Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 7/25/22! 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
This is a very interesting slate when it comes to SP. We don’t have any must-play pitchers, but there are a few big names such as Max Fried and Sean Manaea. They stick out above the field in both fantasy point and ownership projections. I think that both are fine options, but I don’t see the point in spending up for Fried when he isn’t a dominant strikeout pitcher/ Typically, on slates like this we would see a Gerrit Cole or Max Scherzer dominate the ownership projections at like a 50% number. That, I’m fine chasing because there’s a realistic chance they strike out 9+ batters. I just don’t see that upside in Fried against the Phillies — especially when he has a 22% strikeout rate against their roster in his career. Manaea could certainly do that against Detroit, so if I was choosing one of those two to anchor my cash game team it’s going to be him.
I also like the mid-tier with both Aaron Ashby and JT Brubaker sticking out as strong plays. Ashby has the highest strikeout rate on the slate, and he has been elite at home this season. Brubaker is matched up with a high strikeout lineup that he has absolutely owned in his career. We have an 83 PA sample-size of him against the Cubs resulting in a 32% strikeout rate. These two are both viable in all formats, along with Manaea. Most of any builds I make will consist of two of those three pitchers.
Building Blocks
Ronald Acuna
Acuna has to be considered my top pitcher tonight, matched up with Ranger Suarez. Suarez has rebounded from a terrible start to the season, but is still allowing a .335 wOBA to right-handed batters. More importantly, his most-used pitch this season to righties is his sinker — a pitch he throws over 40% of the time. We know that Acuna crushes left-handed pitching…but he also feasts on sinkers. Over the last three seasons, he owns monster splits against the pitch including a .353 ISO. He’s my favorite expensive player on the entire slate.
Jarren Duran
I think there will be a lot of DFS attention on this game due to some of the player pricing and the fact that it’s listed with a 9.5 O/U. That being said, there are weather concerns for this game and that’s something we need to monitor up until lock time. If the game is good to go, I love Duran batting lead-off against Zach Plesac. I’ve been attacking Plesac all season, and he continues to get beat around by lefty hitters. Duran actually has some of the better numbers in this lineup, and has sneaky power as well. His .399 expected wOBA against fastballs comes into play as well, with Plesac being a heavy fastball pitcher. He’s my top value play on both sites tonight.
Bold Call
JT Brubaker is the highest scoring SP on the slate.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
