Welcome to our MLB DFS Building Blocks, DraftKings and FanDuel picks for 8/22/22! 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
Pitching is pretty straightforward for me on Monday night, and it’s resulting in a pretty tight pool. For starters, Jeffrey Springs is a lock at his price of $7,700 on DraftKings. Springs has been really good this season for the Rays, and this match-up couldn’t get much better. Los Angeles doesn’t strike out a ton vs left-handed pitching — just 20% of the time — but this is also just a bad lineup. Taylor Ward has fallen off a cliff, and there are no hitters to fear outside of Mike Trout. It’s unlikely Shohei Ohtani plays tonight after exiting yesterday’s start due to an illness, and that leaves a lot of bad hitters for Springs to face. The Angels projected lineup tonight carries just a .303 wOBA vs southpaw pitching. Overall, at his price he’s a lock for me so it’s about deciding who to pair him with.
There are a few ace-level pitcher to pair with Springs — Max Scherzer and Julio Urias. Urias is much cheaper, but also doesn’t have the strikeout upside that Max provides. On paper, you might worry about Max against the Yankees but…their lineup has been horrific over the last month. He also has had great success against their current roster with a .316 expected wOBA allowed and 26% strikeouts. It’s been fairly easy to find value bats as of late, so I’m leaning Max over Urias even if Urias comes in higher-owned.
Building Block
Jake Fraley
Since Max is over $11K, we need some value and there are some very strong value plays on DK tonight. First, we have red-hot Jake Fraley matched up against Noah Syndergaard. Fraley homered a few times over the weekend, and he has the best numbers on the the team against right-handed pitching. Thor’s most-used pitch against lefties is his changeup, and that’re great news for Fraley. He has some of the best splits on the Reds against the pitch — including a .379 ISO. He should be more expensive after his recent hot stretch, but we can take advantage of these savings in all formats tonight.
Vaughn Grissom
More value comes from the Braves and Vaughn Grissom. Grissom is in the lineup tonight, and the Braves are one of the top offenses on the slate against Roansy Contreras. Contreras is much worse against right-handed batters, allowing a .356 wOBA and .241 ISO in the split. Grissom is better vs lefties himself, but he does have good power vs RHP with a .256 ISO. Overall, I love the Braves tonight and this is too cheap for a piece of their lineup…and Grissom can be used in all formats on both sites even as a one-off.
Bold Call
Max Scherzer strikes out 10+ Yankees!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
