MLB PrizePicks Predictions Today: Top Plays for Tuesday, July 9th

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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 picks tool makes the process even simpler.

If you haven’t signed up for a PrizePicks account, make sure to use the PrizePicks promo code ROTOBONUS and get a $100 deposit match. Also, check out more apps like PrizePicks.

All stats cited are since the start of the 2024 season unless otherwise noted.

MLB PrizePicks Predictions for Tuesday, July 9th

Jose Ramirez MORE Than 2.5 Total Bases (DEMON), MORE Than 2.5 Hits+Runs+RBIs (DEMON), and MORE Than 0.5 RBIs (DEMON)

Ramirez is the nut hitter play tonight against the ghost of Kenta Maeda. At 36 years old, Maeda is aging very fast. He has a 4.84 ERA, 6.86 K/9, and 3.14 BB/9, and he is coughing up 1.86 HR/9. Just an 8.5% barrel rate allowed to lefties might suggest regression toward the mean on the HR/9, but Ramirez makes a ton of contact and has a 61.4% hard-hit rate to go with a 34.7% fly-ball rate — despite a tough start in the traditional stats categories. We have a pitcher giving up a lot of homers against a great hitter who is hitting the ball very hard in the air very often. We have Ramirez directly in line with all of the PrizePicks projections, so the DEMON boost is huge for us here on all three plays.

Nick Lodolo MORE Than 4.5 Hits Allowed (DEMON), MORE Than 15.5 Outs, and MORE Than 33.5 Fantasy Points

The Rockies’ projected lineup has just a .313 wOBA to go with a 27.8% K rate against LHP since the start of the 2023 season, and Lodolo is low-key one of the better strikeout pitchers in baseball. His 10.35 K/9 over that stretch with just 2.50 BB/9 puts his K-BB rate at 19.9%. Lodolo’s K/9 is down a tick to 9.39, but the Rockies are just so bad that we have Lodolo somewhat conservatively projected to log 16.8 outs and 35.9 fantasy points. The sheer volume that he should get and the Rockies’ ability to make quality contact (when they make contact) makes Lodolo’s hits projection go up to 5.9 — well above the 4.5 PrizePicks projection. When Lodolo has crossed the 90-pitch mark, he has logged 21, 18, 18, 18, 18, 21, 15, and 16 outs in those 8 starts, so we should feel good about that volume as long as he doesn’t get shellacked.

Dean Kremer MORE Than 5.5 Strikeouts (DEMON)

I might have to pay Chris Kirkwood some royalties here, but the Cubs are #gutless. The projected lineup has just a .304 wOBA to go with a 24.8% K rate against RHP, while Kremer is surging up to a 25.2% K rate himself. Walks can get in Kremer’s way, but he’s averaging over a K per inning. Projected for 94 pitches, he should get into the 6th inning, and we have him projected for 5.9 Ks with a high-ish floor. This is purely a play on the DEMON boost versus our projection.

Ben Lively MORE Than 4.5 Strikeouts (DEMON)

Speaking of our plays on DEMON boosts, Lively isn’t a name we love to click on much for MORE than, but he’s projected by us for 92 pitches against Detroit. 4.5 is just too low of a number. He’s averaging just 7.8 K/9, and the projected lineup for the Tigers has just a 21.5% K rate against RHP, but Lively can get some volume here, so we have him projected for 4.6 Ks. This is a low-volume play, but one to which we should have some exposure, given our model’s output.

Joey Estes MORE Than 15.5 Outs (DEMON)

I feel less comfortable investing real American dollars in Estes than Lively, but we have him projected for 15.9 outs. There’s nothing great to say about him other than he does have a pretty long leash, no matter how bad he is. Estes has surpassed 15 outs in each of his last 3 starts, including a 92-pitch CGSO against the Angels in Oakland his last start. The Red Sox are a far better offense than the Angels, but our projection is worth noting to sprinkle this play around. This is why we pay for projections!

All projections referenced are accurate at the time of writing but subject to change.

This is a very juicy day for DEMON boosts. Consult our pick’em tool to construct your core of standard projections to attack, and the plays we discussed above should be the cherries on top to hopefully make some extra money.

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