After yesterday’s smaller-than-typical weekend MLB DFS slate of six games, we’re back to the normal large slates today. It’s also a very left-handed slate with 10 of the 18 starting pitchers being left-handed. DraftKings’ featured slate for the day includes nine games that begin at 1:35 p.m. ET. The FanDuel slate includes two additional games, but we’ll focus on the nine games that crossover with today’s MLB DFS picks.
Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props
Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (4/19)
- The only qualified pitcher with a higher strikeout rate than Jacob Misiorowski is, surprisingly, Shota Imanaga. Misiorowski is striking out 37.5% of the batters he has faced. On the season, Miami has struck out at a 21% rate, but over the past week, that has spiked to 24%.
- It’s been an odd start to the season for Cole Ragans. He struggled in his first start but dominated in his second. His third start was brief as he exited with an injury. While he didn’t allow an earned run in his fourth start, he only struck out one batter in six innings. It means we’re getting just a bit of a discount on him. The strikeouts should return in a matchup against the Yankees, who are striking out 27% of the time against left-handed pitchers.
- Joey Cantillo is the cheapest option that interests me today. His strikeout rate is currently at a career-best 29.6%. Unfortunately, it comes with a career-worst walk rate of 11.1%. His matchup is against the Orioles, who are striking out 24% of the time against left-handed pitchers.
Suggested Lineup Stacks
San Francisco Giants Projected Lineup (4/19)
After yesterday’s smaller-than-typical weekend MLB DFS slate of six games, we’re back to the normal large slates today. It’s also a very left-handed slate with 10 of the 18 starting pitchers being left-handed. DraftKings’ featured slate for the day includes nine games that begin at 1:35 p.m. ET. The FanDuel slate includes two additional games, but we’ll focus on the nine games that crossover with today’s MLB DFS picks.
Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props
Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (4/19)
- The only qualified pitcher with a higher strikeout rate than Jacob Misiorowski is, surprisingly, Shota Imanaga. Misiorowski is striking out 37.5% of the batters he has faced. On the season, Miami has struck out at a 21% rate, but over the past week, that has spiked to 24%.
- It’s been an odd start to the season for Cole Ragans. He struggled in his first start but dominated in his second. His third start was brief as he exited with an injury. While he didn’t allow an earned run in his fourth start, he only struck out one batter in six innings. It means we’re getting just a bit of a discount on him. The strikeouts should return in a matchup against the Yankees, who are striking out 27% of the time against left-handed pitchers.
- Joey Cantillo is the cheapest option that interests me today. His strikeout rate is currently at a career-best 29.6%. Unfortunately, it comes with a career-worst walk rate of 11.1%. His matchup is against the Orioles, who are striking out 24% of the time against left-handed pitchers.
Suggested Lineup Stacks
San Francisco Giants Projected Lineup (4/19)
| POS |
PLAYER |
DraftKings Salary |
FanDuel Salary |
| SS |
Willy Adames |
$4,400 |
$2,900 |
| 2B/1B |
Luis Arraez |
$4,200 |
$2,800 |
| 3B |
Matt Chapman |
$4,500 |
$2,900 |
| 1B |
Rafael Devers |
$5,300 |
$2,800 |
| 1B/2B/SS/3B |
Casey Schmitt |
$3,300 |
$2,900 |
| OF |
Jung Hoo Lee |
$3,500 |
$2,600 |
| OF |
Heliot Ramos |
$3,100 |
$2,500 |
| OF |
Drew Gilbert |
$2,100 |
$2,000 |
| C |
Patrick Bailey |
$2,200 |
$2,300 |
- Washington Nationals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas has an 11.49 ERA. While his indicators show that he hasn’t been that bad, they’re still not encouraging. His expected ERA is 6.24 and his FIP is 8.45. The Giants’ offense has been inconsistent this season, but a matchup with Mikolas could turn it around.
- Willy Adames is off to a good start. He is hitting .269 with an .834 OPS thanks to a league-leading 10 doubles. Based on his spray chart, at least four of those doubles could have been home runs. That would have added to the three home runs he already has.
- Casey Schmitt has a 52.8% hard-hit rate early in the season. That has led to seven of his 17 hits going for extra bases, including a pair of home runs. His pull-air rate is 27.8%, showing he has optimized his swing for power.
- One of the hitters who hasn’t performed early in the season is Rafael Devers. He has only two home runs with a .578 OPS. Considering he has had an OPS over .850 the past five seasons, that will change, possibly as soon as today. Devers has gone 5-for-7 against Mikolas in his career with a home run. His price on FanDuel is very affordable.
Chicago Cubs Projected Lineup (4/19)
| POS |
PLAYER |
DraftKings Salary |
FanDuel Salary |
| 2B/SS |
Nico Hoerner |
$4,800 |
$3,700 |
| 3B |
Alex Bregman |
$4,200 |
$2,900 |
| OF |
Seiya Suzuki |
$4,300 |
$2,900 |
| OF |
Ian Happ |
$4,000 |
$3,300 |
| C |
Carson Kelly |
$3,300 |
$2,800 |
| SS |
Dansby Swanson |
$3,500 |
$3,300 |
| C |
Miguel Amaya |
$3,700 |
$2,900 |
| OF |
Pete Crow-Armstrong |
$5,400 |
$2,900 |
| OF/3B |
Matt Shaw |
$2,600 |
$2,600 |
- Choosing which offense to target in this game was a tough decision, as both could be successful. The Cubs have a matchup against lefty David Peterson. The Cubs are a top-five offense against left-handed pitchers by OPS. Peterson has an ERA of 6.41 and an expected ERA of nearly 5.00.
- Alex Bregman is still trying to acclimate to life in Chicago. On the season, he is hitting only .241 with a .315 on-base percentage (OBP), but it’s improving, as he has hits in seven straight games. In his extensive career against left-handed pitchers, he has an OPS of .856.
- Carson Kelly has an elite-looking Statcast page. He’s in the top three percentiles in both average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. It’s helped him to accumulate four extra-base hits already this season, with his only home run coming off a left-handed pitcher.
- Matt Shaw may never deliver on the promise of being a top prospect, but he is delivering against left-handed pitchers. His career OPS against left-handed pitchers is .829, which is nearly 200 points higher than his OPS against right-handed pitchers.
Core Studs
- Byron Buxton has a 16% barrel rate this season. His launch angle is a bit too high right now at nearly 30 degrees. That could start regressing today back to normal with his matchup against Brady Singer. Buxton has gone 7-for-18 against Singer with two doubles and two home runs.
- Maikel Garcia has a matchup against left-handed pitcher Ryan Weathers. Garcia has always been more of a threat to hit for power against left-handed pitchers, with a career OPS of .800 against them.
- Ivan Herrera has a 51% hard-hit rate. That doesn’t mesh with his .348 slugging rate to this point. His expected slugging rate is .493, which makes much more sense with a hard-hit rate like that. His matchup is against Mike Burrows, who is giving up fly balls 70% of the time.
Value Plays/Punts
- Rhys Hoskins is quite familiar with Trevor Rogers from their time together in the National League East. Hoskins has gone 9-for-21 against Rogers in his career with two doubles and four home runs.
- Sometimes you need to just ride a hot hand like Jeremiah Jackson until it stops. In the last week, he’s tied with Mike Trout and Aaron Judge for the league lead with five home runs.
- If you go off the FanGraphs leaderboard for hard-hit rate among qualified batters, only Max Muncy of the Dodgers has a harder hit rate than Colt Keith. Keith has a 55.6% hard-hit rate but has yet to hit a home run. Instead, he has seven doubles. He does have a difficult matchup against Garrett Crochet, who is coming off the worst start of his career.
Sunday’s Top 3 Underdog Player Props
MacKenzie Gore finished his last start with only five strikeouts. Before that, he had struck out at least seven batters in his first three starts of the season.
One of those starts was against the Seattle Mariners when he struck out nine batters. That’s his matchup again today. The Mariners are the fourth-most strikeout-prone team this season.
Roki Sasaki has made three starts this season. In his longest outing, he recorded 15 outs. April 26th, 2025, was the last time Sasaki recorded over 15 outs in a start.
This will be the first start of Sasaki’s career at Coors Field, which would make it quite surprising for him to find success.
It’s a similar story for Jacob Misiorowski to MacKenzie Gore. Misiorowski finished his last start with only five strikeouts. Before that, he had struck out at least seven batters in his first three starts.
After he came out of his last start at only 76 pitches, it was announced that Misiorowski did that while pitching with a stomach illness. He should throw over 90 pitches in this start, which will help him strike out at least seven Marlins.
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