Covering The Bases: MLB DFS Picks Today for Sunday 4/27

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2025-04-27 16:49:08 Premium Content Part of the product MLB DFS

Long-time grinder, Justin Van Zuiden (aka stlcardinals84), is here to cover the bases for the upcoming MLB DFS slate on DraftKings and FanDuel. Whether you are looking for the top pitchers or the best stacks, Cards has you covered with an extensive deep dive into his favorite MLB DFS picks.

Happy Sunday, Grinders! The last Sunday of April brings us a relatively quiet main slate, with just seven games available on DraftKings. As usual, FanDuel is adding in the Coors Field game with the Rockies at home for the weekend, so we have eight games available on the FanDuel slate.

With Sundays often being a hectic lineup day where teams tend to give players a day off on occasion, keep an eye on our MLB starting lineups page as the lineups start to trickle in. We’ll keep you covered with those Sunday surprises.

I am not sure what to make of this slate just yet. There aren’t a lot of standout options on either the pitching or hitting sides, so it’s a bit of a jumbled slate. Let’s dig in and see if we can find some hidden gems.

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Sunday Pitching: MLB DFS Picks on FanDuel & DraftKings

TOP TIER PITCHING

Tarik Skubal vs. Orioles
Joe Ryan vs. Angels
Max Fried vs. Blue Jays
Hunter Brown vs. Royals

With a small-ish Sunday slate for us today, we don’t have a deep group of top arms. However, we do have some upside with this group. Let’s start with a peek at the 2025 data to date:

Skubal – 2.83 ERA, 3.15 xFIP, 25.0% K, 4.3% BB
Ryan – 4.00 ERA, 3.73 xFIP, 25.7% K, 2.8% BB
Fried – 1.42 ERA, 3.55 xFIP, 22.7% K, 5.3% BB
Brown – 1.16 ERA, 2.75 xFIP, 28.2% K, 5.5% BB

Let’s start with the reigning AL Cy Young award winner in Tarik Skubal. While his numbers don’t look fantastic to start 2025, they are still well above league average. We also have to remember that we are still dealing with a small sample size of just five starts. His SwStr% of 16.5% is actually HIGHER than it was a year ago when he finished the year with a 30% K rate. I am not worried about Tarik Skubal one bit.

We also have to factor in salary. Skubal is the most expensive pitcher on DK by a decent margin, but there are somehow three pitchers (including Kris Bubic!) priced above him on FD. Even in a matchup against a dangerous Orioles offense, I have to consider Skubal the SP1 on FD. It’s a tougher sell on DK at his salary, and as of now, I prefer saving $2,000 and going down to Joe Ryan on DK. You can do a lot with an extra $2,000 to spend elsewhere, and the two pitchers project similarly.

I wrote at length about Max Fried last weekend with regard to his elevated strikeout rate. The thought process was that it wouldn’t last at a 30% level because his swinging-strike rate was not elevated, and he has never been a massive strikeout pitcher. We immediately saw correction on this, as he struck out just two batters in his last start. He’s pitching in Yankee Stadium against a tough offense, and I just see no reason to mess with him today.

Hunter Brown is the other pitcher in this tier, and I really like him as a GPP pivot away from Skubal and Ryan. You may recall that Brown got off to a horrible start in 2024 due to awful BABIP luck. That has actually reversed this season, as he has had good fortune to pitch to a 1.16 ERA in April of 2025. His ERA last year at this time was 9.85. There’s a Michael Scott turntables joke to throw in this paragraph at some point. The Royals have some danger at the top of their lineup, but Brown is slowly coming into his own as an ace, and he absolutely has the ability to be the highest scoring pitcher on the slate.

SECONDARY PITCHING OPTIONS

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