Wednesday Night at the MLB K Corral: Krothers picks Gerrit Cole, Danny Duffy, Brandon Woodruff
My apologies for taking yesterday off – decided to go out to a restaurant and be social – all with people double vaccinated of course.
Heard on the radio that strikeouts since the 90s have doubled which sounds crazy – can anyone out there confirm? I know baseball today has de-emphasized putting the ball in play as focus on hitting the long ball has increased so maybe that’s the reason?
In any case, we are here to celebrate the strikeout, so let’s do that.
Yankees @ Rays, 7:10 pm ET
Gerrit Cole is trying to help NY take a series from Tampa Bay – which they haven’t done in a long time. The Yanks are rolling, having won 8 of their last 10, and I think they continue that today – but that’s not what I’m picking. With the exception of last weeks game against the Astros, Cole has been good for 10+K/game - as he did last time he faces these same Rays in NYC. The people who make these lines are not making it easy for us setting the over/under at 9.5. Given the competition between these teams I’m going to predict a 10 K outing and take the over and -128 at BetMGM.
Royals @ Tigers, 7:10 pm ET
The next big hurler of the night is Danny Duffy. He doesn’t always have huge numbers – usually 6K in 5 innings, 8K in 6 innings – but this is against Detroit and they strike out a ton and frankly, they stink. With the over/under set at 6.5 this is the biggest gimme I see tonight. I’ll take the over 6.5 at FanDuel at -106.
Cardinals @ Brewers, 7:40 pm ET
The last pitcher we’re looking at tonight is Brandon Woodruff. He was OUTSTANDING last time out in Philly, striking out 11 in 6.2 innings. Most of his other outings were nothing like that – mostly 1K and inning type of outings. Perhaps as a result, I’m seeing the over/under line set at 7.5 or 8.5. To me, that’s a bit high – I think the Philly outing was an outlier and 7 sounds about right. To play it safe, I’m taking the under 8.5 -167 from DraftKings.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!