It is Tuesday, which means it is Dinger Tuesday for FanDuel users. Despite that, there are several pitchers in good spots around the league. Drew Rasmussen has gotten off to a great start this season; nearly as great as his team. With an 8-3 win over the Astros Monday night, the Rays improved to 20-3 and 14-0 at home. Rasmussen will get the ball for game two of their series against Houston.
The Philadelphia Phillies will spend their week battling a pair of playoff teams from the AL West. Tonight, they get the Seattle Mariners before a World Series rematch with the Houston Astros. Before they can think about avenging their loss to the Astros, first they have a tough assignment with Logan Gilbert on the mound.
Since Giancarlo Stanton went on the IL, the Yankees' bats have gone cold. In their last eight games, they have scored two runs or fewer in six of them. Their struggles may continue against Twins' starter Joe Ryan.
It could be a big night for us with 19 combined strikeouts from Rasmussen, Gilbert and Ryan.
MLB Player Props For Tuesday, April 25
Drew Rasmussen Over 5.5 Strikeouts (+100)
| Astros vs. Rays | |
| First Pitch | 6:40 p.m. ET |
| Best Line | DraftKings |
Drew Rasmussen has been nearly spotless in three of his first four starts, holding the Nationals, Athletics and Reds scoreless. Sandwiched in there is an outing against the Toronto Blue Jays where he allowed five runs in 4 1/3 innings. Thus far, he is 3-1 with a 2.01 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings. Rasmussen has cleared this line in three of his four starts and he had seven in all three of those games.
Now, you might be thinking Rasmussen has feasted on bottom feeders and struggled against the Blue Jays' potent lineup. While that may be true, they are still major leaguers. The Astros are more in line with the Blue Jays' offense. Though, they have been vulnerable to strikeouts this season. Opposing starters have went over their strikeouts props in four of their past six games. Three of them were right-handed pitchers, including Tampa's Taj Bradley Monday night.
Bradley caught a bit of break with Yordan Alvarez out of the lineup after he was sent back to to Houston for examination. However, even with Alvarez in the lineup, the Astros are 16th in strikeout percentage at 23.6%. Rasmussen is striking out 30.6% of the batters he has faced this year, ranking in the 90 percentile of MLB pitchers.
Rasmussen will likely go between five and six innings in this start. A strikeout per inning will cash this over.
Pick: Drew Rasmussen Over 5.5 Strikeouts (+100)
Logan Gilbert Over 5.5 Strikeouts (-138)
Editor's note: The Mariners announced Tuesday afternoon that Marco Gonzales will start in place of Logan Gilbert.
| Mariners vs. Phillies | |
| First Pitch | 6:40 p.m. ET |
| Best Line | FanDuel |
In his first four starts, Logan Gilbert has allowed: one run, three runs, one run and four runs. If that trend continues tonight, it means he is line for another excellent outing. Gilbert is 1-1 with 3.57 ERA and a 2.31 xERA, which is a good sign of things to come for him. The young flamethrower has always had electric stuff and this year he has had a lot of success via punchouts.
Gilbert has recorded six strikeouts in each of his first four starts. If this line moves to 6.5 before you are able to bet it, I am comfortable there as well as he had seven strikeouts in three of those starts. He is coming off an outing in which he had eight strikeouts against the Milwaukee Brewers. You can take Gilbert for eight strikeouts tonight at +300 on FanDuel. He will have a good shot to get there against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Philadelphia is striking out 24.7% of the time, which ranks 10th in the Major Leagues. Five of the last seven starters it has faced went over their strikeouts lines. Four of them were right-handed pitchers and had at least six. Gilbert has not faced many of the Phillies' hitters, which will work to his advantage. Two that he has faced are Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh and they are a combined 1-for-16 against Gilbert with nine strikeouts.
A couple strikeouts each off Schwarber and Marsh could help Gilbert get six strikeouts and climb farther. I feel comfortable taking him up to eight.
Pick: Logan Gilbert Over 5.5 Strikeouts (-138)
Joe Ryan Over 6.5 Strikeouts (-110)
| Yankees vs. Twins | |
| First Pitch | 7:40 p.m. ET |
| Best Line | DraftKings |
Joe Ryan is off to a 4-0 start this season with a 3.24 ERA and 2.46 xERA. You can make the case he has a lot to do with the Twins (13-10) currently being over .500 to start the year. He has had a lot of success via the punchout. Ryan has had recorded seven strikeouts in two of his first four starts. He was hooked on six in his first start of the year when he was only stretched to 80 pitches.
In the two starts that he went over, Ryan smashed this line with 10 strikeouts. One of those starts came against the Yankees on April 13th in The Bronx. Ryan allowed just one run on three hits with the 10 strikeouts coming in just six innings. While I generally follow the philosophy of a team getting a second look at a pitcher in a short span favoring the hitter, the Yankees are always a good target for strikeouts.
At 25.6%, The Yankees rank sixth in the MLB in strikeout percentage. In their past two games, Sonny Gray and Kevin Gausman (11) had at least eight strikeouts. Additionally, including Ryan, Twins starters have gone over their strikeout props in four of five games against the Yankees this season. Tyler Mahle went under by just one as well.
Ryan has had excellent command this season, striking out 30.5% of the batters he has faced while walking just 4.2% of them. The Red Sox made him work in his last start, but his pitch count has increased in each of his last four starts, throwing 100 against Boston. If he goes six innings again, he will likely approach 100 pitches again. That should be enough time for him to get seven strikeouts, but I think Ryan could climb higher as well.
You can take Ryan to get eight strikeouts at +164, nine at +310, and 10 at +600.
Pick: Joe Ryan Over 6.5 strikeouts (-110)
