Friday MLB Strikeout Prop Bets: Krothers picks Gerrit Cole, Shane Bieber and Yu Darvish
Rant #2 – a continuation from yesterday’s rant. If you think the solution to games being too long is to cut off innings from a game, then you aren’t a fan of the game. If two 7-inning games is your time solution, then there shouldn’t be any double header games. Look – baseball is a game of stats – how many HRs, steals, strikeouts, etc., and part of the fans' passion is to compare those things. If you screw up the fundamentals of the stats, you screw with the fans and you lose them. When MLB went from 154 games to 162 it re-set many stats – but it was for MORE BASEBALL. These new changes give us LESS BASEBALL.
More is always better.
Now back to our regularly scheduled strikeout picks…
Yankees @ Tigers, 7:05 pm ET
It’s another Gerrit Cole start, so let’s see how the odds break down. We know he’s been brilliant, but the books have made the lines tough. Today, for example, I’m staying away from FanDuel, since they have the line set at 10.5 while everyone else in PA has it set at 9.5 – which is hard enough. Lucky for us, there are some good models to look at. Shout out here to @ThunderDanDFS, who has a great modeling tool to project strikeouts. According to Dan, Cole is projected to hit +11 K tonight. I would have picked the over anyway against this Tiger team, but it’s nice to have validation. Our friends at Barstool Sportsbook are offering -127 and I’ll take it.
Indians @ White Sox, 8:10 pm ET
Isn’t it nice that Shane Bieber and Gerrit Cole pitch the same days almost every week? It’s a strikeout fan's dream. Bieber may be #2 to Cole in my K rankings right now, but he’s right on his heels. The line here is set at 9.5 which is a little high for my liking, but that’s what this is all about. Given it’s the White Sox, I’m going with the over and BetMGM is offering +115 right now – take it if you can get it!
Giants @ Padres, 10:10 pm ET
Yu Darvish, apart from his first outing this year, has been brilliant. Unfortunately for him, his record doesn’t reflect that (just 2-1) – but a peek at his stats does. He, thus far, has a 2.27 and a WHIP of .85. Since we are here to talk strikeouts, he has 37 K in 31.2 innings pitched. Very nice. The over/under is set at 7.5 and that should be easy-peasy against this SF team. Best odds I’ve found are from Pinnacle at -111. Go for it.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!