FanDuel SportsBook NFL & MLB Plays: Thursday, August 1st
Endless baseball. Tons of sweating. Brown recluse spiders. This encapsulates the mid-summer in the great state of Tennessee. Only just now can we spot the light at the end of the tunnel – meaningful football. The term “meaningful” can be applied in different ways, but for me and anyone else looking to get down on the Denver/Atlanta game tonight, meaningful football starts TONIGHT!
I’ll get into some picks/notes on that one, but I’ll also be sprinkling in some MLB betting picks with a short Thursday night slate on tap. Let’s get into it!
DEN/ATL Under 34.5 (-105) – We have a small total in the preseason opener, but that’s pretty traditional for these games. It’s sensible given that we’re not seeing much (if any) of either team’s starters and players are continually being funneled in and out, making it a little harder for the offense to get in a groove. The defense is usually a little more ahead at this stage and with a bevy of backup QBs/roster-fringe players in action, we generally see low-scoring games to open the preseason. The total has fallen to 34 at several books and even that number is appealing, but the extra half point here on FanDuel is a nice plus with a little juice on the over. For those playing the DFS angle, this is a spot where defenses are king. I had my best NFL week (in Showdown contests) of the year in the first week of preseason thanks to playing D/ST units in the Captain spot – with players seeing limited snap totals, those units are the only ones guaranteed to see a full allotment of action. Sure, the quality of defenders will dwindle as the game moves along, but so will the skill of the opposing offenses. I’m going to play the Under here and also like DEN to win by 1-13 points, a game prop that is available at +155 on FanDuel SportsBook (use RotoGrinders’ FanDuel promo code to get these odds).
Baltimore Orioles -110 – Back to baseball! It feels really weird to want to be on the Baltimore side with them listed as a favorite, but here we are. The big thing here is Asher Wojciechowski – he looks to be for real and has quickly turned into Baltimore’s best starter over the last month. He’ll get a home draw with a young and revamped Toronto lineup, one that is likely to play into his recent surge of strikeouts. Baltimore opened as very short underdogs, and despite Toronto having received 59% of tickets as of this writing, the line is moving heavily towards Baltimore. A big reason for that is that the money percentage is much different than the ticket percentage – despite only having 41% of tickets on them, the Orioles are commanding 78% of money, indicating some sharp action on that side. On the Toronto side, Trent Thornton is coming off the IL today fresh off an elbow injury that has cratered his production over his last five starts. Interestingly enough, his only strong start over that stretch came against this same Baltimore team, but I expect better results from the O’s this time around.
SD/LAD Under 8 (-110) – We have a game in San Diego with Clayton Kershaw and Joey Lucchesi on the mound. This one actually opened at 7.5 and has been pushed up to 8, but I’ll gladly take the extra half run here with two tough lefties facing off. The Dodgers lineup – especially the back half of it – is a lot less scary against left-handed pitching and while the Padres do have several capable power bats from the right side, Kershaw still does a great job of limiting damage. It’s also a nice plus that the home team is heavily favored, making it less likely we see bats in the bottom of the ninth, eliminating a chance to tack on a late run.