Spring Training has come and gone, some stadiums will have fans in the stands and ThriveFantasy has MLB Prop Bets Picks to be made on MLB Opening Day (4-1-21)!
ThriveFantasy gives each player an over/under on a single statistic or a sum of two or three stats combined. Then, based on the difficulty of the outcome, sets a point value to the over and the under.
Our goal is to select 10 of the 20 prop bets available, to tally up the most points to win the grand prize.
ThriveFantasy also gives us that all-important “ICE” pick. An Ice pick is in case one of your players you previously selected gets ruled out last minute. This will come in handy when there are rainouts (Red Sox - Orioles) and with COVID (Nationals - Mets) still around.
Below, I share one hitter over, one hitter under and one pitching prop bet I like!
ThriveFantasy 4-1-21 MLB Prop Bets Picks: Opening Day!
Fernando Tatis Jr. - vs Madison Bumgarner (Dbacks) - 1.5 hits + runs - over
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At home against left-handed pitching, Tatis is a career .349 hitter with three doubles, one triple and a home run.
Tatis torches Bumgarner, with six hits (1.825 OPS) in 11 at bats, including two home runs.
The Padres offense is one of the best in the MLB and San Diego has an implied run total of nearly six runs in the opener.
A Fernando Tatis home run and bat flip are all we need for this prop to hit!
Jose Abreu - @ Dylan Bundy (Angels) - 0.5 home runs - under
Abreu has great career numbers against Bundy with six hits (1.198 OPS) in 13 at bats, including a home run.
While most of us remember Bundy as being that Orioles prospect that never panned out, what he did last year with the Angels was incredible. He had a 2.95 FIP with just a 3.06 xERA, both good for top 10 in the MLB!
Dylan Bundy also cut his HR/FB% in half down to 8%.
Jose Abreu hit just .233 this Spring with one home run in 60 at bats. However, that home run did come in one of the final games. Spring Training rarely means much, but it's something to consider here.
The loss of Eloy Jimenez in the White Sox lineup is a big hurt to Abreu as added protection in the lineup as well.
Jacob deGrom - @ Washington Nationals - 6.5 strikeouts - over
There are concerns about at least one more positive COVID-19 test with the Nationals following the positive yesterday, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/eon1BnXXsd
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 1, 2021
The Washington Nationals have had a player test positive for COVID and five other "people" will be put into the league's quarantine protocol. If any of the Nats big bats are forced to miss Opening Day, deGrom should be able to cruise through that lineup.
I know above I just said Spring Training stats rarely mean much, but just look at what deGrom did this year!
- 13.2 IP
- 0.66 ERA
- 0.66 WHIP
- 21 K
- 13.8 K/9
- 3 BB
deGrom is locked in and only once in his last five starts against Washington has failed to record more than six strikeouts.
Shane Bieber (@ Detroit Tigers) is the only other starting pitcher with a prop bet on ThriveFantasy. At 7.5 K, ill take the under, I like him to hit 7 strikeouts though.
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