Best Bets on Today’s MLB Player Props Market
The 2023 MLB season is underway and VSiN has you covered with every way you can possibly bet on a baseball game. As always, Adam Burke will have daily best bets to give you some ideas of what to back when it comes to moneylines, run lines and totals. However, I’m tackling player props here, and I’m targeting Nolan Arenado, Corbin Burnes and Luis Castillo on Monday, May 22nd. Keep reading to find out how I’m betting on each of them.
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MORE: Check out our Pro Picks page for everything our experts have on May 22
Here are our favorite MLB prop bets for Monday, May 22nd:
St. Louis Cardinals (-190, 10) at Cincinnati Reds
Nolan Arenado is batting .278 with nine homers and 34 RBIs this season, and he’s hitting .306 with two doubles, a triple, four homers and nine RBIs against lefties. The latter has come in only 36 at-bats, but Arenado gets a crack at a lefty tonight. And it just so happens to be an inexperienced southpaw, with Brandon Williamson taking the mound for Cincinnati.
Williamson surprisingly threw 5.2 innings of one-run ball in a road start against the Rockies in his first career start for the Reds, but it’s hard to see him turning in two stellar outings in a row. This is a guy that has struggled at the minor league level, and he now faces one of the most dangerous lineups in the league against lefties.
There’s a reason this total is all the way up at 10, and it’s because the oddsmakers are expecting a big performance from St. Louis’ offense. With that in mind, we had to attack this game with a batter prop, and Arenado is the one that is most likely to come through.
Bet: Arenado Over 1.5 Total Bases (-125)
Houston Astros (-115, 7.5) at Milwaukee Brewers
Jose Altuve is just 2 for 9 since returning to Houston’s lineup, and it’ll be hard to trust this Astros offense to score until he starts playing like himself — along with several other players on the team. With that said, this matchup isn’t as bad on righty Corbin Burnes as it might seem on paper. So, we’re backing the 28-year-old to miss some bats, which is what he does best to begin with.
Burnes’ swing-and-miss stuff hasn’t been quite as impressive this season, but he’s starting to find it a bit. The righty has had at least seven strikeouts in back-to-back outings, and that’s all we’re hoping for out of him tonight. Considering Houston has the 12th-highest strikeout rate in baseball this season, there’s nothing about this matchup that should make it hard on Burnes to hit that mark.
Bet: Burnes Over 6.5 Strikeouts (+110)
Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners (-315, 8)
Luis Castillo has only thrown 5.0 innings in four of his last five starts, so he hasn’t exactly been trustworthy when it comes to working deep in games. However, the 30-year-old is facing the Athletics tonight, and that gives him a great shot at turning in a stellar performance. And if he can do that, one would think he’d throw at least 6.1 innings in this one.
This Athletics team just hasn’t been consistently giving righties trouble, which is a big part of the reason that they’re just 10-38 on the year. Only two teams in the league have scored fewer runs than Oakland against righties, and only three teams have less hits against them. So, Castillo really should be able to navigate this lineup with relative ease. He should hover right around the 100-pitch mark in this one, and that type of leash goes further against the A’s than anyone else.
Bet: Castillo Over 18.5 Outs Recorded (+100)
Did you know that you can parlay these three picks together at +656 odds? Try out our VSiN Parlay Calculator HERE!
