MLB PrizePicks Predictions Today: Top Plays for Wednesday, July 31st
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.
Editor’s Note: Looking for more places to play? Check out our PrizePicks promo code and Sleeper promo code, two of the best DFS apps available today.
MLB PrizePicks Predictions for Wednesday, July 31st
- Shohei Ohtani MORE Than 1.5 Total Bases (DEMON)
- Nick Lodolo MORE Than 6.5 Strikeouts (DEMON) and MORE Than 5.5 Hits Allowed (DEMON)
- Brayan Bello MORE Than 15.5 Outs (DEMON)
- Framber Valdez MORE Than 6.5 Hits Allowed (DEMON) and MORE Than 18.5 Outs (DEMON)
Shohei Ohtani MORE Than 1.5 Total Bases (DEMON)
Whenever Ohtani has a PrizePicks DEMON projection for under 2.0 total bases, we have to perk up a bit. He does have to face Dylan Cease, but Cease can get hit hard and in the air when lefties make contact. Cease has allowed a 9.4% barrel rate on a 38.1% fly-ball rate to lefties, while Ohtani has a whopping 23.7% barrel rate against RHP. There’s big strikeout risk here, but Ohtani just needs to get a hold of one ball to get us there on this play. To reflect how strong of a play this is, we have Ohtani projected for 2.5 total bases, despite the matchup and ballpark.
Nick Lodolo MORE Than 6.5 Strikeouts (DEMON) and MORE Than 5.5 Hits Allowed (DEMON)
These Cubs don’t strike out a lot, but Lodolo has enough baked-in Ks (24.5% K rate) with a leash that stretches into the 7th inning against an unimposing lineup. These two plays are correlated in that he’ll need his 6+ IP to get to 7 Ks, but over that time, he should get hit a bit. We have Lodolo projected for 6.1 Ks and 6.4 hits allowed. These plays are tight, so we’re only looking at them if we’re playing a high volume to which we’ll have low exposure.
Brayan Bello MORE Than 15.5 Outs (DEMON)
The Mariners can mash, but they’re dependent on power, and Bello can limit the fly balls about as well as anyone. Bello’s 18.8% fly-ball rate makes it really hard for the Mariners to get theirs through the home run, so Bello should get some distance here. He’s pitched for 15, 18, 19, 16, and 20 outs over his last 5 starts, and we have him (conservatively) projected for 15.1 outs. Personally, I think he has a pretty high floor for volume, despite the capped ceiling.
Framber Valdez MORE Than 6.5 Hits Allowed (DEMON) and MORE Than 18.5 Outs (DEMON)
The Pirates are sneaky-dependent on power these days, and Valdez has a 61.1% ground-ball rate and allowed just a .107 ISO. He does allow a 55% hard-hit rate, so we should see the seeing-eye singles accumulate over the course of his outing, but the run prevention should get him the volume to get us there on both of these plays. We have him projected to allow 6.5 hits and get through 18.5 outs, so the DEMON juice is really clutch. The way Valdez is used, it seems that the Astros’ game plan is to get him around 100 pitches into the 7th inning.
All projections referenced are accurate at the time of writing but subject to change.
I don’t love this slate for high volume because there’s little edge in the standard projections, but I love these DEMONs. So I might play a high quantity of contests but keep them cheap, looking to multiply on some DEMONs. We can stack these DEMONs, but I’d suggest a low volume if doing so, as this is a case where we wanna plunk in a little to win a lot.
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