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
Joe Ryan
Ryan is going to be massive chalk on Friday night, currently featuring a 41% ownership projection in our Projections Portal. I’m always more comfortable playing chalk pitchers than stacks or bats, and I’m not sure we can overlook this spot for him against the Detroit Tigers. Ryan doesn’t provide the typical safe-feeling as other ace pitchers, but he’s been very good this season pitching to a 2.45 xERA with 28% strikeouts. Narrow those numbers down to just right-handed hitters, and we see his strikeouts spike to nearly 33% to go along with a .256 wOBA allowed. Detroit is likely to send six right-handed batters to the plate tonight, as their projected lineup is striking out 25% of the time against RHP. Overall, it’s as good of a spot as you can get and I think he is clearly the top option in all formats. He also owns a career .103 BAA against the Tigers active roster in just under 50 PA.
Bryan Woo
I’m not sure what to make of Bryan Woo yet, and I’m not sure anyone can have a firm take after just two big league starts. Woo was a well above-average strikeout pitcher in the minor leagues, and is not someone that spent much time there either. He earned a very quick call-up for the Mariners, and you can see why they believe in him after a seven strikeout game in his last outing. Overall, the match-up isn’t bad against the Chicago White Sox, but this is all about price. We are getting what should be a pretty good big league strikeout pitcher at only $5,500 on DK. He isn’t a must play at all, but I’m always fine saving money at my SP2 slot and he’s the best bet on Friday night even if the ownership ticks up closer to lock.
For GPPs, Michael Kopech checks in as my top option. We have seen every different version of him you can see this season, but the strikeout stuff is still there now that his velo is back up. Seattle strikes out a lot as a team against RHP, and his price tag will likely keep his ownership in check tonight.
Building Blocks
Jesus Sanchez
Miami has one of the better match-ups tonight against Trevor Williams, and we are awarded Jesus Sanchez for under $3,000 on DraftKings. There is always value bats on these big slates, so if you’re looking to spend up on both pitchers using someone like Sanchez as a one-off makes sense. Williams is allowing a .330 wOBA and 46% hard-hit rate to left-handed hitters since the start of last season, while nobody in the Marlins hits the ball harder (50% HH%) than Sanchez. He has the biggest power numbers on the team as well, and fits the mold of someone I like to one off for cheap. Williams throws a ton of fastballs to both sides of the plate, while Sanchez and the rest of the Marlins order has a lot of success against that pitch. Sanchez is viable in all formats tonight.
Top Stacks
With such a big slate, stacking takes more of a precedent for me and the top ones I will be looking at in order tonight are the Red Sox, Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
