Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 5/12/22! 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. Let’s get to the plays…
Pitcher
Building Blocks
This pitching slate is a total joke, but we still need to find two guys to roster. I normally wouldn’t write up a three game slate, but we don’t have any other slate bigger in size of Thursday so this is what we are working with! James Kaprielian is the best overall pitcher on this slate, and in a match-up against the Detroit Tigers he is a lock to be the highest-owned arm. The Tigers strike out a ton, and I don’t see a reason to overthink that on this small of a slate. If you’re playing more than one lineup, you certainly could stack the Tigers and not use Kaprielian in a lineup to leverage the field.
For your SP2 I think it comes down to Beau Brieske or Jordan Hicks. Hicks has not been as dominant as a starter, but he can get strikeouts even though he likely isn’t going to throw even 80 pitches. Brieske has good stuff and could be a serviceable starter one day, but has serious control issues right now. Overall, I think you’re deciding between those two on DK and I assume most will lean towards Hicks.
Juan Yepez
Keegan Akin was supposed to start for the Orioles, but now it appears Bryan Baker will draw the start in what will be a bullpen game. This doesn’t really bump down the spot that much, it’s still one of the better match-ups on the slate and it doesn’t even matter as long as Yepez is priced like this. He has hit the ball extremely hard since joining the lineup, and homered once again on Wednesday night. He’s the clear top value on Thursday and will likely be over 75% owned in cash games.
Francisco Lindor
Given the lack of pitching on this slate, there’s plenty of room to spend up for bats. Outside of the Cardinals, the Mets are in a great spot against Joan Adon. Adon struggles with left-handed batters, and while Lindor isn’t really better batting from the left side the match-up is too good. Adon allows a .367 wOBA in the split this season, and is pretty much all fastballs to lefties. Fastball being one of Lindor’s better pitches — with a .267 ISO and 46% hard-hit rate against the pitch. New York is at the top of my stack list on this small slate and that starts with Lindor in all formats.
Bold Call
No pitcher tops 15 DK points!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
