Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 5/18/22! 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…
Above is an example of the Core Plays given out to Subscribers on Friday May 13th
Pitcher
Wednesday is pretty much the polar opposite of Tuesday. We have aces across the board, and pretty lackluster cheaper options. Tonight profiles as double-spend night for me at SP, but there are also a few expensive stacks we want to fit in. I think what’s most likely to happen is the expensive pitchers become chalky, and people stuff in one of the cheaper stacks — particularly the Chicago White Sox. I think that’s a fine strategy in tournaments, but if they do end up high-owned I think I will end up a bit lighter on them as a team. I don’t need to go into a ton of detail about the likes of Max Scherzer, Gerrit Cole and Kevin Gausman as they are three of the best pitchers in baseball/ All three have dominant strikeout stuff, and they are deserving of the high salaries they show on Wednesday night. In terms of match-up, Max gets the toughest draw against the Cardinals but they also feature a right-handed heavy lineup, which is good for him. He actually has dominated this Cardinals lineup in his career, while the other two have major success against their opponents as well. Those are the clear top three, and that’s without even mentioning the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Lucas Giolito who are also on this slate.
Overall, I think I want two of the big-three tonight, but if everyone seems to be going that way decisions will need to be made. If I end up choosing a cheap pitcher, it will likely be Zack Greinke, who I don’t think I have played in multiple years due to his lack of K upside. That being said, it’s a smaller slate and I think it’s likely most are stacking against Greinke so I would love to get that leverage on the field. Chicago has also been terrible offensively outside of Luis Robert. For the season they have a combined wOBA below .280 against right-handed pitching with a .128 ISO. I’m not taking Grienke in hopes of him racking up strikeouts, but he could deliver a good enough per dollar performance in tournaments while allowing me to spend up for an expensive stack.
Building Blocks
Joey Gallo
Yesterday, I nailed both my Building Blocks and the Aaron Judge double-dong call…so of course I’m going back to the well with some Yankees. Tonight they match up with Jordan Lyles, who has really struggled to get left-handed batters out this season. For 2022, we are looking at a .398 wOBA and .295 ISO allowed in the split. His most-used pitch to left-handed batters is his fastball — a pitch Gallo owns a .318 ISO against since the start of 2019. We know that Gallo strikes out a lot, so it helps that Lyles punches out just 17% of lefties he faces. It’s another great spot for the Bronx Bombers and they will likely be the highest-owned stack on Wednesday night.
Jared Walsh
Marsh and the Angels are clearly one of the best offenses on the slate, and a team we want to target in DFS. Dane Dunning has actually been pretty good for the Rangers this season, but he is vulnerable to power and is a guy I like to one-off players against more so than a full-stack. He throws a ton of sinkers, so we want to take the guys that have power and excel vs that pitch — which is why I’m interested in Walsh. He has some of the best power numbers on this team over the last few seasons including a .218 ISO. He also has some of the best numbers on the Angels against sinkers — including a .356 ISO and 51% hard-hit rate. Most will be focused on Anthony Rizzo at 1B. so we should get him at relatively low-ownership as well.
Bold Call
Jared Walsh posts 5+ total bases!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
