A prop market that has grown in popularity and offered at FanDuel is the daily strikeout leader. The sportsbook lists odds for every starting pitcher on a given day and you can bet on who will finish with the most strikeouts on the slate.
Keep in mind, much like sports such as golf with leaderboards, dead-heat rules do apply. So if a pitcher you bet on ties with another pitcher, your odds are cut in half.
There are a couple of strikeout artists atop today's odds board, starting with Baltimore's Corbin Burnes at +470 against the Chicago White Sox. Right behind him are Houston's Justin Verlander (+600) against the Oakland Athletics, Washington's MacKenzie Gore (+650) against the Seattle Mariners, and Arizona's Zac Gallen (+850) against the Miami Marlins.
My value play in this market can be found further down the odds board, however, and the focus is on Kansas City Royals veteran Seth Lugo at +1300 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
While this isn't as egregious as us finding Paul Skenes at +1700 this time last week, Lugo has been far too good for his odds to be this high.
Lugo has had 8+ strikeouts in four of his last five starts and 10+ strikeouts in back-to-back starts.
Lugo's not going to be able to keep that kind of pace up all season, but his curveball/slider/slurve mix has been lethal with two strikes, which has given him a ton of K upside this year.
The Rays are also a plus matchup for him, so I'm projecting him closer to +1000 to take this prop down today.
Below, you can find my projections for the daily strikeout leader today, Friday, May 24th.
