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
Zac Gallen- Gallen is my preferred spend up at pitcher tonight, which is surprising considering it’s a Max Scherzer slate. I haven’t liked the form I’ve seen from Mad Max this season, he is still elite when it comes to strikeouts but some of the other numbers are alarming. Gallen is cheaper, and I expect him to be much sharper than he was five days ago. He pitched against this Giants team in his last start, and salvaged 19 DraftKings points after a nightmare first inning. You could tell from the first batter that Gallen had no feel for his pitches, and he ended up walking the bases loaded with no outs. He got out of that jam and went on to allow just one run over six innings. That was about the worst possible start he could have, and he still almost hit 20 DK points! He has pitched exceptionally well this season striking out almost 30% of batters faced. I will be locking him into my SP1 spot in cash games on Friday night.
Sixto Sanchez- People may not know who Sixto Sanchez is yet, but that shouldn’t stop us from using him tonight at his price. I’m not going to pretend he is a safe option in his second ever MLB start, but the fact is that DK just didn’t price him accordingly. He looked really sharp in his first start last week, regularly painting 100 on the corner and generating 50% whiffs with his slider. This Rays lineup is solid, but there are still strikeouts to be had here and I will definitely consider him in cash games at this cheap of a price.
The other option I really like today is Corbin Burnes up against the Pittsburgh Pirates. I’ve talked in recent weeks about how bad this team is against right-handed pitching and they literally just got no-hit by Lucas Giolito! Burnes is really, really good in my opinion and the strike out stuff has been there so far in 2020. I’m planning on locking him into my cash game build on FanDuel and will attempt to fit him in on DK if possible.
Building Blocks
Avisail Garcia- Not only do I like Corbin Burnes, but the Milwaukee Brewers are my favorite stack tonight as well. Derek Holland’s favorite hobby is throwing beach balls to right-handed batters, and that has continued in 2020. He is allowing a massive .328 ISO with over 50% hard-contact in the split this season. Garcia has perennially hit lefties really well, and has 37% hard hits this season to go along with 25% line drives.
Ryan O’Hearn- If you’re looking to fit in some expensive bats on Friday night, O’Hearn can be used as a cheap source of power batting cleanup. The overall numbers don’t jump off the page, but he does lead this team in hard-contact rate against righties at 55% in 2020. Reynaldo Lopez has surrendered a .370 wOBA and .200+ ISO to left-handed batters over the last two seasons.
There is weather to monitor across the country, so be sure the game you are targeting is good-to-go prior to lock!
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
