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
Patrick Corbin- We have yet another murky pitching slate after a loaded weekend of aces. This leaves Corbin as the clear number one pitcher in a matchup with the New York Mets. Corbin has the best strikeout stuff on the slate dating back to the beginning of last season — owning a 29% strikeout rate backed by a wipeout slider used to generate over 50% whiffs. This Mets lineup isn’t a bad one, but Corbin has the highest upside on the slate and it’s not overly hard to fit him in.
Kyle Gibson- SP2 will be a bit tricky tonight, I expect Lance McCullers to dominate ownership against the San Francisco Giants. I don’t think something is overly wrong with McCullers right now, but his swinging strikes are way down to start the season and I’m more than likely going to take a wait and see approach there. That leads me to Kyle Gibsob, who gets the gift that keeps on giving in the Mariners offense. Slightly above average strikeout stuff will play just fine in this matchup. This lineup projects to strike out over 26% of the time against right-handed pitching. This new Rangers ballpark also is profiling very pitcher-friendly, and he is my second favorite option in all formats on this slate.
Dustin May- May is one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, and is coming off a really strong start against this exact same Padres team. The Padres have definitely improved this season offensively, but they are still projected to strike out above 25% against right-handed pitching. It’s a tough task for any offense to combat someone that can regularly paint 99 mph on the corners, but it will help that they just saw him in his last start. Either way, I think May has as much upside as someone like McCullers in the K department and will come in drastically lower-owned.
Building Blocks
Joey Gallo- I typically start with value in this section, but I simply can’t ignore Joey Gallo tonight. Justin Dunn has been an absolute disaster since coming up for the Mariners. He sports a 7.46 xFIP dating back to last season, with a .200 ISO and 50% fly balls allowed to left-handed batters. We know that Gallo has massive power with a .287 ISO vs righties, and he should see pitches to hit tonight. Dunn relies on 50% fast balls to left-handed hitters, a pitch Gallo owns a .600 xwOBA against in his career. Dunn’s 6% swinging strikes help neutralize Gallo’s K risk as well.
Arizona Stack- On DraftKings, Arizona is going to be extremely chalky and for good reason. Not only do they get to play in Coors Field tonight, they are unbelievably low-priced and easy to fit in with whatever pitching combo you desire. Jon Gray has never been good at home in Coors, but he has been dealing with decreased velocity this season as well. Although a small sample size, his xFIP sits at 5.53 in 2020. The lefties + Christian Walker are the best bets to be featured in my optimal build.
I will fully be implementing a five-man Arizona stack on DraftKings, but if you are looking for some other guys I like individually: Starlin Castro and Matt Olson.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
