Major League Baseball has its first slow day since the start of the season. Get used to that happening most Thursdays, when teams travel. That said, we still have five games to enjoy, so let’s dive right into it.
Here are three of my favorite player predictions via PrizePicks for Thursday, April 3rd.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Thursday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
PrizePicks Record: 4-2
Major League Baseball has its first slow day since the start of the season. Get used to that happening most Thursdays, when teams travel. That said, we still have five games to enjoy, so let’s dive right into it.
Here are three of my favorite player predictions via PrizePicks for Thursday, April 3rd.
Our PrizePicks Cheat Sheet helps bettors by comparing lines from PrizePicks vs. our daily MLB projections >>
Thursday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
PrizePicks Record: 4-2
Uncle Charlie Morton is in the dog days of his career, but he can still spin it and find some punchouts in the right matchup. Today, he faces the Red Sox, who were one of the most strikeout-prone lineups last season.
That has held so far in the early going this year, as they have a 28.1% strikeout rate (sixth-highest) against right-handed pitching this season. While Morton didn’t look his best in his first start, the spin rates on his pitches all checked out, so I’ll take a shot on him here. He exceeded this number in 17 of his 30 starts last season.
Sticking in the same matchup, let’s turn our attention to Boston starter Tanner Houck. He isn’t a prolific strikeout artist by any means, but he is more than capable of exceeding this low of a number.
Houck had a horrific spring and didn’t look much better in his opening start, but I’m willing to bank on his track record. Houck ranked in the 81st percentile in CSW% last year, finding at least four strikeouts in 21 of 28 full starts. He had five punchouts in 18 of those starts as well.
I rarely turn to hitter player predictions, but without any Carlos Carrasco predictions available, we look to Diamondbacks leadoff man Corbin Carroll, who should see at least five plate appearances in this one.
Simply put, Carrasco does not have it anymore. He has a 6.18 ERA over his last 193 innings of work over the last two seasons. The weather forecast calls for some solid hitting weather for April as well. The Bronx should be muggy with 12-15 mile-per-hour winds blowing out to center, which is a big boost to the bats in this game.
Tyler is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from him, follow @808Paperboi
