Happy Maundy Thursday, sports betting compadres! For those of you who are interested, Maundy means 'mandate'. It refers to Jesus's mandate that we love one another. How cool is that?
Hump Day was a wonderful day for us on the diamond, as our MLB best bets went 4-2, running our record to 34-28 on the young season for a profit of 4.96 units.
After a rocky beginning to the season, it's nice to finally be on the right side of some of these hooks. Let's keep firing with 3 more strikeout props for April 17th. Good luck, folks!
WSH at PIT - 12:35 PM EDT
How about some daytime baseball to get our juices flowing on a Thursday? This one is a really early start time, so get those wagers in quickly, kids. I see Mr. Heaney putting together a dominant performance today at home.
Washington has been putting the ball in play more often, but they still struggle against lefties. The Nats have the 6th highest K-rate in all of baseball against southpaws. That tells me that Heaney could mow through this lineup with relative ease.
I love that Heaney's strikeout rate is currently sitting at 25.7%, which puts him in the 65th percentile. That means he doesn't have elite stuff, but it's been better than average. Heaney's been getting a lot more chase on his curveball than in years past, and I think that'll pay off for us in a big way today in the Steel City.
A's at CWS - 2:10 PM EDT
I made a small boatload of cash playing Sears to stay under his strikeout numbers last season, but as they say out here in the country, "times are a-changin". Sears is showing a lot more confidence in his 4th MLB season, and I think he'll rack up more Ks than most folks realize.
We've already seen this play out a little bit on the field so far in 2025. Sears struck out 7 hitters against both the Mets and the Mariners earlier this year. He only got 2 Ks against the Rockies, but that was in the weird thin air of Coors Field, where the breaking pitches don't break nearly as much.
If Sears can muster 7 Ks against a high-contact Mets squad, just think of what he can do against this White Sox team. Chicago has the 5th-highest strikeout rate in baseball against lefties. The North Siders also have 5 hitters with K-rates above 24.5%. Give me another Over!
A's at CWS - 2:10 PM EDT
This line doesn't make a lick of sense to my redneck brain. Martin has one of the lowest K-rates in MLB at just 13.5%. The young righty does a good job of getting weak contact, but he never seems to miss many bats.
Martin only managed to get 2 Ks against both the Angels and the Tigers earlier this season. I could easily see him landing in the 2-3 strikeout range against the contact-heavy A's today. Speaking of the A's, they have the 3rd-lowest K-rate in baseball against righties.
Martin only hits 93 mph with his fastball, which is 1.5 mph less than the league average. He also has an expected ERA of 6.99, so an early exit would not surprise me this afternoon. Give me an Under to close out the card. Let's ride!