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
Nathan Eovaldi
Eovaldi needs no introduction, he’s going to be massively owned today but he is the clear SP1 by a mile on this slate. He’s pitched to a 2.87 xERA this season, while striking out 25% of batters faced. He also gets Detroit in their worst split, they are horrible against right-handed pitching sporting a .290 combined wOBA in their projected lineup, along with just under 24% strikeouts. He has been on fire, so I’m sure he will have a bad start at some point but I struggle to see it happening here against this team. He is a lock for me on this slate, and I would just plug him in and move on.
Ryne Nelson or JP France
There aren’t a ton of pitching options on a slate like this, so I will be looking to save money with my SP2 slot. Ryne Nelson is someone that pitching models love, he doesn’t have huge strikeout numbers this season but ranks above-average in stuff+ and looks raw more than anything, but he has potential. I don’t think anyone will be playing him today, which automatically makes me interested as a pivot off of JP France. France is projecting to be the chalky SP2 today alongside Eovaldi, but he has a much tougher match-up in my opinion against the Minnesota Twins. Overall, models have these guys closer than most would think and I’ll likely take the lesser own% and better match-up with Nelson — but both are in play for me in all formats on Monday.
Building Blocks
Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona has the largest team total on the board today, and I can’t see myself avoiding them on my main team. Karl Kauffman as been horrible for the Rockies through his first few starts, and given that he posted a 7.78 ERA in the minor leagues prior to his call-up this season, I have 0 reason to believe he’s going to turn things around. I love this Arizona offense because they don’t strike out a lot and are more than willing to steal bases once they’re on. The top four in the lineup — Pavin Smith, Corbin Carroll, Christian Walker and Ketel Marte are my favorite stack and on DraftKings you can add in any of Lourdes Gurriel, Jake McCarthy or Gabriel Moreno to complete your five man.
I will be focused on the chalky AZ/TEX spots on my main team, but I love the Royals for leverage. They should be lower-owned as a stack, and will likely be lower owned than their opponent as well. Wainwright has looked completely broken, and I wouldn’t be shocked if the Royals put 5+ runs on him today. I like Vinnie Pasquantino, MJ Melendez, Bobby Witt and Salvy Perez as my four man stack.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
