Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 7/22/22! 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. Let’s get to the plays…
Above is an example of the Core Plays given out to Subscribers on Friday May 13th
Pitcher
In typical post-ASB fashion we are awarded a lot of upper-level pitching the first big slate back from the break. When looking at early ownership projections, we see a star-studded lineup including Corbin Burnes, Shohei Ohtani, Max Scherzer and Charlie Morton. Of those four, Scherzer is actually my favorite despite the tough on-paper match-up vs the Padres. Mad Max has been absolutely shoving since returning from the injured list and has struck out over 40% of batters faced in the month of July. He also has dominated this Padres team, with a sub-.300 expected wOBA allowed and over 30% strikeouts. Overall, I don’t care about the match-up and I think he is the number one play tonight.
Outside of Max, it will come down to our usual decision to buy into double-aces or save salary with our SP2. It would be hard to argue with Burnes or Ohtani, with my lean towards Burnes if choosing one of them. We also have a few quality cheap options today including Cole Irvin and Patrick Corbin. Of the two, I actually prefer Corbin who has a great match-up vs Arizona. He’s been horrific this season, but something has clearly clicked as of late. His SIERA is down to 3.54 over the last 30 days with a solid 25% strikeout rate. I always prefer the double-spend at pitcher strategy, but plugging in Corbin for just $5,900 has some appeal — especially in tournaments.
Building Blocks
Brandon Lowe
It looks like I want to spend up for two pitchers once again tonight, so I’m looking more in the mid-tier or value section for my bats. Lowe is one of our top projected plays tonight against Brad Keller. Keller hasn’t been that bad for the Royals this season, but Lowe has some of the better numbers on the Rays against right-handed pitching. He hits the ball hard, and his 29% line-drive rate is well above-average. He also excels against fastballs, a pitch Keller throws over 37% of the time. Lowe has been known as a heater hitter, with a monster .351 ISO against the pitch. He is my homerun call on Friday night.
Jorge Soler
Soler is another cheap player on Friday with big-time power upside. Jose Quintana is in the midst of a renaissance season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but that won’t stop me from targeting Soler as a high-upside one-off tonight. Quintana relies heavily on getting ground ball outs — so it helps that Soler’s 46% fly-ball rate is the highest mark on his team. He also has the most power by far, with a .322 ISO this season. Soler is known as a fastball hitter himself, sporting a .297 ISO against the pitch since 2019. Quintana throws his heater over 40% of the time making it his most-used pitch. I don’t really want to stack the Marlins but Soler clearly can pay off his salary with one swing of the bat.
Bold Call
Max Scherzer throws a complete game shutout!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
