This feels like the first truly lackluster slate of the season. There are only six games in Major League Baseball on Thursday, four in the early/mid-afternoon. Despite the lack of games, there will be no shortage of plays here.
Here are three of my favorite MLB player predictions via PrizePicks for Thursday, May 15th.
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: 21-21
This feels like the first truly lackluster slate of the season. There are only six games in Major League Baseball on Thursday, four in the early/mid-afternoon. Despite the lack of games, there will be no shortage of plays here.
Here are three of my favorite MLB player predictions via PrizePicks for Thursday, May 15th.
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: 21-21
Over the past two seasons, Kevin Gausman has been pretty inconsistent, but the strikeouts still tend to come in bunches when he gets the right matchup. Today, he gets just that, as he and the Jays face divisional foe Tampa Bay.
The Rays have the second-highest strikeout rate (25.8%) and are just 21st in wRC+ (101) against right-handed pitching over the past 30 days. We just saw Chris Bassitt find six strikeouts against them yesterday. Why can’t Gausman?
I’ve been burned by this more than in Jacob deGrom’s past two outings, but that’s not stopping me now. He is fully back and has the second-best pitching+ metrics among all starters, only behind Tarik Skubal.
The Rangers’ ace faces the Astros, who see the eighth-fewest pitches per plate appearance, and rank 17th in wRC+ (102) against righties this season. Houston is also without their biggest bat in Yordan Alvarez. Asking for six innings from one of the best pitchers in the game isn’t much.
It doesn’t feel right fading Hunter Brown at the moment, but let’s give it a go, given the matchup. He faces a lineup that is very familiar with what he brings to the table in the Texas Rangers. They are just 20th in strikeout rate (20.7%) facing righties on the year.
Only five of the past 25 right-handed starters to face them have cleared this number. The Rangers’ roster owns a combined .414 xwOBA and paltry 15.2% strikeout rate against Brown. He faced them on three occasions last season and didn’t have more than five strikeouts in any outing.
Tyler is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from him, follow @808Paperboi
