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
Trevor Bauer- Bauer is the clear SP1 on this slate, and draws another strikeout-friendly matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers. I’m fully on board with him having his best season as a pro in Cincy with his Driveline Baseball buddies, but we also have to keep in mind he’s faced the Tigers twice. That being said, the Brew Crew haven’t been much better in 2020. Through the first three weeks, they rank just one spot ahead of Detroit in wRC+ and are striking out 27% of the time. They have some lefty-power that can get to Bauer, but overall nothing you really fear outside of Christian Yelich. He’s really expensive on FanDuel which makes him a tougher sell in cash games there, but on DK I am locking him in.
Griffin Canning (FD)- DK is very straightforward for me tonight with “CyKuchi” at only $5,000, but on FanDuel we have some decisions to make. It’s tough for me to spend up on anyone that’s not Jacob deGrom or Gerrit Cole at $11,000…so Bauer might not make the cut for me there. The next guy that catches my eye is Griffin Canning against the Rangers, all the way down at $7,200. Canning has legit strikeout ability and has generated over 13% swinging strikes since the start of 2019. He’s projected to see six righties tonight, which he struck out at a 26% clip last season. Of the projected Rangers starters, only one (Gallo) owns an ISO above .160 against sliders…a pitch that Canning uses over 35% of the time.
Yusei Kikuchi- And now we get to the man, the myth, the legend…CyKuchi. I was all-in on him in his last start citing his stark rise in velocity. He responded with nine strikeouts in six innings, yet DK clearly forgot to raise his price. He has another positive matchup tonight against the Rockies who are notoriously bad on the road. They do have some guys in Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Matt Kemp than kill lefties, so it’s far from a safe matchup. That being said, it shouldn’t matter much at his price and I will always take the savings in a cash game build.
Building Blocks
Corey Seager- Seager is someone I’ve been riding all season, and that won’t stop tonight against Jeff Samardzija. Aside from the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers are clearly in the best spot tonight as a full-stack. Since the start of 2019, Shark has allowed a .219 ISO with sun-30% ground balls to left-handed batters…not good. Usually we focus on Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy from this team. Those guys are great plays as well, but Seager in particular peaks my interest. He’s been seeing the ball better than he ever has, and it shows in his early statcast data. He’s first overall in barrels per plate appearance, and top-six in average exit velocity as well.
Shohei Ohtani- I originally had Nelson Cruz in this spot, with him out of the lineup we can look at Ohtani. Jordan Lyles has always struggled with left-handed batters, and that continued in 2019 allowing over a .260 ISO in the split. Despite hurting his pitching arm, Ohtani has still been smashing homeruns like everything is normal. To go along with his massive power against righties, he’s 5th in the MLB in barrels per plate appearance. He’s clearly been seeing the ball well, and having one good arm isn’t going to slow this man down! He’s too cheap on all sites.
Rowdy Tellez- We’ll finish up with one of my favorites from season’s past…let’s get rowdy! Tellez is locked into the cleanup spot for the Blue jays today against Ryan Weber. Yes, the same Ryan Weber who hasn’t struck out a batter this season and allowed two homeruns in each start. He’s thrown a sinker over 30% of the time to left-handed batters this season, a pitch that Tellez owns over a .300 ISO against. This is the top value play on both sites for me.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
