Welcome in to Ben’s MLB DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite MLB DFS plays for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my daily betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
Pitcher
Welcome into another season of Ben’s MLB Building Blocks! I believe this is my seventh season providing MLB DFS content and I couldn’t be more excited to have baseball back. Let’s dive into our Friday starters…
- Tyler Glasnow
- Seth Lugo
- Sonny Gray
- Frankie Montas
- Luis Gil
This is my list in order of pitchers today.
Glasnow is far and away the top pitcher on this slate and I don’t really need to break that down. He’s been in prime form with the Dodgers this season, and will be tough to beat for the Cy Young award if he stays healthy for the full season. He’s striking out over 32% of batters and has pitched to a sub-2.00 xERA…play him.
After Glasnow is there is gets interesting because there really is no other stand-out option. Sonny Gray looks like a lock to be high-owned in a plus spot against the A’s, but he is said to be limited to 75 pitches. If that number is accurate, he’s going to have to be highly efficient in his innings and for that reason I’m more inclined to fade at high-own% than play him. Lugo looks like the best bet for me against the Chicago White Sox. This team has been dreadful — and their projected lineup owns just a .280 wOBA vs RHP since the start of last season. He is my cash game SP2 on Monday.
If you are looking for GPP-winning upside — Montas and Gil are the two in consideration for me. Montas matches up with the Mariners who have been striking out at will to begin the season. While Gil has huge strikeout upside, but that comes with huge control issues. Gil is your prototypical boom/bust GPP SP2 while Montas can be used in all formats on both sites.
Building Blocks
Yordan Alvarez
Alvarez checks in as my top-overall bat tonight against Darius Vines. Atlanta never expected Spencer Strider to go down so quickly, and they’re scrambling a bit to replace him. Vines has upside, but doesn’t appear to be fully ready for major league workload and navigating the Astros lineup is going to be a tough test. Alvarez has been on fire to start the season – he ranks 1st overall in xwOBA, and is top-15 in both barrels/PA and average exit velocity as well. Houston has one of the highest team totals on Monday night’s slate, and Alvarez can be used in all formats even as a one-off.
Rowdy Tellez + Jack Suwinski
Pittsburgh has been a pleasant surprise this season, sitting at 11-5 and tied for the lead in the NL Central with the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers. They’re in another good offensive spot tonight against Adrian Houser. The early results for Houser this season haven’t been great — through his first two starts he’s allowing a career-high 94 average exit velocity and has pitched to an xERA over 6.00. Both of these guys have the platoon advantage over him – and Suwinski in particular matches up really well vs Houser’s most-used pitch (sinker). Tellez looks due for some positive regression based off the advanced metrics, and I like the match-up for both of these guys. They can be used as a mini-stack or in a full stack — given their cheap salaries I don’t hate simply using it as a two-man on Monday.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
