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
Trevor Bauer- Bauer has an unreal 43% strikeout rate this season, backed by what has been the best fastball in the entire league in 2020. He matches up with the Milwaukee Brewers, who rank third in baseball in strikeout rate against right-handed pitching. That strikeout rate comes with a 66 wRC+ as a team, good for 28th overall. FanDuel priced Bauer correctly at $12,000, but he comes in at just $10,200 on DraftKings. He is my top play in all formats on all sites, and it’s not particularly close.
Jesus Luzardo- Luzardo is another guy who was not priced correctly, coming in below $8,000 on both sites against the Texas Rangers. For how bad the Brewers have been, the Rangers have been just as bad against southpaws. They come into Monday striking out 26% of the time with a 66 wRC+ as a team. This is one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, and he finally put it all together in his last start. He is my preferred SP2 on DraftKings, and there is a legitimate case to be made for him over Bauer on FanDuel.
Casey Mize- This is a really strong pitching slate, and while I am fully in and overweight on Bauer/Luzardo there is a case to be made for Casey Mize in tournaments. He comes at $1,000 discount off Luzardo on DK against the Chicago Cubs, and will be minimally owned. The Cubs offense is good on paper, but they have been asleep for the last week and strike out almost 29% of the time vs righties this season. Any team that has yet to see Mize will struggle, and even though he will probably only throw around 80 pitches, we aren’t being asked to pay for his ceiling.
Building Blocks
David Peralta- The Diamondbacks are in the best spot of the night up against Ryan Castellani. He was able to troll his way to two productive outings after being called up, but the regression hit hard when he allowed five earned runs to the Astros last week. He has given up over 60% hard hits to left-handed batters, which has me interested in Peralta. He is one of the best hitters on this Arizona team vs right-handed pitching, with solid hard-contact, line drives and a .199 ISO. He’s too cheap on both sites and will be the first player in my main lineup.
Matt Davidson- I don’t like taking guys against Milwaukee normally seeing as their bullpen is really good…but I can’t avoid Davidson’s price. The last time we saw him for a full-season he posted a .211 ISO and a .373 wOBA vs left-handed pitching. He has followed that up with 60% hard-contact in the split this season. His opponent, Brett Anderson, can troll with ground balls but Davidson has the power to beat him. He also has limited swing and miss ability, which is a big bonus for Davidson who has issues with strikeouts.
Overall, this is a very straightforward slate. The Diamondbacks and Astros are clearly in the best spots and I will be stacking them on my main team on both sites. Outside of them, I like the Tigers and Twins for lower-owned stacks in GPPs. MY favorite one-offs would be Davidson, Max Kepler and Mike Trout/Anthony Rendon.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
