Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 4/30/22! 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
Clayton Kershaw
DraftKings once again forgot that the Reds are playing in Coors Field — which creates what will be a very chalky cash build on Saturday. Kershaw has completely transformed in recent seasons, throwing more off-speed pitches and maintaining his elite level of production despite decreased velocity. His control is elite, the strikeouts are there and he has a great match-up against the Tigers. Since the start of 2021, Detroit’s projected lineup owns a 24% strikeout rate against left-handed pitching. I don’t need to go into a ton of detail about why Kershaw is good, but with the way the bats are priced on this slate it’s easy to fit him in as your SP1.
Nathan Eovaldi
And those prices will also allow you to spend up for your SP2 — with Nathan Eovaldi sticking out above the field for me. Eovaldi has always had electric stuff, and he’s finally put it all together and stayed relatively healthy for the Red Sox over the last few seasons. The advanced numbers look strong again for him this season, and he’s striking out 27% of batters he’s faced. He also draws a positive match-up with the Orioles, whose projected lineup owns a .283 wOBA and 24% strikeout rate this season. It appears the dimension changes at Camden Yards is a boost for pitchers, so I’m not worried about him being on the road either. Overall, I tend to play a pretty tight pool at pitcher and Kershaw/Eovaldi are my clear number one and two tonight.
Building Blocks
Matt Olson
Like I noted above, everyone will be playing Reds at these prices in cash games and I try to avoid the obvious in this section as much as possible. Olson has a fantastic individual match-up tonight, and that has him sitting atop my spend-up board in all formats. Dunning is a solid real-life pitcher, but he struggles with allowing power and we know Olson can provide that. He also is primarily a sinker ball pitcher, and Olson is the best sinker hitter in this Braves lineup. Since the start of 2019, he’s posted a massive .428 wOBA and .303 ISO vs the pitch. The pitch mix match-up couldn’t be better for Olson on Saturday and he is my HR call as well.
Andrew McCutchen
McCutchen sticks out as one of my favorite value plays on both sites against Justin Steele. Steele has struggled this season, and overall since coming to the big leagues he’s been pretty bad against right-handed batters. He allows above-average hard-contact and relies on getting ground balls to get outs. McCutchen has some of the best numbers on this team vs lefties over that same span — with a .419 wOBA and .324 ISO. More importantly, he has above-average line drives and fly-balls which means he should be able to keep the ball off the ground and avoid Steele’s strength. He is cheap and has power, and can be used as a one-off or in a mini-stack.
Bold Call
Matt Olson posts 6 total bases!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
