The trade deadline for the 2024 MLB season has officially passed, not only providing some new and intriguing props for betting but also throwing a twist into divisions as the playoff race starts to heat up.
It has been a solid if not spectacular first half-plus of the season for our PrizePicks selections. Another 2-1 pick slip last time out offers us a 51-32-3 season-long line, which feels pretty strong overall.
As the calendar flips to August, we'll take the last couple of months of the regular season quite seriously as we attempt to profit a lot more before time runs out on us.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
The trade deadline for the 2024 MLB season has officially passed, not only providing some new and intriguing props for betting but also throwing a twist into divisions as the playoff race starts to heat up.
It has been a solid if not spectacular first half-plus of the season for our PrizePicks selections. Another 2-1 pick slip last time out offers us a 51-32-3 season-long line, which feels pretty strong overall.
As the calendar flips to August, we'll take the last couple of months of the regular season quite seriously as we attempt to profit a lot more before time runs out on us.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Saturday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
MLB PrizePicks Record This Season: 51-32-3
By all accounts, 36-year-old Kyle Gibson is having a pretty strong debut season for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2024. He has already surpassed the 100-strikeout mark for the campaign. He may be in line to approach his career-high of 179 back with the Twins in 2018.
All that said, I do not expect Saturday to be the day Gibson shows up and balls out against the Cubs. For starters, Gibson has been historically awful against Chicago in his career and the Cubs have been one of his most difficult matchups annually. He has a 1-4 record, a 5.46 ERA and just 29 total strikeouts (4.8/game) against Chicago in six appearances.
He is also coming off of a very odd performance in which he survived five innings against the Nationals last week, yet did not record a single strikeout. With a 90.9 average four-seam fastball velocity, it is safe to say Gibson is not blowing hitters away at this point in his career.
The Cubs have averaged over six runs per game across their last seven, providing ample opportunity to chase Gibson off the hill early on Saturday. The under feels like the move for this one.
An RBI opportunity for the best hitter in baseball in a plus Saturday matchup? Please sign me up. The likely unanimous American League MVP come season's end, Aaron Judge has blown away expectations by even his standards in year nine. He's reached the 40-homer and 100-RBI mark within the first two days of August.
Absurdities aside, Judge also feasts against the Blue Jays and, more specifically, his opposition in Jose Berrios for later today. In 32 career at-bats, Judge has collected nine RBI on four homers and 12 total hits against the Toronto starter. The numbers there are good enough for a .375 average and .813 slugging percentage.
As the 2024 season has progressed, there have seemingly been fewer and fewer days Judge hasn't provided some sort of run-scoring for the Yankees. Today should be no different. If I'm betting on anyone in the MLB to produce an RBI at this point, there's no question it's Mr. All Rise himself.
This feels like a partial contradiction to everything I just mentioned about Aaron Judge, but one of his rivals on the Red Sox might actually be the hottest hitter in baseball right now. Rafael Devers has been smashing the covers off of baseballs for the last month-plus and he is currently on fire.
Devers' July line of .362/.430/.702 was exceptional. It included six home runs, 24 RBI and 18 total extra-base hits. He has already picked up where he left off as well, blasting a homer on Friday night for number 25 of the season (ninth-most). He is also in the top 10 in season-long average (.302) and is fifth in OPS (1.002).
Boston will face the Rangers' Dane Dunning on Saturday afternoon. He should be no match for the scorching bat of Boston's cleanup hitter. Dunning has a 4.79 season-long ERA and he's a lock to allow several hits and runs in what will be a usual planned short outing. We're betting on talent for Saturday's affair. The bar does not get much higher than what Rafael Devers is set to offer.
Make sure to check out our other best bets for Saturday:
