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
Spencer Strider + Sonny Gray
We have a slew of big name pitchers toeing the rubber tonight, but none bigger than Spencer Strider currently is. Even on a slate with Gerrit Cole, Strider is the number one pitcher and I don’t think it’s even remotely close. He is the best pitcher in fantasy baseball right now — providing Jacob deGrom-level strikeouts with no fear of a short leash. It’s a “tough” match-up against the Blue Jays — but he will see mostly right-handed hitters tonight and he has struck out over 40% of righties faced this season. If you’re spending up tonight, it’s on Strider.
After Strider, Sonny Gray checks in as my favorite play. He has been running pure in terms of BABIP this season, but he’s been one of the best pitchers in the AL and I like his match-up against the Chicago Cubs. Chicago’s projected lineup has posted a .307 wOBA this season against RHP with a sub-.130 ISO. There’s not a ton of power here outside of a few guys, and there are plenty of K’s to be had at the bottom of the lineup.
There are some mid-tier plays I like — such as JP France and Martin Perez, and you can even consider Kyle Bradish for cheap against the Pirates. Be sure to check my Core Plays tonight to see where I end up for my main team and GPP team SP combos.
Tyler Anderson
Sometimes in life, and in DFS, you have to make uncomfortable decisions. That opportunity is presented to us tonight, with Tyler Anderson facing off with the Cleveland Guardians. This is STRICTLY a price play, and I’m not going to sit here and write about how confident I am in Anderson. Truth be told, I’m not very confident at all, but I’m even less confident in this Cleveland offense right now. Cleveland caught fire in the second half of last season and made a run to the postseason after winning the AL Central. That late season magic has yet to show up in 2023 — the team currently ranks dead-last in wRC+ as a team. Last season they prided themselves on contact and not striking out, but even the strikeouts have started to rise recently. They have struggled against left-handed pitching for multiple seasons now due to the lack of right-handed power in their lineup — their projected lineup tonight owns a .290 wOBA, 25% strikeouts and a lowly .129 ISO against lefty pitching. We seemingly have two immovable objects ready to collide tonight — a bad pitcher, meets a horrible offense and one has to win out. Anderson won’t blow out away with strikeouts, but he doesn’t give up a lot of hard-contact and this team doesn’t hit the ball hard. At only $5,500 on DK, you can do worse on a loaded slate. Plugging in Anderson allows you to prioritize offense on a stacked slate, and I wouldn’t rule out six innings of one or two run ball + the win for Anderson on Friday night.
Building Blocks
Jarren Duran
I’m only writing up one bat today because 1. It’s a Coors Field slate so everyone will be looking there in cash games and 2. There are three or four stacks I really like tonight and will be building my teams around them. Boston is number one of my list so far, matching up against Adam Wainwright in some great hitting weather. Duran has been fantastic against right-handed pitching this season and should be locked into the middle of the Red Sox order. Waino’s most-used pitch to lefties since the start of last season is his curveball. Since joining the big league team, Duran sports a .444 wOBA and .333 ISO against the pitch with 41% hard-contact.
On a big slate like this, there are a number of stacks I’m interested outside of Coors Field. Usually, I will play Coors in cash games and then full-fade in GPPs. Tonight, the stacks I will be playing in tournaments are the Red Sox, Cardinals and Rangers. Atlanta would be the next add onto my list.
Ben’s Stat of the Day
Two Texas Rangers rank top-15 in hard-hit rate over the last 14 days — Adolis Garcia and Josh Jung.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
