Wednesday MLB Strikeout Prop Bets: Krothers picks pitching studs Max Scherzer, Shohei Otani, Zack Greinke
Another day, another no hitter. Yet, MLB says nothing about changing balls. Including Madison Bumgarner’s no-hitter, that brings our season total to 7 no-hitters. Strikeouts are up, batting averages are down 20-30 points, HRs are down, and everyone knows it has more to do with the new ball than anything else. You know MLB is doing something wrong when the fans at Deadspin are hating it.
FIX THE BALL MLB!
Now back to K Picks:
Nationals @ Cubs, 7:40 pm ET
Max Scherzer if pitching for the Washington Baseball Team tonight and he’s had 6 great starts to only 2 bad ones. He is looking very much like his old self, striking out 68 over 51 innings. In his best outing of the year he struck out 14 Yankees over 7.1 innings – dude was dominant. The Cubs don’t strike out as much as the Yankees, but they are close. Do I think he’ll strike out 14? No – but 9-10 K sounds about right. Looking at the books, we have the line at 8.5 from BetMGM and 9.5 at FanDuel. Given my prediction I’ll take the safer bet – over 8.5 and -110 from BetMGM.
Indians @ Angels, 8:07 pm ET
I have been late to hop on the Shohei Otani bandwagon and I regret it. Pitching for the Angels is just a side-gig for him given his numbers at the plate, but this part-time job has him looking like a modern-day Babe Ruth who can do it all. Over his 25.2 IP this year he has 40K. He’s also been building up his pitching strength, going 7 IP in his last outing against the Astros and striking out 10. So why has BetMGM set the over/under at 6.5? Don’t know, don’t care – I’ll take the over 6.5 and -139.
Astros @ Athletics, 9:40 pm ET
I’ve mentioned this before, but the Astros’ Zack Greinke is still a great pitcher. One of the things that makes him great is that he’s figured out how to compensate for his reduced arm strength by becoming craftier. That translates into great numbers in everything but his K rate. He’s been averaging 4-5 K a game. Add to that facing an A’s team that doesn’t strike out much and I think you see what I’m looking at – probably a 4 K effort. The bookmakers have the same idea in mind and have frustratingly set the line at 4.5. It’s not the surest pick of the night, but I’m taking the under 4.5 at +100 from the BetMGM folks.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!