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.
Pitchers
Shane Bieber- Much of this slate on DraftKings comes down to whether or not you play Shane Bieber in a tough matchup with the Minnesota Twins. We are not awarded several aces like last night, which makes Bieber the clear number one in terms of raw pitching talent. It’s seemingly an impossible matchup against a lineup with this much power, but he has struck out them nearly 27% in his career. He looked even better than last season in his first start, striking out a whopping 14 Royals batters and posting an insane 40% CSW. He generated 13 swinging strikes with his curve ball, a pitch that six of the Twins in the lineup tonight have struggled with in the past.
I think it comes down to price and ownership for me. Bieber should be a mid-11,000 starter but is priced below $10,000. There’s also a good chance that he comes in “low-owned” for him due to the matchup. I will be keeping a close eye on ownership projections leading up to lock, and if I see Bieber under-owned I will end up with quite a bit of him. On a normal slate I wouldn’t be as interested in this matchup, but I honestly feel the best about him on this slate.
Mid-Tier SP2- We need someone to pair with Bieber, and it’s coming down to Dinelson Lamer, Dylan Bundy and Ross Stripling for me. Bundy and Lamet are both going to feature heavy-ownership, and I think there’s a good chance that pairing them together ends up the highest-owned combo. Lamet has higher upside, and I prefer him than chalk Bundy, but there is a legitimate concern he only throws five innings tonight. I was encouraged to see Stripling get over 90 pitches in his first start, and if he has that kind of pitch count normally he will be a regular on my tourney teams. Overall I would rank them Lamet, Bundy. Stripling for cash games — and Lamet, Stripling, Bundy for GPPs.
GPP Pivot: Steven Matz- I’m actually not a huge Matz fan, but ownership is going to be really concentrated at this position today and I see him as a strong pivot in GPPs. I was encouraged by what I saw from him in his first start. Last season his worst pitch in terms of whiffs was his slider and he didn’t throw it much at all in that first outing. He also was showing a nice increase in velocity, averaging almost 95 mph with his sinker, up from 92 in 2019. Nobody on this Red Sox team is exceptionally strong against sinkers outside of JD Martinez, so if he can navigate one huge threat in the lineup I think he can throw his way to a decent night at low ownership. You can also look at Brady Singer against the Tigers for sub-$7K.
Building Blocks
Chalk Build- DK messed up the pricing once again tonight, with a number on Kansas City Royals being forgotten in the bargain bin. This is going to create a massively chalky build with everyone jamming in the big Yankees bats against John Means and the Orioles bullpen, with the cheap Royals such as Jorge Soler, Salvador Perez, Ryan O’Hearn and Maikel Franco. I will definitely go that route with my main team, because it’s the clear best spot, but it makes it a fun tournament slate given that we know the direction most of the field is going…especially in single entry contests.
Anthony Rendon- Like I said above, we are going to get some really solid ownership on guys in tourneys tonight and that starts with Anthony Rendon for me. We know that he projects for the best numbers on this team against left-handed pitching, but he has an incredibly strong individual matchup with Marco Gonzales. Gonzales actually allowed a higher ISO to lefties last year than righties, but his ground balls completely fall off against batters of the opposite hand. His most used pitch to RHH is his sinker, a pitch Rendon owns a video game-like .510 ISO against over the last three seasons.
Stack Rankings
1. New York Yankees (Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu or Gio Urshela, Aaron Hicks)
2. Kansas City Royals (Whit Merrifield, Jorge Soler, Salvador Perez, Adalberto Mondesi, Ryan O’Hearn)
3. New York Mets (Amed Rosario, Pete Alonso, JD Davis, Yoenis Cespedes, Wilson Ramos)
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (1-5 full stack)
5. Minnesota Twins (lefties + Nelson Cruz to hedge Bieber lineups)
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
