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
Shohei Ohtani + Kevin Gausman
There’s no doubt who the top projections are at SP tonight — and it’s Ohtani and Gausman. These two are the only pitchers projected for over 20 fantasy points in our Projections Portal, while Ohtani paces the field by over three points. They are both dominant strikeout pitchers, and both have match-ups that I would say are good to above-average. They’re also the most expensive options, but I don’t think you can argue that they have the highest ceilings even on a monster slate like tonight. Most people will be choosing one of them to pair with a cheap chalky Bryan Woo, which I think is probably the optimal route for cash games. In smaller-field tournaments you could get weird by jamming them in together, and in larger-field you can fade this pricing-tier completely.
Bryan Woo + Ranger Suarez
Woo is coming off back-to-back good games for the Mariners, and shouldn’t be priced below $7K on DK. That price is forcing a 25% ownership projection onto him, and I think that number will be even higher in double-ups and small-field stuff. Overall, I think he is viable in cash games but I will be going with a lower-owned option in tournaments. My favorite pivot is Ranger Suarez, who matches up with the Chicago Cubs in their first game back from London. The expectation is for them to take a bit to adjust to being back in the states and we can look to take advantage of that jet lag in their first game back. Suarez has been crushing for the Phillies recently, sporting a sub-4.00 SIERA over the last 30 days with only 7% walks. He’s had success in this match-up before, and should be much lower-owned than Woo on Tuesday. I also think Garrett Whitlock is worth a look in larger-field stuff. He has a 23% strikeout rate over the last 30 days, while this Marlins lineup has quite a bit of K’s to be had outside of Luis Arraez.
Building Blocks
Manny Machado
Machado and the Padres are in one of the best non-Coors Field spots today, matched up with Rich Hill. Hill has been significantly worse against right-handed hitters than left this season, allowing a .341 wOBA and .213 ISO in the split — compared to .331 and .109 marks against same-handed hitters. Machado is perennially one of the best hitters against lefty pitching in baseball, and I love the way he matches up with Hill individually. Both he, and the other Padres top bats, are very good against curveballs which is key when facing Hill. His curve is his most-used pitch overall, including against righties as he throws it 40% of the time. Machado owns above-average splits against the pitch, along with Fernando Tatis and Xander Bogaerts. I think this is a tough match-up for Hill especially when you factor in there will be at least six righties in the lineup tonight. Machado is my favorite of the bunch, and he can be used as a one-off or in a stack on Tuesday evening.
Josh Naylor
Another non-Coors player in a strong spot tonight is Josh Naylor against Brady Singer. Singer has taken a massive step back for the Royals this season, and that’s mostly been due to how bad he has been against left-handed hitters. He’s allowing a .382 wOBA and .231 ISO in the split — and will see six lefties in the Cleveland order tonight. Naylor is in the midst of his best campaign as a pro, and has been the Guardians best hitter against righties not named Jose Ramirez. He has slate-breaking power which we love to target when one-offing guys, and he matches up well against Singer’s pitch mix. He throws a ton of sinkers to lefties — a pitch Naylor owns a team-best .530 wOBA against.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
