The baseball season is hurtling toward the playoffs, and there are still many spots up for grabs. We can use that when we’re picking out what plays we want to make, so let’s figure things out for Friday with the help of the FTN Betting Model.
MLB Best Bets
Tanner Houck Over 4.5 Strikeouts
(-118, Caesars)
The betting model has Houck projected for almost six strikeouts at 5.91, and it has the highest edge of the evening at 18.4%. Houck is facing the Detroit Tigers Friday night. He’s been a little unreliable with his strikeouts lately, since he has games of 2, 3 and 1 in the past four contests. He also just struck out 8 Astros, and the Tigers are eighth in K rate on the year against righty pitching. The Tigers will likely throw out 5-6 lefty hitters, and while Houck is at 18.2% against that side for his K rate, he uses his sweeper and splitter as his main pitch combo. Every projected hitter for the Tigers has a swinging strike rate of at least 11.8% against splitters and eight of them are over 14%.