
Chicago Cubs
@

Texas Rangers
+110O/U: 8
(-110/-110)-130
(-110/-110)-130
Chicago Cubs Insights
- Jameson Taillon – Over/Under 4.5 Strikeouts (-135/+105)Jameson Taillon’s higher utilization rate of his secondary pitches this year (64.5% vs. 54.6% last season) figures to work in his favor since they are typically much more effective than fastballs.Explain: A pitcher who limits has fastball usage will instead heavily use change-ups, curveballs, sliders, etc. These are far more effective pitches at preventing runs and generating strikeouts.
- Seiya Suzuki – Over/Under 0.5 Hits (-165/+125)In terms of his batting average, Seiya Suzuki has experienced some negative variance since the start of last season. His .253 figure falls considerably below the leading projection system (THE BAT X)’s version of Statcast-based Expected Batting Average (xBA) at .279.Explain: xBA uses highly advanced Statcast data to measure a player’s batting average ability more accurately than actual batting average can.
- Dansby Swanson – Over/Under 0.5 Total Bases (-150/+115)In today’s matchup, Dansby Swanson is at a disadvantage facing the league’s 6th-deepest CF center field fences given that he hits his flyballs towards center field at a 40.4% rate (99th percentile).Explain: This player’s skill set does not match up particularly well with the park he’s in today, which may lead to worse-than-usual performance.
Texas Rangers Insights
- Jacob deGrom – Over/Under 6.5 Strikeouts (-110/-120)Among all starters, Jacob deGrom’s fastball velocity of 96.5 mph is in the 90th percentile this year.Explain: Velocity is a key component to fastball success in generating strikeouts and preventing runs.
- Joc Pederson – Over/Under 0.5 Hits (-125/-105)Joc Pederson has primarily hit in the top-half of the batting order this year (93% of the time), but he is projected to hit 6th in the lineup in this matchup.Explain: The lower in the order a player bats, the fewer plate appearances he will get and the fewer opportunities he will get to hit the Over for every market. A player who hits lower in the order than he normally does may provide extra value opportunity since the market may be based on him hitting higher.
- It may be sensible to expect better results for the Texas Rangers offense the rest of the season, given that the leading projection system (THE BAT X) believes they are the 9th-unluckiest offense in baseball this year.Explain: When teams underperform their projected talent level, markets may undervalue them even while they are likely to perform better in the near future.
Betting Trends
- Over/Under 8.0 Game Total (-110/-110)The Texas Rangers have hit the Game Total Under in 28 of their last 40 games at home (+15.90 Units / 36% ROI)
- Chicago Cubs – Over/Under 3.5 Team Total (-130/+100)The Chicago Cubs have hit the Team Total Over in 27 of their last 40 games (+12.95 Units / 28% ROI)
