Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 5/4/22! 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. You can also try out the Core Plays package with a $5 daily pass. Let’s get to the plays…
Pitcher
Lucas Giolito
Giolito is the easy choice for top pitcher on Wednesday night, matched up against the Chicago Cubs. I wrote up Michael Kopech yesterday citing the positive pitching weather in Wrigley Field, and we get more of the same tonight. On top of the wind blowing in, the Cubs are striking out over 24% as a team vs right-handed pitching this season. Gio has been even better in the strikeout department than in years past, and I’m just not overthinking it on Wednesday night…
Freddy Peralta
I locked in Brandon Woodruff against the Reds last night, and am going right back to the well with Freddy Peralta. Both Gio and Peralta are projected for over 40% ownership so it’s no secret tonight, but I do think it’s the optimal way to build. The strikeouts and swing and misses have been there for Freddy since he started using his slider again — the only thing holding him back has been his control. The good news is, the Reds walk just 6% of the time vs right-handed batters and they continue to be the worst team in baseball. I will be spending up for pitching tonight.
Kyle Hendricks
If you really wanted to take a shot on a third pitcher, I think I would take the savings with Kyle Hendricks. I don’t often play these types of lower strikeout pitchers, but the White Sox have really struggled offensively to start the season. As a team, they rank dead-last in wOBA vs right-handed pitching this season — I bet you wouldn’t of guessed that! To top it off, he gets the same positive pitching weather/wind and Giolito and is only $7,700 on DraftKings.
Building Blocks
Aaron Judge
Since I don’t write up Coors bats in this section, I’ll side with another easy spend-up with Aaron Judge against Yusei Kikuchi. Kikuchi has struggled to get right-handed batters out the last few seasons and we know that Judge excels vs southpaw pitching. His .438 wOBA in the split is clearly tops in this lineup since the start of last season, and he continues to be one of my highest-owned players in DFS. I don’t like to cite BvP numbers, but in 11 career at-bats vs Kikuchi, Judge owns a massive .619 xwOBA and a 100 mph average exit velocity — clearly he sees him well.
Rowdy Tellez
I love this spot for the Brewers tonight, especially the lefties against Vlad Gutierrez. Gutierrez has been pretty bad in general the last few seasons, but especially awful against left-handed batters this season. It’s a small 45 PA sample-size, but we see him allowing a .459 wOBA and .364 ISO in the split. Tellez has been one of the better hitters on the Brewers vs righties this season — he owns the second-highest ISO at .273 and the highest hard-contact rate at 51%. Given that I want to double-spend for pitcher tonight, I’ll need value and Tellez is my top point per dollar bat on both sites.
Bold Call
Milwaukee scores more runs than either Coors team!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
