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
Aaron Civale- Civale has posted night and day numbers between 2019 and 2020, so he is a tough pitcher analyze right now. The reason I’m willing to believe in what we have seen this season is the drastic change in his pitch mix. Last year he relied heavily on a sinker which he hardly throws at all this season. In 2020, he’s relying more on his curveball that’s generating over 46% whiffs. The Tigers are already one of the most strikeout-prone offenses in the MLB, and they happen to struggle mightily with curves. They haven’t been a push over offense so far this season, but I view this as a really strong individual matchup for Civale who I like as my SP1 on Friday night.
Note: Gerrit Cole was already the top SP on this slate in my opinion, but that becomes a legitimate fact with Jacob deGrom being scratched. I like Cole in all formats and he’s my highest projection on this slate, I’m just not sure if I will end up having $11,000 to spend on him. If you’re dead set on playing him, don’t let the fact that he isn’t written up here steer you away.
Jesus Luzardo (FD)- We got some big news a few minutes ago with Jesus Luzardo starting in place of Frankie Montas. Luzardo is one of the up and coming stars in the MLB, and he has looked the part in his early outings of this season. He’s generated over 14% swinging strikes this season with 25% strikeouts and 54% groundballs. I love guys that can get me strikeouts while still keeping the ball on the ground, and Luzardo fits that mold. His slider has been especially good so far, and is one of the nastiest put out pitches in the league already. He gets a strong matchup with the San Francisco Giants, and is under-priced seeing as he wasn’t slated to start. I think he’s playable in tournaments at $7,800 on DK, but at $6,400 on FanDuel I will consider him in cash game builds.
Spencer Howard (DK)- Howard is another top prospect, this time from the Phillies organization. I will say, I spend a lot of my time in the offseason researching prospects and pitchers, and I don’t think Howard is in the same ballpark as a guy like Luzardo (right now). The good thing is, DraftKIngs completely dropped the ball on his price, and he comes in at the flat minimum of $4,000. Even though I think he needs a bit more time before he is major league ready, this is a guy with over 30% striekouts in the minor leagues and he is way too good of a prospect to ever be this price. He generated 12% swings and misses in his first outing, and went around 80 pitches, so we shouldn’t worry about him being limited here. It’s a semi-tough matchup against the Mets, but the price rules all and I will be well overweight to him.
Building Blocks
Bryce Harper- This is a Coors Field slate so I typically start with some value, but I simply can’t avoid Bryce Harper tonight. For starters, he has been in great form to start the season. He’s averaging over 12 DK points per game, more than Aaron Judge who is the highest-priced outfielder on the slate. He also gets a massive bump, he was slated to see deGrom but now gets to feast on Walker Lockett. Lockett allows over a .400 wOBA to lefti-handed batters and doesn’t have the swing and miss ability to make Harper struggle. Due to the Coors effect, he should come in massively under-owned and I will likely look to force him into my main team tonight.
Cheap Yankees (FD)- On FanDuel, we will probably see some heavy -ownership on the Yankees against Colten Brewer. Brewer has pitched to a 4.98 xFIP over the last season and a half, and doesn’t profile well here vs this offense. All of Mike Ford, Gleyber Torres and Aaron Hicks are $3,000 or less on FD and I can see using them to fill out Coors stacks in all formats.
DK Strategy- On DK I will likely be looking to go with Texas in cash like everyone else, but don’t forget about the Rockies hitters. Lance Lynn is good, but he is due for some BABIP regression and there’s no better place for that to come than in Coors Field. He typically allows more pop to righties than lefties, so Arenado/Story are just as good as Charlie Blackmon — and I think all three come in way under-owned compared to the Rangers.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
