Welcome in to Ben’s Building Blocks for DraftKings & FanDuel! This is a free article written daily to identify my top-overall DFS plays for cash game and small-field contests on both DraftKings and FanDuel. I truly appreciate everyone that reads and supports the content. If you’d like to support further you can click HERE to sign-up for a MLB Premium package. This gets you access to my Core Plays daily — allowing you to tail my builds, access the premium Discord channels and view our DFS Projections Portal. We’ve been on fire already this MLB season, and there’s no better time to sign-up. With that being said, let’s dive into today’s slate…

Above is an example of my MLB Core Plays for the 4/27 slate

Top Pitchers

Mackenzie Gore

We have a small Monday slate, with Blake Snell setting up to be massive chalk at the pitcher position. If you know anything about me or my content, you know that I am not someone that celebrates Blake Snell chalk. In addition, he has really struggled to adapt to the new pitch clock and his control has been a major issue. He’s still striking out 24% of batters faced because his stuff is so good, but the near 17% walk rate is a major concern. I simply can’t justify playing someone as chalk that has those control issues and I don’t think it’s a particularly good match-up for him either. He’s really struggled with right-handed hitters this season, and the Reds are going to pile in an all right-handed lineup tonight.

Given that I won’t be using Snell, Gore checks in as my top-overall play. Not long ago, Mackenzie Gore was the top pitching prospect in baseball and he’s finally getting a chance to show promise with the Nationals. He came over in the Juan Soto trade last season, and has flashed his ceiling with a huge 31% strikeout rate this season. He also has some control issues, but he’s cheaper than Snell with more strikeouts so I can’t see playing Snell straight up over him. It’s also worth noting that he owns a 33% walk rate to left-handed hitters compared to a 9% rate against righties. He will likely only see one lefty tonight … and the Cubs lineup strikeouts out nearly 24% of the time against left-handed pitching.

Jose Berrios or Luis Garcia

Berrios looks like my top option to pair with Gore, coming off his best start of the season against the White Sox. I didn’t end up playing him in that start but he was included in this article — and I love the changes he’s made recently to his pitch mix. Boston is a good lineup that doesn’t strike out a lot, but I think I prefer Berrios to Drew Smyly as an SP2.

I also want to include Luis Garcia — and I may actually become more interested in him as we approach lock. I’m not a huge Garcia fan, but he does have some strikeout upside and the match-up against the Giants is very good. They strike out a lot as a team, and they’re coming into this game on 0 rest after playing in Mexico City over the weekend. The altitude is so crazy there, we were seeing 20 run implied totals and I think it’s a lot to expect the hitters to just adjust without even a day off in between games. Garcia is projecting well, and viable in all formats.

Building Blocks

Jeremy Pena

I noted above that it’s a good spot for Luis Garcia, and I believe it to be a good spot for the Astros bats as well. Ross Stripling features a slate-high 8.25 xERA this season, and always struggles with right-handed power. Jeremy Pena is not exactly a power hitter when you think of it, but he’s shown pop this season with six homeruns. He hits the ball hard, and matches up very well with Stripling’s pitch mix. Stripling relies heavily on his slider against righties — while Pena joins Yordan Alvarez for the best numbers on the team against the pitch. Pena also has six steals already this season, so there is upside for points regardless, as long as he manages to get on base.

Spencer Steer

Given that I won’t be playing Snell, it makes sense to take a few bats against him and that’s where Steer steps in. I mentioned above how Snell has struggled with righties — allowing a .397 wOBA and .271 ISO in the split. Steer has the best numbers on the Reds against fastballs — which is key against Snell who throws his heater over half the time. Overall, I will be stacking the Reds in tournaments tonight and Steer is my favorite option for a one-off on all sites.

Ben’s Stat of the Day

Blake Snell owns the second-highest xERA on the slate at 7.02.

Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)