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
Zac Gallen
Typically, on slates where Gerrit Cole pitches I write him up and move on. Today, however, is not your normal Gerrit Cole slate. This is one of the more loaded pitching slates of the season thus far and what makes it particularly fun is that it’s loaded at all pricing levels. There is every reason to go double-spend up at pitcher, and there is just as much reason to spend-down at SP2. Gallen might seem fluky to some, but we simply can’t ignore what he’s doing. He hasn’t allowed a run in four straight starts and owns a monster 41:1 strikeout to walk ratio over those starts, He also owns a 2.33 xERA — the lowest number on the slate. Cole has dominated Cleveland in his career, but this still is not a high-K lineup and we saw that earlier this season when he struck out just three Guardians bats. He can go nuclear on any slate, but Gallen has the better strikeout match-up and there isn’t a hotter pitcher in baseball right now…I’m going to ride him until the wheels fall off. Joe Ryan has a strong case as well against the White Sox, who are a disaster right now. Overall, I would rank them Gallen, Ryan, Cole based off price and strikeout projection but all three are elite options and I would likely prioritize spending up on at least one of them tonight.
Secondary Options (Loaded Slate)
As I said above, what makes this slate so fun is the strength of options at all pricing levels. We have three really strong cheap options on DraftKings tonight with Tanner Bibee at $6,500, Mason Miller at $5,700 and Bryce Miller making his MLB debut at the minimum price of $4,000.
Bibee looked the part in his MLB debut striking out eight batters without a walk. On the road in Yankee Stadium is a tougher environment, but this lineup is simply not good with Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton out. Their projected lineup owns a sub-.300 wOBA with 24% strikeouts against right-handed pitching this season. He is the most expensive option of the three mentioned, but he can be used in all formats at this price tag and I do think there is upside against this team.
Mason Miller rebounded from an ugly first inning last time out, and still struck out six across four innings. He has the worst match-up of the three, but his stuff is absolutely electric and he can have success in any match-up. Seattle has power against lefties, but also some strikeouts and I think Miller is viable in all formats on Tuesday night, though I have him ranked behind Bibee.
Finally, we have Bryce Miller making his debut for the Mariners and it’s quite the spot to do so against the lowly Oakland A’s. Miller has struggled to begin this season in the minors, but this is the Mariners topo-ranked pitching prospect and he has shown K upside in the minors. He shouldn’t be priced this low regardless of match-up, and he won’t need to do much to pay off this price-tag. I’m ranking him second behind Bibee for savings tonight due to the price tag — he only needs a few strikeouts to pay off and it will allow you to spend up on any bats / stacks you want.
Building Blocks
Joey Gallo
Gallo is my top-overall bat on Tuesday night, and outside of Coors Field I’m going to be pretty interested in the Minnesota Twins against Michael Kopech. The one promising Kopech has been horrific in 2023, he sports the highest xERA on the slate at 9.86 and is walking 13% of batters faced. He’s given up over a .270 ISO to both sides of the plate, and things can go bad quickly with one swing of the bat if he’s walking guys. He’s getting barreled at an extremely high rate — each of the last two seasons his barrel% was under 9% and it sits north of 14% this season. Something is clearly wrong with Kopech, and the Twins have the power to have success tonight. Gallo is in the midst of a renaissance season, his barrel and contact rates are way up and he already has seven homeruns this season. Kopech is throwing mostly fastballs this seaso, which is great news for Gallo who has a .390 ISO against the pitch. Overall, you can stack the Twins tonight or use Gallo as a one-off, but he’s my HR pick for Tuesday night and I like him in all formats.
Outside of Gallo, there will be a ton of attention on Coors Field tonight with the Brewers and Rockies squaring off. Most users will be building there in cash games, and some other bats I like are Ryan Mountcastle, Byron Buxton and Zach Neto.
Ben’s Stat of the Day
Joey Gallo ranks first overall in average exit velocity this season at 97.5 mph.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
