Underdog Fantasy MLB Picks - Best Picks & Plays for August 3: Juan Soto To Have Strong Padres Debut and Chris Bassitt Strikes Out the Nationals
After a whirlwind of a couple of minutes, hours, and days leading up to Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, we are going to get our first look at some new players, lineups, and teams. Let me tell you what, I’m excited! The biggest news of the day yesterday was that the Washington Nationals traded Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the San Diego Padres for a haul of top prospects. While these prospects will look to expedite Washington’s rebuild, the rest of 2023 could be incredibly profitable for San Diego, but rather defeating for Washington. In his San Diego debut, we are going to look at an MLB player prop over on Underdog Fantasy involving none other than Soto! On the other hand, the New York Mets made some moves at the deadline, too, but the story here is that Chris Bassitt should feast on a weakened Washington lineup. Here are my favorite MLB player props on Underdog Fantasy for Wednesday, August 3.
Juan Soto OVER 7.5 Fantasy Points
Good things tend to happen in debuts, right? He gets to face Chad Kuhl tonight, who has a 5.03 ERA in 2022, and has allowed a .271 average and .365 wOBA to left-handed hitters. Over his last five starts, Kuhl has been destroyed, to the tune of an 8.71 ERA and 3.05 HR/9. Soto has a .973 OPS and .417 wOBA against right-handed pitching, and when you combine Kuhl’s recent struggles with Soto’s new and improved supporting cast, it’s hard not to envision Soto surpassing 7.5 fantasy points in his San Diego debut. Also, it’s not really an apples to apples comparison, but he has a career .448 slugging percentage and .791 OPS at Petco Park for his career.
Chris Bassitt OVER 5.5 Strikeouts
Attacking strikeout props against Washington hasn’t been the wisest move this season, but the Washington team we will see moving forward is vastly different compared to the iteration of this team we saw prior to August. However, even with Juan Soto and Josh Bell, the Nationals had the 11th-highest strikeout rate in baseball over the last two weeks, and when you look specifically at their numbers against right-handers, they were hitting just .219 with a 21.8 percent strikeout rate. Now, there’s no Soto and no Bell, so I expect an elevated strikeout rate from this team the rest of the way, at least compared to the first “half” of the season. Bassitt’s strikeout numbers have been a bit inconsistent of late, but he has at least six strikeouts in six of his last nine starts, and Bassitt should feast on some post-deadline blues in Washington following the trade of its face of the franchise.
Other Leans:
- James Kaprielian OVER 4.5 Strikeouts
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