Cheers to the freakin’ weekend! It’s Saturday, and Saturdays are one of the best seven days of the week for Major League Baseball and player props! Anybody disagree? After crunching the numbers and sifting through the data, I’ve identified my favorite MLB player props for Saturday, July 22. My best bets of the day on Underdog Fantasy feature the red-hot Kyle Tucker taking on the Oakland Athletics, Reid Detmers against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Miles Mikolas against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Don't forget to check out the latest MLB weather report and the confirmed MLB lineups when placing those MLB betting picks, and our MLB daily projections and MLB Batter vs Pitcher page will help uncover the best matchups for MLB player props and your MLB DFS lineups. Let's dive into the top MLB player picks on Underdog Fantasy for Saturday, July 22nd.

 

Kyle Tucker, Houston Astros - MORE than 9.0 Fantasy Points

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right? Tucker hit not one, not two, but three home runs last night, and is now slashing .481/.545/1.074 during his current hit streak. He’s hit safely in 21 of his last 23 games, posting a .391/.471/.770 slash line during this insane run. Tucker is a streak hitter, and he’s red hot right now, but beyond that, he gets to face Paul Blackburn today, who has allowed a .329 average and .372 wOBA to left-handed hitters this season. The star outfielder has an .837 OPS and .202 ISO against right-handed pitching this season, and once Blackburn leaves the game, he’ll feast on an Oakland pen that has allowed the seventh-highest slugging percentage, sixth-highest wOBA, and 11th-highest HR/9 to left-handed hitters in 2023.

Reid Detmers, Los Angeles Angels - MORE than 6.5 Strikeouts

Detmers hasn’t had the best two-start stretch here of late, but prior to the two most recent starts, which have come against Houston and the Dodgers, he allowed two or fewer earned runs with eight or more strikeouts in four straight starts! When Detmers pitches at home, we have to take notice, as he has a 3.63 ERA and 32.2 percent strikeout rate at home this season. On the road, those numbers are vastly different, coming in at 5.71 and 23.9 percent respectively. This evening, Detmers gets to face a Pittsburgh Pirates team that has the fourth-highest strikeout rate in the month of July against left-handed pitching, not to mention the fifth-lowest batting average, second-lowest ISO, and second-lowest wRC+! Detmers has surpassed this line in six of his last 10 outings, and in four of his last five starts when pitching at home.

Miles Mikolas, St. Louis Cardinals - LESS than 27.5 Fantasy Points

Mikolas isn’t a guy that misses a ton of bats, so he doesn’t have the luxury of strikeouts propelling him above a line. He’ll need to work deeper into this game and contain the Chicago bats if he wants to get above this line. The Cubs have punched out at the 11th-highest rate against righties in July, but they also have the seventh-highest walk rate, 12th-highest wOBA, and a 105 wRC+. The wind should be blowing out a bit in Wrigley, and lefties have a .279 average and .321 wOBA against Mikolas this year. Why does that matter? Mike Tauchman, Ian Happ, Cody Bellinger… I think the Cubs get to Mikolas today and put some runs across the board, en route to a less than stellar day for the veteran righty. There’s also some weather in the area, so could Mikolas’ day be shortened by weather? Perhaps, but we aren’t banking on that.

 

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