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
Justin Verlander
Verlander was my AL Cy Young pick, and I think he is primed to return to form for the Astros in 2022. He hasn’t pitched in over 18 months, which means he should be fully healthy and won’t face as many workload restrictions as he would of had he returned last season. He velocity was also on par in spring training with what we saw from him pre-injury — meaning he looks to be fully healthy. The last time we saw him, he was still one of the best pitchers in baseball and struck out 34% of batters he faced in 2019. This is a pretty lackluster pitching slate, and he is the clear ace for me tonight. He didn’t allow a run in spring training, and while he may only throw five innings tonight, he is the best overall option on the slate.
Joe Musgrove
Musgrove was up-and-down in spring training, but is clearly the second-best pitcher tonight ahead of Noah Syndergaard in my opinion. Musgrove is just a solid pitcher overall, he doesn’t walk a ton of batters and is coming off a 28% strikeout rate season. He has a good match-up as well against Arizona, whose projected lineup owns a .304 combined wOBA over the last calendar year. Overall, as I noted above, this is a weak pitching slate. I could see some people messing with the big name of Syndergaard in his Angels debut, but Verly/Musgrove are the best arms on the slate and that’s who I’m going to focus on at the top.
Chris Bassit
Bassit is basically a poor mans Musgrove, with slightly worse strikeouts and strong control. He does provide a discount, but it’s not enough that I would clearly move him ahead of the aforementioned pitchers. He also has a tougher match-up vs the Nationals, as opposed to the Diamondbacks. I do prefer the savings of Bassitt over Thor, but I don’t think he has the upside to make a massive difference in tournaments. This is a really watered down slate with no cheap options to note, and Bassitt is the lowest I’d drop on both sites tonight.
Building Blocks
Chalk Dodgers
DraftKings did everyone a favor on Saturday by simply not pricing up a few of the Dodgers like Cody Bellinger and Gavin Lux. I don’t like to write up Coors Field guys in this section because it’s obvious we want to play them, but we simply cannot avoid these guys in cash games at their prices. German Marquez is a solid pitcher, but both guys have the platoon advantage over him and are too cheap to be playing in Coors Field. Bellinger has really struggled in spring training, so this is an example of spot we can look to fade these high ownerships in tournaments. In cash games, however, it’s tough to avoid them at their price tags.
Mike Moustakas
This Reds lineup is not as good as it’s been in recent years, but there are still some good spots to one off some power with guys like Mike Moustakas. Kyle Wright has continually let us down in the major leagues, and has really struggled over the last year allowing a .413 wOBA. He throws a lot of sinkers which bodes well for Moose — he owns a .322 ISO vs the pitch which is the highest mark on the Reds. Furthermore, this is a great ballpark to target left-handed power in as well. Given that we want to spend up for two pitchers tonight, Moose is my favorite value on the slate.
Top Stack
I’ve already written them up a ton this season, but I’m back on the Atlanta Braves tonight. Atlanta is in a great spot against Vlad Gutierrez and a beatable Reds bullpen. Gutierrez has struggled mightily in the past with left-handed batters — making Eddie Rosario, Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies and Alex Dickerson top targets. Given the state of the Reds pen, we can go full-stack here and include righties like Marcell Ozuna and Austin Riley as well. With it being a Coors Field slate, we should get a tad lower ownership than usual on a team in this good of a spot.
Bold Call
Mike Moustakas goes double dong!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
