Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 5/27/22! 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
Justin Verlander + Sean Manaea
We have our usual big Friday slate on tap tonight, with a number of pitching options across the various pricing tiers. One thing is clear to me early on, that it’s likely we see ownership pushed onto Shane Bieber and Brandon Woodruff. Both are priced below $10,000, while the two pitcher I have listed for this section are $10K or above. The issue is that Verlander and Manaea clearly have the better match-ups, and Shane Bieber in particular is not someone I’m going to be playing for the foreseeable future. I chalked up his velocity drop early on to the limited spring training innings, but we are two months into the season and he is still struggling to top 90 mph on the radar gun. That’s not a good sign, and I think that people will continue to play him at this lower price and I am just going to avoid him flat-out. Woodruff is much better than his surface numbers state, but I would rather attack the Mariners and Pirates than the Cardinals on one of these bigger slates. Anyone that reads this article knows I’ve been on Verlander all season and I will continue to play him. Double spend-up is certainly in play for me tonight, and if we get these two lower owned than the $9K range that’s just the cherry on top.
Jon Gray
If you want to drop all the way down to the value-tier, I could see a lot of attention getting forced onto Jon Gray due to his price and match-up with the Oakland A’s. Is Jon Gray a great pitcher? Not really, but he is better than a $5,500 pitcher especially against this A’s offense. The game will be played in the pitcher-friendly environment in Oakland — and this A’s projected lineup owns a combined .276 wOBA and .116 ISO vs right-handed pitching this season. I don’t like playing mediocre pitchers as chalk, but this is a clear misprice in this match-up. I would love to spend up for both of my pitchers tonight, but if I can’t, Gray is fine in cash game builds at this low of a tag.
Building Blocks
Mookie Betts
Betts has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball the month of May, and that’s backed by a 45% hard-hit rate and 41% fly-ball rate over the last 14 days. Los Angeles draws Madison Bumgarner tonight, who is allowing just under a .200 ISO to righties over the last calendar year. Betts has a massive contact% against southpaws this season, and matches up well vs Bum’s pitch mix. His most used pitch is his cutter — a pitch Betts sports a .286 ISO against over the last three seasons. He is my top spend-up on all sites tonight, and I will likely be betting some props with him included as well.
Lane Thomas
I wrote up Josh Bell last night, and his teammate Lane Thomas is my favorite value on Friday night. Washington matches up with Austin Gomber, who has always struggled to consistently get right-handed hitters out. Regardless, Thomas is projected to lead-off for the Nats tonight at a sub-$3,000 price tag on DraftKings. He sports a strong 28% line drive rate this season against left-handed pitching — with the highest average exit velocity as well. He will likely be a popular one-off, but these are the type of plays that will allow us to spend up for two pitchers tonight.
Bold Call
Justin Verlander strikes out 10 Mariners!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
