MLB Betting: 3 Best Player Prop Bets for Saturday 8/3/24

Player props can be useful in a variety of ways -- from taking advantage of them straight up to measuring a player's potential to produce in daily fantasy baseball on FanDuel. Here, we're going to focus on the former.

Utilizing MLB projections -- which are powered by numberFire -- as a guide, here are some MLB player props bets that look appealing via the MLB odds at FanDuel Sportsbook.

Please note that betting lines and projections may change throughout the day after this article is published. Also, the weather may be an issue in some locations.

MLB Player Props

Michael Massey to Hit a Home Run (+560)

As they're one to do, our daily MLB projections piqued my curiosity when projecting Michael Massey for the 11th-best chance to hit a home run today.

The Kansas City Royals' second baseman hasn't been overly successful if you just look at his 74 wRC+ or .646 OPS against righties in the past 30 days, but it's also come with an extremely unlucky .191 batting average on balls in play (BABIP). Massey is still lifting the ball in the air 40.8% of the time in this period, and he's put hard contact on it 34.7% of the time. That's much more like it for a homer.

It's the right split for him today against Detroit Tigers right-hander Alex Faedo. Faedo has surrendered 1.56 homers per nine (HR/9) to this stage behind pedestrian flyball (34.7%) and hard-hit (35.4%) rates allowed.

All in all, the projections posted 0.29 round-trippers for Massey today, which, if correct, would imply roughly +297 odds for one. This number -- nearly double -- was too good to pass up.

Kyle Harrison Over 15.5 Outs Recorded (+112)

If last night's no-hitter from Blake Snell wasn't indication enough, the Cincinnati Reds absolutely stink against left-handed pitching.

Over the last 30 days, Cincy has a bottom-four wRC+ (58), OPS (.577), and strikeout rate (28.9%) against lefties. Even in their hitter-friendly venue, they couldn't blemish Snell on Friday, so the San Francisco Giants really lucked out to have another southpaw in the holster for Saturday's game.

That's Kyle Harrison, who is much closer to the league average than Snell but will certainly work for this purpose. Harrison's 4.20 skill-interactive ERA (SIERA) sits right around the league average (4.07) with a modest 21.8% K rate and 8.0% walk rate. Though his contact splits are a bit concerning (44.0% hard-hit rate), it's a bit of a relief that Cincinnati largely can't make it.

Up over 90 pitches in 8 of his last 13 contests, Harrison can work plenty deep into this elite matchup. FanDuel Research has him projected for 5.60 innings completed on Saturday when one out in the sixth inning will cash this plus-money prop.

Jurickson Profar to Record 2+ Bases (+115)

The San Diego Padres appear to be the night slate's best spot for offense by a country mile. I'm backing their team total and will double dip with a prop here.

Inexplicably, Tanner Gordon will make another pass in the Colorado Rockies' rotation without much to prove he's earned it. Gordon's 7.05 expected ERA (xERA) isn't much better than an 8.80 actual mark, and he's allowed sky-high hard contact (44.6%) and barrel (10.7%) rates thus far, wrapping into a video-game-like 3.28 HR/9 allowed.

Within this obvious spot for extra-base hits, I like turning to outfielder Jurickson Profar because of his low walk rate in the split over the past month (7.7%). In addition to that, Profar has amassed a .747 OPS, whopping .259 ISO, and 50.0% flyball rate against righties in this same period.

Our projections like Profar to Hit a Home Run (+560) given a projection of 0.27 bombs, but I'll play it safe with bases given he's got just 18 on the year in 449 plate appearances (PAs). We've still got him totaling 2.53 median bases against Gordon and the Rockies.

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author’s advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.