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. The first few articles are going to be abbreviated in the pitching section while we wait for some data to build up – and we will mostly be relying on 2023 data for the first month — barring any clear changes to pitch-mix. Let’s dive into our Monday’s starters…
- Tyler Glasnow
- Kyle Harrison
- Aaron Civale
- Zach Wheeler
- Patrick Sandoval
This is my list in order of pitchers today.
Glasnow is the top dog on this slate for me, and he will likely command the most ownership as well.
Harrison is my favorite play for the price, and he should come in pretty low-owned due to the guys priced around him. We have yet to see the strikeout stuff come through at the major league level, but I’m going to buy into what we saw from him in the minor leagues.
Both Civale and Sandoval are in fine match-ups, and can be used in all formats at their price-tags.
Cole Ragans would usually be at the top of my list – but I see no reason to use him against Houston on a big slate like this outside of large-field GPPs.
I’ll also note that Ben Brown is just $4K on FD and that puts him firmly in play in all formats.
Building Blocks
Gleyber Torres
As I noted yesterday, I avoid writing up Coors Field in this section so tonight I’ll turn my attention to the Yankees. AJ Puk is someone I still think can be a good MLB pitcher, but he has struggled in the early goings of 2024. There’s a very real chance they move him back to the bullpen if this continues, and I would be looking to attack him with right-handed bats on Tuesday. His defense really let him down in his last start, so maybe he’s just been unlucky but it’s clear that he isn’t in the same form he was in spring training at the moment. His numbers dropped off heavily vs RHH last season, and Torres has historically crushed lefty pitching. He also matches up very well with Puk’s pitch-mix — and can be used in all formats as a one-off or in a stack tonight.
Davis Wendzel
Wendzel is available at the minimum price-tag of $2,000 on DraftKings tonight – which makes him a lock to make my core. He was recently called up by the Rangers — and has flashed monster power in the minors with 30 homeruns last season. He already has three in 2024, and this is a clear misprice with DK falling asleep at the wheel with his call-up. He will have the platoon advantage over Wood — and I will always take a min-price power bat like this on a bigger slate.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
