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 Wednesday starters…
- Shota Imanaga
- Roddery Munoz
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto
- Corbin Burnes
- Andrew Heaney
This is my list in order of pitchers today.
We have much better value options tonight, to go along with several fantasy aces making for a fantastic DFS pitching slate.
Imanaga is my number one option on this slate, and he’s been nothing short of fantastic for the Cubs. He hasn’t shown that elite strikeout level yet, but 25-26% will certainly do when it comes with elite run prevention and control.
Yamamoto has been given a bad rep from some people – his ERA and xERA sit in the mid-3.00 range and he’s striking out over 31% of batters faced. He can be used in all formats tonight, as an SP1 or in a double-spend up build.
I prefer both Imanaga and Yamamoto to Corbin Burnes, though I expect Burnes to be the highest-owned pitcher on the slate. I’m fine getting different tonight.
If you want to save money at SP2, Munoz sticks out as my top option. I’m not sure what the big-league ability of Munoz will be quite yet, but any pitcher facing the Rockies — especially away from Coors Field — has my interest. He’s priced below $7K on DK and can be used in all formats at that price.
Building Blocks
Yordan Alvarez
Alvarez and the Astros offense has been raking since heading to Mexico City over the weekend, and they’re in another strong spot tonight. It’s clear that Triston McKenzie is not healthy, and that guy with ace-level upside we’ve seen in the past. His walk rate and strikeout rate are nearly identical at 17% and he’s allowing a career-high wOBA (.339). Alvarez has been on fire as of late and ranks top-ten in all of baseball in barrels/PA. He matches up well vs McKenzie’s pitch mix, and I have serious concerns about him going up against this Astros offense. Houston is one of the top stacks on the board tonight — with Yordan being my top-overall hitter on the slate.
Nick Senzel
Senzel is a former top prospect for the Reds, and he’s started to hit his stride for the Nationals. He has five homeruns over his last seven games – and leads the team in both hard-hit rate and fly-ball rate over the last 14 days. He clearly has the best numbers on the team against left-handed pitching and he isn’t priced accordingly to account for this recent power surge. He’s my favorite value play on the Wednesday slate.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
