MLB Best Bets and Betting Picks for June 8
Who’s ready for some MLB bets for today? Today’s 12-game slate splits right down the middle for day and night games with the second-half of games featuring some of the best starting pitchers in the game. The day slate gives us a few interesting options, but you can’t help but get excited about that New York Mets/Atlanta Braves match-up that features Justin Verlander and Spencer Strider. Are we going to bet that one, though? We’ll dive in deeper, but usually when there’s a match-up like that, I veer towards just watching out of pure enjoyment. It’s always tougher to navigate those based on the betting odds and lines, so we tend to look for more value in our MLB best bets. Enough with the introduction. Let’s dive in.
- Yesterday’s Record: 4-0
- Season Record: 84-81-2
- Bankroll: -6.06 units
Not a whole lot of value on the slate today, so we’ll keep it simple.
MLB Best Bets for June 8
Arizona Diamondbacks at Washington Nationals
THIS GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED
We’ve got two clubs here doing things very few people expected to see. There is no way anyone could have predicted the Diamondbacks would be sitting in first in the NL West, two games ahead of the Dodgers and while yes, we expected the Nationals to finish in the NL East basement, those of you who bet win totals are probably surprised to see the Nationals with 25 wins already. There’s a lot of love for Josiah Gray and most people are probably expecting another strong outing from him. But with an ERA of 3.08 and a xERA of 4.48 and a xFIP of 4.96, there has to be some thoughts on regression. His match-ups earlier in the year have not been too daunting and right now Arizona is hot with a .349 wOBA over the past seven days. They also have the fifth-highest wOBA against righthanded pitching this season. The Nats may have heated up against righties for a couple of weeks, but it’s still not a strong offense and I believe Merrill Kelly can hold them in check. At least for the first five innings. But also seeing as how bad the Nationals bullpen has ben, we’ll look for some full-game action from one of Arizona’s hottest hitters too!
Pick: Arizona Diamondbacks First 5 Innings -0.5 Run Line (-115 on BetMGM)
Pick: Corbin Carroll over 1.5 total bases (+105 on BetMGM)
Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Angels
While Cubs starter Drew Smyly has looked serviceable in a few of his recent starts, we’re going to focus on the Angels bats and how well they hit lefthanded pitching. On the season, they have the fifth-best wOBA against southpaws and they’ve done well for themselves in recent games, posting a .336 wOBA over the past week. Meanwhile, the Cubs will tangle with Reid Detmers and while he’s not a lights-out pitcher, his K/9 has spiked to 10.66 on the year and he’s got a 13.8-percent swinging-strike rate. The Cubs have been way too aggressive at the plate and that’s produced a 30-percent strikeout rate over the past week and they are struggling to find any sort of power (.091 ISO) or any legitimate on-base work (.248 wOBA). The Angels bullpen has been strong as of late, so we’ll simply back the home team tonight.
Pick: Los Angeles Angels Money Line (-130 on Caesars Sportsbook)
Minnesota Twins at Tampa Bay Rays
Funny enough, the only thing I want to do in this game is back Wander Franco. The guy has an 11-game hit streak going right now where he is slashing .452/.520/.595 with 11 runs scored and six RBI. He was out for a couple of games with a hamstring injury but he’s been back for three games and, obviously picked things up right where he left off. Twins starter Bailey Ober pitches to a lot of contact, so I just want to get in really quick here while I can.
Pick: Wander Franco over 1.5 hits+ runs + RBI (-125 on DK Sportsbook)