best match-ups Ohtani will get all season, and I will be using him to anchor my builds on both sites.
Everyone Else
We aren’t left with much other than Ohtani tonight — we have some good pitchers that seem overpriced and what should be a chalky Jordan Montgomery against the Baltimore Orioles. I have no issues playing high-owned pitchers when I think that ownership is deserved — but Eduardo Rodriguez last night and Montgomery tonight are examples of spots I don’t think warrant that ownership. I won’t rule out playing him in my main cash game lineup as of now, but I would likely prefer to get up to Pablo Lopez and roll with a double spend-up lineup. Anyone that reads my stuff knows I’m a big fan of Lopez and the Marlins ability to develop young pitchers in general. Lopez is one of the most underrated pitchers in baseball, and it looks like great pitching weather in DC tonight. This Nationals lineup has been pretty bad this season outside of Juan Soto and Josh Bell. For the season (small sample I know) they have a combined .287 wOBA vs right-handed pitching. I prefer Lopez to Joe Ryan if double-spending, and I probably prefer Glen Otto — even in a tough match-up — to Montgomery is looking for a value SP2.
Building Blocks
Matt Olson
Olson is likely to be my top spend-up tonight against Mark Leiter Jr. We don’t have a huge sample size from Leiter, but the early results have been horrific against left-handed batters allowing a .357 ISO and walking over 12% of batters faced. Olson has been one of the best hitters in baseball to start the season and I do think a power surge is coming from him soon. More importantly, he throws his sinker over 50% of the time vs lefties which is great news for Olson. Over the last three seasons — he sports a massive .428 wOBA and .303 ISO vs sinkers. Atlanta has one of the bigger team totals tonight and I do anticipate ownership here, but Olson is a must for me in all formats.
Trey Mancini
Mancini has been cheap all season despite the O’s not being quite as bad as everyone anticipated, but tonight is a great night to jump in against Jordan Montgomery. For starters, as I noted above I think Monty is going to garner a lot of ownership at SP, so this is a great spot to gain some leverage on the field but using a bat against him in lineups where you aren’t using him at pitcher. He’s a pretty average pitcher that allows a lot of hard-hits and fly-balls to righties — and hasn’t shown the same strikeout ability so far this season. He could tonight in a good match-up, but Mancini has great numbers vs left-handed pitching including a massive .409 wOBA. He’s also 13th in baseball in average exit velocity (93) showing us that he’s been seeing the ball well. I don’t like to reference BvP as you know, but in 23 career at-bats vs Montgomery, Mancini owns a .416 expected wOBA and 95 mph average exit velocity. He is my HR call for tonight.
Bold Call
Ohtani loses a perfect game in the 8th inning!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
