Welcome to another edition of Ben’s Building Blocks! In this article, I will outline the players I’m looking to build my main lineup around for today’s slate. If you want access to my core plays for every main slate, as well as one of the best discord communities in the industry, click here.
Pitcher
Jack Flaherty- I really wanted to list Verlander against a disaster of a Mariners lineup here, but the more I have played with lineups, the more I am landing on Flaherty. We really have no clue how long any of these guys leashes will be tonight, so it’s tough for me to want to spend up to $11,000 right away. Flaherty has a tough matchup in terms of strikeouts, but let’s not forget that this was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball in the second-half of 2019. He allowed a sub-2.00 wOBA with 35% strikeouts post-ASB in 2019…truly mind-boggling numbers. Despite strong plate discipline, this is not a good Pirates offense and they also lost Starling Marte in the off-season. I like Flaherty more than Nola in the mid-tier and he may end up as my SP1 come lock.
Frankie Montas- Montas is a guy that I plan on being overweight on compared to the field tonight, especially on FanDuel where he is priced at $7,600. He fully broke out in 2019 finishing the season with a 3.76 SIERA and 26% strikeouts. He’s apparently worked on adding extension during the quarantine, which his trainer has showed added even more velocity to his fastball. He had huge success vs this Angels lineup last season, and I think he sets up for it again tonight. He struck out 29% of lefties he faced, while neutralizing righties with 60% ground balls. This isn’t an easy lineup to navigate by any means, but it looks like the changes he has been working on can truly take him to the next level. I prefer to get out ahead of things like this, and if he comes out and looks dominant tonight he is going to be significantly higher-owned in his next start. There are enough guys priced around him that will keep the ownership low, and I plan on taking advantage of that on Friday night.
Tommy Milone (DK Only)- So this is pretty much the biggest question on the slate for me. I assumed last night that everyone would be interested in the minimum-priced pitcher on DK, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Is Tommy Milone a great pitcher? No. Will he likely allow some runs tonight? Yes. Does that matter when he’s priced at $4,000? Nope! Milone isn’t *as bad* as people are making him out to be, but it really doesn’t even matter when he is priced this cheap. All I’m hoping for is around 10 points at this price while it allows me to jam in pretty much any bat I could ever want on an 11 game slate.
Anyone that has read my content before knows I love to spend down at SP2 on DK. And now we are getting massive leverage considering everyone will be stacking against Milone. I will have a Red Sox hedge stack in case, but I most likely won’t pass up a min-priced pitcher on my main team. He doesn’t have the worst strikeout stuff, he doesn’t walk guys, and we can hope that he gives up a few solo HR’s and comfortably beats value.
Building Blocks
Max Muncy- First Base is weak tonight, and that has led me to Muncy in almost all of my early builds. We know that he crushes righties — sporting a .267 ISO and a .379 wOBA in 2019 — and he also matches up well with Jeff Samardzija’s pitch mix. I like the savings that Muncy provides you off of Bellinger and Mookie, and he should come in lower owned with people focusing on the chalk Red Sox.
Bryce Harper- I don’t typically like to build around players like Harper in cash games due to his strikeout concerns, but it’s hard for me ignore him on this slate. Sandy Alcantara pitched well for the Marlins down the stretch of last season, but he still has yet to figure out left-handed batters at the MLB level. He gave up over 38% hard hits and fly balls to lefty batters, and that plays right into Harper’s strength…power. His fastball and sinker were his most used pitches in the split, two pitches that Harper absolutely feasted on in 2019.
Franmil Reyes- Reyes is a fan favorite in our discord channel, and I will be loading up on him at $4,400 on DraftKings and $2,700 on FanDuel. Reyes could very well lead the league in HR’s during this short season, and I think he gets the campaign going early on Friday night. Duffy allows a ton of pop to right-handed batters, and Reyes owns well over a .250 ISO vs his two most used pitches to righties — fastball and slider.
*note: The Red Sox will be in most people’s building blocks, but I will likely be underweight on them as scary as it is. I do think that playing JD Martinez in a lineup with Tommy Milone is in consideration for me tonight, but I’m fine being different and fading the chalk on the first big slate of the season.*
Stack Rankings
1. Los Angeles Dodgers (Bellinger, Muncy, Mookie, Joc, Seager)
2. Cleveland Indians (Reyes, Lindor, Ramirez, Luplow, Santana)
3. San Diego Padres (Machado, Tatis, Pham + cheapies)
4. Philadelphia Phillies (Bryce, Cutch, Hoskins, Realmuto, Didi)
5. Boston Red Sox (heavy chalk, I will be underweight)
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
