Welcome to our new MLB DFS article for this season. In this article, we are going to give you our Core Four Players for FanDuel & DraftKings contests. These players are the players we are going to have the most exposure to on each of the sits. Let’s jump right into today’s article.
I am going to stick with the same format that I used yesterday and once again focus on ownership and GPPs for this article. If you are looking for cash game plays make sure to check out all of the other great articles that we post on FantasyCruncher on a daily basis.
Top Pitcher
Merrill Kelly
I am on record of saying that I think the Nationals are a great stack tonight as I believe that Kelly is due for regression a lot sooner than later. With that being said with Kelly only having projected ownership of 2.2% tonight I am going to have plenty of shares of Kelly just in case he can keep up his hot start to the season. For those of you who may have not have read the stacking article today, Kelly has thrown 9.1 shutout innings with 13 strikeouts to start the season. Kelly is not only smoking hot right now but as I mentioned in the stacking article the Nationals are actually a really damn good match-up for right-handed pitchers as they rank in the bottom ten in team ISO, team wOBA, team OPS, and team wRC+ against them this season.
Stud Hitter
Andrew Benintendi
Benintendi is expected to have ownership levels in the single digits tonight and while I kind of get why as he is not a big name player I also don’t get why as he is really good. Benintendi has reached base safely in all but two games this year and has multiple hits in four of them including in two straight games. I also like the match-up for Benintendi as he takes on Chris Paddack. After a successful rookie season, Paddack has struggled. Since his rookie year, Paddack has an ERA of 4.99, an HR/9 rate of 1.5 and is allowing hitters to have a wBOA of .328.
Value Hitter
Seth Beer
Beer has not had many huge games this season outside of the season opener but he has been consistent with at least a hit in six of his seven starts. The consistency is what I love about Beer but I also believe he has upside as Beer does have power as he constantly showed in the minors. Beer’s Statcast numbers also show that he should have left the yard more than once this season as he has an average exit velocity of 92.1 miles-per-hour with an average launch angle of 20.4 degrees. I especially like Beer in this match-up against Erick Fedde as Fedde has struggled throughout his career against left-handed hitting. Left-handers are slashing .287/.354/.471 with a .350 wOBA and a 1.51 HR/9 rate against Fedde in his career.
Top Stack
Washington Nationals
I know I talked about in this article how Merrill Kelly makes for a top GPP play on this slate. If you remember I also said that I really like the Nationals tonight and wrote them up in the Stacking Article today. I am not going to add to anything I said in that article so make sure you check it out. You can find a link to that article below.
Daily MLB DFS Stacking Strategies for FanDuel & DraftKings – April 20, 2022 (4/20/22)
