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.
Pitchers
Gerrit Cole- After a disastrous pitching slate on Sunday, we are awarded three aces on Monday in Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom and Walker Buehler. Despite all three being top-five or ten pitchers in the MLB, Cole is the easy selection for me in cash games. Not only does he possess the highest strikeout upside, but the Phillies should come into this game extremely cold. Philadelphia is one of the teams that were shut down for over a week due to COVID after playing their opening series against Miami. It’s unclear how much, if at all, they were able to practice over the last week. Imagine you first game in a week being against Gerrit Cole? Sheesh. Furthermore, Cole features a nasty slider that he uses to generate a 42% whiff rate. There’s not a single batter in the Phillies projected lineup with an ISO over .200 against right-handed sliders.
Frankie Montas- I’m actually a big fan of Montas in real-life, but the results for DFS have been lackluster this season. He made some mechanical changes in the offseason, and as of now, it’s come at the expense of some control. That being said, he draws one of the best matchups on the slate against the Seattle Mariners. Montas will be no secret at his price on Monday night, and there’s a good chance he is the highest-owned pitcher on the slate. Due to ownership, I will be taking the approach of playing him in cash games and fading in GPPs. This Mariners lineup has a projected 26% strikeout rate against righties, and there is a pitcher-friendly umpire behind the plate.
Alec Mills- Mills is my favorite pivot off of Montas on DraftKings, and I think he can be used in all formats at his price on FanDuel. Between 2019-2020 he owns a solid 3.93 xFIP with 26% strikeouts. He’s very splitsy thus far, struggling with lefties, but that might not matter against the Royals. They are projected to send six lefties to the plate tonight, but only two of them have wOBA’s projected above .305 against right-handed pitching — and they are both sub .330. There are also a lot of strikeouts in this lineup, especially towards the bottom. It’s a cool night in Chicago, and it looks the wind will be blowing in, in Wrigley to boost him further up my board.
Building Blocks
Nelson Cruz + Mitch Garver- The Twins are in one of the top spots tonight against Derek Holland. Holland did not look bad at all in his first start, the problem is he leans heavily on fly balls and that spells disaster against this powerful Twins offense. Both Cruz and Garver absolutely destroy left-handed pitching, and both happen to be extremely affordable. Holland throws his sinker over 50% of the time to righty bats, a pitch that both of these guys boast .500+ xwOBA’s against with plenty of pop.
Luis Robert- Robert should be locked into the leadoff spot again for the White Sox, this time against Brett Anderson who struggles with right-handed batters. Anderson allows 44% hard contact to righties, and Robert comes in second on the team in barrels per plate appearance. He also already has 11 balls hit 95+ mph off the bat. This is one of the top prospects in all of baseball, and he showed his upside on Saturday night. He’s still too cheap on all sites and can be used in optimal builds to fit in Gerrit Cole.
Given that it’s a Coors Field slate, I will be trying to get as much exposure there as I can while still rostering Cole as my SP1. Names like Daniel Murphy and Alex Dickerson (FanDuel) stick out. While my top bats in that game are Charlie Blackmon and David Dahl.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
