Player Prop for Athletics vs. Astros

Athletics vs. Astros, 2:10 ET

This season has been one of the best, but I’m looking to finish it strong before we embark on the playoffs. Each sport has its own challenges for sports betting – football is the most bet on so typically the numbers are hardest to beat, the NBA has players sitting and motivation issues at times, NHL can have a hot goalie ruin everything for you, the list goes on and on. With baseball, one small mistake made by a pitcher can ruin your bet.

That’s why I tend to focus on the pitchers that have consistencies or reliability that I can count on. Framber Valdez is one of the many I’ve focused on this year. Valdez is now going for quality start number 25 in a row. There are few pitchers who have had a better season than Valdez, which is somewhat crazy considering he isn’t really being mentioned in the Cy Young conversation. Some of that is due to his teammate Justin Verlander being so good, and Dylan Cease making a name for himself late in the year. Sure, Valdez does give up some runs, but he also hasn’t had any games that make you wonder what happened and what went wrong. Cease and Verlander both have had those games. Anyway, maybe today is the day for Valdez to have that rough start. But, I kind of doubt it. He has two starts against Oakland this season and has covered 17 innings while allowing just three earned runs. He does pitch better on the road, but Oakland is not a good baseball team. They might score a run or maybe two, but I can’t see much more as Valdez keeps the streak alive.

Ken Waldichuk, is a September call-up for the Athletics. He is now starting his fourth game since he arrived to the majors. In those games, he has covered 15 innings and given up nine earned runs. In each game he has increased the number of earned runs allowed. That’s not a good sign as that usually means that hitters are seeing something on film that they are able to implement into the games. The Athletics, not really surprisingly, have lost all three games that he has stated and they’ve allowed at least seven runs in each game.

There really is no competition in this one. The big question is how deep in the game does Valdez go, and can he avoid complacency as he works on his streak? It can be boring or a trap game knowing you’re a -300+ favorite against a team to win the game. I don’t think that bites Valdez and the Astros here, but we will play it as a player prop: Valdez to record a win at -130. You could try the Astros scoring first and winning instead at the same price if you'd prefer.

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