Corey Pieper | Sun, May 17th 2026, 9:20am EDT

MLB DFS Picks & Underdog Player Props: Sunday (5/17)

As is typical with most Sundays, we get a large early MLB DFS slate to choose from. DraftKings’ slate begins at 1:35 p.m. ET and includes 10 games. FanDuel has the same slate available for comparison.

Sunday’s Top MLB DFS Picks & Player Props

Sunday’s Starting Pitcher Rankings (5/17)

PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
Paul Skenes	$10,300	$10,800
Andre Pallante	$6,500	$7,300

The premier pitching matchup of the day sees Paul Skenes versus Zack Wheeler. Playing Skenes is going to mean being a bit thrifty on your hitting choices, but he can deliver on the expensive price tag. If you remove the shocking Opening Day start, he has a 1.09 ERA with 55 strikeouts to only five walks. Skenes leads baseball in expected ERA at a minuscule 1.86.
Andre Pallante is a groundball pitcher. His groundball rate is down a bit, but 54.6% is still a top-10 mark in baseball if you drop the qualification to 40 innings. Trusting a groundball pitcher is always a bit difficult because so much depends on where the ball is hit. A high-end outcome is still possible, as evidenced by him already having four starts of at least 17 points on DraftKings/30 points on FanDuel.

Suggested Lineup Stacks

St. Louis Cardinals Projected Lineup (5/17)

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
2B/SS	JJ Wetherholt	$4,800	$3,400
C	Ivan Herrera	$4,000	$3,200
1B/OF	Alec Burleson	$4,500	$3,300
OF	Jordan Walker	$5,300	$4,100
3B/2B	Nolan Gorman	$3,100	$2,600
SS	Masyn Winn	$3,300	$2,700
OF	Nathan Church	$3,000	$2,600
C	Pedro Pages	$2,700	$2,500
OF	Victor Scott II	$2,000	$2,300

The St. Louis Cardinals are facing the Kansas City Royals today. The Royals have decided to use Stephen Kolek as the starting pitcher in this game. Kolek has made two starts with a 6.75 ERA and only a slightly better 5.92 FIP. The Cardinals have been a top-10 offense against right-handed pitchers this season by wRC+.
Jordan Walker has found his home run streak again. After his home run barrage in early April (eight homers from April 4th to April 13th), he hit only two home runs in a 22-game stretch from April 14th to May 9th. In his last five games, he has two doubles and three more home runs.
Alec Burleson has been the best version of himself so far in 2026. His barrel rate, hard-hit rate and expected slugging are all at all-time bests. He’s been especially impressive against right-handed pitchers with an .895 OPS against them.
Nolan Gorman has a wide range of outcomes due to whiff issues combined with power. He has nearly a 10% barrel rate and 47% hard-hit rate on the positives. The negatives are the 35% whiff rate, which leads to a strikeout rate of 27%. At his price point, he’s not a bad risk worth taking.

Toronto Blue Jays Projected Lineup (5/17)

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
OF	George Springer	$4,200	$2,600
OF	Yohendrick Pinango	$2,700	$2,200
1B	Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	$4,800	$2,900
3B	Kazuma Okamoto	$4,000	$3,000
OF	Daulton Varsho	$3,600	$2,700
OF	Jesus Sanchez	$3,000	$2,600
2B/SS/3B/1B	Ernie Clement	$3,200	$2,700
2B/SS	Andres Gimenez	$3,100	$2,700
C	Brandon Valenzuela	$2,800	$2,200

Jack Flaherty is the starting pitcher for the Detroit Tigers against the Toronto Blue Jays today. Flaherty has struggled with too many runners on base against him. He has allowed 36 hits and issued 29 walks in only 37.2 innings. That has led to a 5.73 ERA and 1.73 WHIP. While his ERA indicators are slightly better, they are still over five.
It took Kazuma Okamoto a bit to get acclimated to Major League pitching, but he has seemed to find his footing recently. In his last 25 games, he has had 12 extra-base hits, including eight home runs.
Jesus Sanchez has cut his strikeout rate to a new career-best at 19%. As you’d expect, his expected batting average has also climbed to a new career-best. While he has traded a bit of power for that contact, he still has a perfectly fine 45% hard-hit rate. Sanchez could be the type of batter who takes advantage of this matchup with a lot of RBI.
Brandon Valenzuela is one of the cheapest options you can find in the Blue Jays’ lineup. At his modest cost, he comes with a bit of intrigue. He doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify, but in his smaller sample, Valenzuela has an 11% barrel rate and a 42% hard-hit rate. That has translated into actual production, too, as he already has four home runs in only 65 at-bats.

Core Studs

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
2B/OF	Jose Altuve	$4,000	$2,900
1B	Pete Alonso	$5,700	$3,300
OF	Kyle Schwarber	$6,200	$4,200

The expectation is that the Houston Astros will face Nathan Eovaldi today. It is important to note that Eovaldi was scratched from his first start this week. If Eovaldi does start, he will know when Jose Altuve is at the plate. Altuve has gone 16-for-42 against Eovaldi in his career with seven home runs.
The Baltimore Orioles were strongly considered for an offense to stack against Miles Mikolas. Pete Alonso continues to hit the ball as hard as anyone, with top-five percentile marks in both average exit velocity and hard-hit rate.
It’s tough to recommend anyone against Paul Skenes, but how can you not mention the run that Kyle Schwarber has been on? His current stretch of nine home runs in his past nine games has boosted him back to the top of the National League home run leaderboard. It only takes one swing for him to connect, even against a pitcher of Skenes’ caliber.

Value Plays/Punts

POS	PLAYER	DraftKings Salary	FanDuel Salary
3B	Alex Bregman	$3,800	$2,800
OF	Evan Carter	$3,400	$2,700
2B/SS	Matt McLain	$3,100	$2,700

Alex Bregman has hits in nine of his last 10 games. During that span, he has only one home run and one double, but those should start coming. He’s a player with a decade-long career who is posting his highest hard-hit rate yet at 46.5%.
This is the type of matchup I always consider for Evan Carter — right-handed pitcher in a relatively favorable hitter’s park. Peter Lambert is the starting pitcher opposing Carter today. Houston’s Daikin Park has been the fourth-most favorable park for left-handed home runs so far this season.
Matt McLain is finally showing signs of life. Remember spring training, when McLain was leading seemingly every power statistic? He then didn’t hit a regular-season home run until 26 games into the season. He has heated up a bit recently, with three home runs and two doubles in his past 10 games.

Sunday’s Top 3 Underdog Player Props

Check out our best picks on the MLB Underdog Cheat Sheet

Peter Lambert (SP, RP – HOU): 4.5 Strikeouts — Higher

Peter Lambert has returned to Major League Baseball and is pitching better than ever. He has 29 strikeouts in 29 innings, leading to a 24% strikeout rate and a 28.2% whiff rate.

Lmabert has cleared 4.5 strikeouts in three of his five starts, including his most recent game. Today, he has a matchup against the Texas Rangers, who strike out 23.4% of the time as a team.

Junior Caminero (3B – TB): 1.5 Hits + Runs + RBIs- Higher

Junior Caminero has actually missed going over a combined 1.5 hits + runs + RBI in his last two games. Today’s matchup is against a struggling Eury Perez, who has already given up 41 hits.

There are multiple different avenues for Caminero to achieve at least two combined hits + runs + RBI.

Stephen Kolek (SP – KCR): 17.5 Pitching Outs – Lower

I mentioned above in the stacks section that I’m targeting Stephen Kolek in this matchup. While he reached 18 outs in his first start of the season, that number regressed to 14 in his most recent start.

The most batters Kolek faced in either game was 23. If that’s roughly where he is capped again, he’ll have to be incredibly efficient against the Cardinals to get to 18 outs.

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