Happy Mother’s Day! Before spending the day with your mom, make sure to set your MLB DFS lineups, as the games begin early. DraftKings’ featured slate begins at 1:35 p.m. ET and includes nine games. FanDuel has a contest with the same set of games to choose from.
Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props
Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (5/10)
- Six qualified pitchers in baseball have a strikeout rate over 30%, and two of them are available on this slate in Jacob deGrom and Gavin Williams. Williams has a slightly better matchup, but DeGrom is simply a better pitcher. The Rangers hurler has a 26% strikeout minus walk rate, to go along with his 3.34 FIP. Williams’ marks are 19.7% and 4.15 in those respective categories.
- It seems like this is finally going to be the time that the Brewers keep Logan Henderson in the Major Leagues. He has made eight starts over the last two seasons, covering 33.1 innings. In those innings, he has a 34.1% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and a 2.47 FIP. The Yankees are a tough matchup, but they do strike out 22.9% of the time.
- Luis Severino has a road game today against the Baltimore Orioles. He continues to pitch considerably better away from Sutter Health Park. This season, his ERA is 4.91 in three home starts. He’s made five road starts in which he has a 3.60 ERA.
Suggested Lineup Stacks
Athletics Projected Lineup (5/10)
Happy Mother’s Day! Before spending the day with your mom, make sure to set your MLB DFS lineups, as the games begin early. DraftKings’ featured slate begins at 1:35 p.m. ET and includes nine games. FanDuel has a contest with the same set of games to choose from.
Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props
Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (5/10)
- Six qualified pitchers in baseball have a strikeout rate over 30%, and two of them are available on this slate in Jacob deGrom and Gavin Williams. Williams has a slightly better matchup, but DeGrom is simply a better pitcher. The Rangers hurler has a 26% strikeout minus walk rate, to go along with his 3.34 FIP. Williams’ marks are 19.7% and 4.15 in those respective categories.
- It seems like this is finally going to be the time that the Brewers keep Logan Henderson in the Major Leagues. He has made eight starts over the last two seasons, covering 33.1 innings. In those innings, he has a 34.1% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and a 2.47 FIP. The Yankees are a tough matchup, but they do strike out 22.9% of the time.
- Luis Severino has a road game today against the Baltimore Orioles. He continues to pitch considerably better away from Sutter Health Park. This season, his ERA is 4.91 in three home starts. He’s made five road starts in which he has a 3.60 ERA.
Suggested Lineup Stacks
Athletics Projected Lineup (5/10)
| POS |
PLAYER |
DraftKings Salary |
FanDuel Salary |
| 1B |
Nick Kurtz |
$5,300 |
$3,400 |
| C |
Shea Langeliers |
$5,400 |
$3,900 |
| OF/1B |
Tyler Soderstrom |
$4,100 |
$3,100 |
| OF |
Brent Rooker |
$4,600 |
$2,900 |
| OF |
Carlos Cortes |
$3,700 |
$2,900 |
| SS |
Jacob Wilson |
$3,600 |
$2,900 |
| OF |
Lawrence Butler |
$3,000 |
$2,600 |
| 3B/OF/2B |
Zack Gelof |
$2,900 |
$2,600 |
| 2B/OF |
Jeff McNeil |
$3,200 |
$2,700 |
- The Athletics face Chris Bassitt today, who has been inconsistent this season. He has four starts with at least four earned runs allowed, but in his other three starts, he has allowed one run or fewer. In total, it equals a 5.91 ERA, with an expected ERA of 5.53 and an FIP of 5.17.
- Shea Langeliers has been on a tear recently. He’s currently riding a 10-game hitting streak with multiple hits in seven of those games. Over the past two weeks, he has posted an OPS of 1.277.
- While Nick Kurtz hasn’t maintained his miraculous home run pace from his rookie season, he is still finding ways to provide value by consistently getting on base. While he hasn’t hit a home run in the past two weeks, all of his five home runs this season have come against right-handed pitchers. Today could be an opportunity for his sixth home run.
- Carlos Cortes had the makings of a career minor leaguer, but now he is showing some interesting metrics in the Majors. He has an expected batting average in the 99th percentile, but it’s not without power either. That comes with an 11.8% barrel rate and 11 extra-base hits this season. Nine of his 11 extra-base hits, including all four of his home runs, have come against right-handed pitchers.
Houston Astros Projected Lineup (5/10)
| POS |
PLAYER |
DraftKings Salary |
FanDuel Salary |
| 2B/OF |
Jose Altuve |
$4,400 |
$3,000 |
| OF |
Yordan Alvarez |
$6,200 |
$4,300 |
| 3B |
Isaac Paredes |
$3,700 |
$2,900 |
| 1B |
Christian Walker |
$4,000 |
$3,800 |
| OF |
Cam Smith |
$3,200 |
$2,900 |
| OF/SS/2B |
Brice Matthews |
$2,900 |
$2,500 |
| OF/1B |
Zach Dezenzo |
$2,000 |
$2,600 |
| C |
Christian Vazquez |
$3,300 |
$2,900 |
| SS/2B/3B |
Nick Allen |
$2,200 |
$2,300 |
- Left-handed pitcher Andrew Abbott has a matchup today against the Houston Astros. The Astros have a top-10 OPS against lefties this season. Abbott’s strikeout rate has dropped to a career-worst rate, while his walk rate has risen to a career-worst rate. His strikeout minus walk rate is an abysmal 4.9%, which is second-worst in baseball among qualified starters.
- You have to play Yordan Alvarez, even against a left-handed pitcher. He has eight extra-base hits off lefties, including six home runs. He leads baseball in both expected batting average and expected slugging rate.
- This looks like the best version of 35-year-old Christian Walker that we have ever seen. He’s currently posting career-best marks in batting average, on-base percentage (OBP), slugging rate, barrel rate and hard-hit rate.
- Brice Matthews is getting his opportunity to play. The strikeouts are a problem, ranking last in whiff rate (39.5%) and strikeout rate (36%). When he does make contact, though, good things happen. Nine of his 18 hits have gone for extra bases. Four of those extra-base hits have been home runs, with two of those home runs coming against left-handed pitchers.
Core Studs
- The way Mike Trout is playing, you can consider him any time. Today, he has a matchup against left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer. Trout has a .974 OPS against lefties.
- Jackson Chourio‘s matchup today is against left-hander Carlos Rodon, who will be making his season debut. Chourio has only had four at-bats this season against lefties, as he was recovering from his own injury. Last season, Chourio had a .973 OPS against left-handed pitchers.
- Kazuma Okamoto faces Jose Soriano. After a white-hot start to the season, Soriano has allowed 14 hits and four home runs in his last nine innings. Meanwhile, Okamoto is settling in, with seven home runs in his last 15 games.
Value Plays/Punts
- It’s usually a good idea to avoid batters against Jacob deGrom. Dansby Swanson has a decent enough track record against deGrom to consider him for your fantasy team — three doubles and a pair of home runs.
- Evan Carter is unplayable against left-handed pitchers, but this matchup is against right-handed pitcher Jameson Taillon. Taillon has a fly-ball rate of 51.8%, which means that home runs are always in play. Carter is hitting 54% of his balls in the air. Put those together, and that’s plenty of opportunities for home runs.
- Josh Naylor‘s price will soon return to the way he has been performing. Over the past two weeks, he has two home runs, five stolen bases and an .875 OPS.
Sunday’s Top 3 Underdog Player Props
Check out our best picks on the MLB Underdog Cheat Sheet 
Sandy Alcantara started the season by easily clearing 18.5 pitching outs. The fewest outs he made in his first three starts were 21.
Since then, he has started five more games. He has yet to record more than 18 outs in any of those five starts. Today, he has a matchup against a pesky Washington Nationals offense.
Yesterday’s game between the Rays and Red Sox was canceled due to the weather. Therefore, we are going back-to-back days with the same player prop recommendation.
Tolle recorded 11 strikeouts in his first game in the Major Leagues. In his most recent start, he had eight strikeouts. In between, he had a game against Toronto where he struck out only four batters. Tampa Bay can be difficult to strike out, but Tolle’s stuff can get him to record at least five strikeouts.
Kai-Wei Teng has pitched in 14 games this season. He has struck out three batters in two of those appearances. Today will be the second time this season that he has started a game. He went three innings with two strikeouts in his first start.
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