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
Yu Darvish (FD) / Mike Clevinger (DK)- This is a fairly easy pitching slate, with two names clearly dominating the top in Yu Darvish and Mike Clevinger. Of the two, Darvish is by far my favorite arm of the day, but on DraftKings Clevinger comes at a steep discount. Darvish has carried over his strong control from late 2019, and generated 18% swinging strikes this season alone. If Kyle Hendricks was chalk against this Royals offense last night, I can’t wait to see what Darvish does to them tonight.
I think right now Darvish is in better form than Sunshine, but that doesn’t mean he is bad. Even including a tough matchup with the Twins in his last start he has struck out 24% of batters in 2020. I think the Reds are a good offense, but there’s not as much power there as you might think. Clev throws his slider 50% of the time to right-handed batters, and only Eugenio Suarez owns an ISO above .200 against the pitch. If I’m choosing one, it’s Darvish, but on DK I will likely take the savings in cash games.
Ross Stripling- It looks like both Julio Teheran and Sean Newcomb are going to log heavy ownership as SP2’s on DraftKings. This makes me happy, as I think they are horrible plays as chalk and will be avoiding both entirely. If I’m not looking at them, I need someone in the mid-tier and that is Ross Stripling aka the stripper. Stripling has always been an above-average pitcher that’s been held back by pitch count limitations. That hasn’t been the case in 2020 with him logging 92 and 86 pitches in his first two starts. This Padres lineup is good and full of power, but they still project to strike out almost a quarter of the time. I also think you can look at Adrian Houser at $8,100. I prefer both to Teheran and Newcomb at their projected ownership.
Sean Manaea (FD)- Manaea checks the box as “too cheap” on FanDuel priced at $6,800 against the Texas Rangers. I used Jesus Luzardo in this exact spot last night, and Manaea is another guy that can rack up K’s in a hurry. He gets the benefit of Bill Miller umping, Miller is notoriously the most strikeout-friendly umpire in the league. This Rangers offense is projected to strike out over 24% of the time against left-handed batters, and now is a good time to buy Manaea at that price tag.
Building Blocks
Eddie Rosario- The Twins implied run total has been rising all day, finally settling around 5.4 runs against Trevor Williams. We don’t like that this game is in PNC park, but we do like his matchup with Trevor Williams. Over the last two seasons (2019-20) Williams has coughed up a .394 wOBA and a .220 ISO to left-handed batters. This park is known to suppress left-handed power, but the Twins are also the most powerful team in the league and the wind is *slightly* blowing out to center. Regardless, he’s batting cleanup for one of the best stacks on the slate and is an easy fit in for cash builds.
Willson Contreras- I’m hoping to get up to Darvish on FanDuel, which means I will need some savings throughout my lineup. Contreras fits that mold below $3,000. He’s been seeing the ball extremely well this season, and that shows in the statcast data. He’s second on the team in barrels per plate appearance, second in average exit velocity and first in 95+ mph hit balls. He owns a .300+ ISO vs left-handed pitching over the last two seasons and is up against a youngster in Kris Bubic. Bubic is one of the Royals best pitching prospects, but it’s not unreasonable to expect him to struggle early after jumping all the way from sing;e A to the major leagues. I like Contreras in all formats on both sites.
Note: It’s another Coors Field slate, so I will be prioritizing that game in my optimal builds. The Rockies are my preferred side up against a reverse-splits righty in Logan Webb. This makes Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado my top plays from the game, while Brandon Belt is too cheap on DK.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
