MLB PrizePicks Predictions Today: Top Plays for Sunday, June 9th
Traditional MLB DFS formats aren’t the only way to profit from daily fantasy baseball. MLB PrizePicks is a great fantasy pick’em site where we can take today’s projections versus theirs and combine two or more baseball predictions for sizeable payouts.
In this space, we’ll explore a few PrizePicks plays for the upcoming MLB slate. This article isn’t the be-all, end-all of great plays or a recommendation for a full ticket; it’s simply a starting place for you to explore thinking about the game within the game. Maybe you want to scatter these plays across entries. Maybe there are only two or three you think are worth playing. Daily fantasy pick’em gives us the flexibility to make only the plays in which we think there is value rather than being forced to create a full lineup while competing against the best DFS players in the industry.
PrizePicks is daily fantasy baseball made simple, and our MLB PrizePicks tool makes the process even simpler.
All stats cited are since the start of the 2023 season unless otherwise noted.
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MLB PrizePicks Predictions for Sunday, June 9th
- Jared Jones MORE Than 7.5 Strikeouts (DEMON)
- Ozzie Albies MORE Than 2.5 Total Bases (DEMON)
- Mitch Spence MORE Than 4.5 Strikeouts (DEMON)
- Justin Verlander MORE Than 18.5 Outs (DEMON)
- Tyler Glasnow + Luis Gil MORE Than 14.0 Combo Strikeouts
Jared Jones MORE Than 7.5 Strikeouts (DEMON)
The Twins’ projected lineup isn’t a great matchup to compile strikeouts, but Jared Jones is one of those guys, if you know what I mean. He’s had 9.87 K/9 on a 27.4% K rate with only 1.95 BB/9. Getting over 7 Ks has been hard for him this season, but he’s hit 7 in 7 of 12, only passing 6 IP once. We have Jones projected for a nice 6.9 Ks, so this tight, high-risk, high-reward spot could boost our contests. Trust the baked-in Ks and that he can get 6 innings to compile. He just struck out 6 Dodgers in Pittsburgh; why not 8 Twins?
Ozzie Albies MORE Than 2.5 Total Bases (DEMON)
The Braves get a lefty today, and Ozzie Albies is a great fly-ball hitter from the right side leading off today for the Braves. He just has an above-average 8.8% barrel rate against lefties, but he has a 50.3% hard-hit rate on a 27% fly-ball rate and 25.8% line-drive rate. DJ Herz didn’t showcase more than what should be about a K per inning in his minor league career, but we have very high fly-ball rates from him. We have Albies projected for 2.4 total bases when you factor in the lead-off spot and that the Braves are guaranteed 9th-inning ABs on the road. If Albies is a little tight for you, PrizePicks has Marcell Ozuna projected for the same 2.5 line, while we have him projected for 2.3. These are probably the best two DEMON total bases plays on the board.
Mitch Spence MORE Than 4.5 Strikeouts (DEMON)
Mitch Spence isn’t a great strikeout pitcher, and the Jays aren’t a great strikeout matchup, but he’s a super solid ground-ball pitcher against a heavy ground-ball Jays lineup. His 51.5% ground-ball rate should stifle the Jays early and often, allowing him to get a shot at 6 innings and — therefore — 5+ Ks. We have Spence projected for 4.6 Ks, making this play one of the best on the board. We also have Spence projected for an economical 86 pitches on the day.
Justin Verlander MORE Than 18.5 Outs (DEMON)
I hate this play, but I’m gonna have some of it because we have Justin Verlander projected for 18.1 outs. He hasn’t gone more than 6 IP all season to this point, but this is the Angels without Mike Trout, so why not now? Verlander doesn’t come with a lot of Ks, but his 13.7% popup rate on top of the 21.4% K rate is just as good as a 28% K rate in terms of compiling outs. The risk, of course, is that the Angels are a moderate power-hitting lineup and Verlander is a fly-ball pitcher, but we should trust the projections for some exposure here.
Tyler Glasnow + Luis Gil MORE Than 14.0 Combo Strikeouts
We have Tyler Glasnow and Luis Gil to combine for 14.1 strikeouts, so this is tight, but I think out projection is conservative on the two in what should be a pitchers’ duel where both should go deep to close out a series in which a lot of bullpen has been used by both teams. These are their aces right now, and they’re both damn great strikeout pitchers. There’s no such thing as matchup-proof in the 2024 zeitgeist, but Glasnow+Gil are close to it. They bring 33.1% and 31.5% K rates to the table, respectively, so they don’t have to dominate for 8+ Ks in 6 IP to get there. They just need to go the 7 innings each, and the situation is laid out for both to do so.
All projections referenced are accurate at the time of writing but subject to change.
For standard projections, there are a lot of very aggressive pitching outs projections from PrizePicks on which to go LESS than and get us to complete some sweeps. I like staying away from a lot of the strikeout lines, though, as there are juicier projections to attack in pitcher and hitter fantasy points. I like a normal volume day where we make 3-4 plays per contest, exposing ourselves to a DEMON boost in each one.
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