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
Mitch Keller
Mitch Keller is the perfect example of a post-hype breakout and why we shouldn’t be so quick to give up on any baseball player — especially a pitcher. Keller began his ascendance last season, and it’s carried over to 2023 in a big way. He’s striking out 30% of batters faced, backed by one of the best fastballs in baseball and he also ranks top-12 in CSW%. We know that Oakland is a below-average offense, and there are plenty of K’s to be had in the bottom of the order. Keller won’t be any secret tonight, he’s struck out 8+ batters in each of his last six starts and will likely be the highest-owned pitcher on the slate. I’m always more comfortable eating chalk at SP than with my bats, and he’s the no doubt top play on Tuesday.
Joe Musgrove
I think most users will be looking to spend-up for both SP’s tonight in cash games, but I can’t overlook Joe Musgrove at this price-point. Typically Musgrove doesn’t command much attention in DFS due to his better in real-life than fantasy profile – but sub-$8K seems a bit too cheap for this spot against the Mariners. Seattle is a good team, but there are a lot of strikeouts to be had at the bottom of the lineup and Musgrove has had success against their active roster in his career. With most users looking to spend-up – saving for one or both SP’s tonight allows you to flip the build and fit in an expensive stack – a strategy I would be looking at in three max or larger-field contests.
Building Blocks
Elly De La Cruz
De La Cruz is one of, if not the best overall prospect in the minor leagues right now – and he’s set to make his major league debut for the Reds on Tuesday evening. He’s priced at the minimum on DraftKings, and there will be no shortage of users looking to plug him into their lineups at this price tag. You can use him as a one-off in all formats, and I don’t see why you’d look to avoid him in cash games. He’s batting nearly .300 in the minors this season, with 12 homeruns and 11 steals. He will likely look to be aggressive in his debut, and if he gets on base I would expect to see him running. If stolen base props get listed, I would look to bet him for one.
Jack Suwinski + Tucu Marcano
Pittsburgh is in one of the best spots on the slate, up against James Kaprielian and his near 6.00 xERA. Kaprielian has always been pretty bad against left-handed hitters — but it’s especially bad this season with him allowing over a .400 wOBA and .340 ISO in the split. Suwinski has been exceptional for the Pirates, he owns a team-high .325 ISO against right-handed pitching and is among the NL leaders in fly-ball rate, to go along with a 40% hard-hit rate. Matched up with a pitcher that gives up hard hits and fly-balls in bunches, he is my HR call and favorite overall bat on tonight’s slate.
Marcano is very cheap, and will likely be locked into the lead-off spot again for the Pirates tonight. Between De La Cruz, Marcano and Suwinski we have three building blocks for a combined $7,100 in salary making the double-spend up at SP approach fairly easy to accomplish on Tuesday night.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
