Eight former Cy Young winners are set to take the mound on Opening Day when Major League Baseball begins a 2023 season that will look much different than any before it. Max Scherzer, Sandy Alcantara, Jacob deGrom, Shane Bieber, Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Corey Kluber and Zack Greinke are all set to start on Thursday and become the first pitchers in league history to operate under baseball’s new pitch clock. Scherzer and Alcantara are scheduled to face each other when the New York Mets visit Miami to take on the Marlins. New York is a -120 favorite (risk $120 to win $100) in the latest MLB odds from Caesars Sportsbook, while Miami is a +100 underdog. The over/under for runs scored is 6.5.
Elsewhere in the majors, deGrom makes his first start for the Rangers, against the reigning National League champion Phillies, and Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for Los Angeles at Oakland. Before making any MLB picks or parlays, be sure to check out the MLB predictions and betting advice from SportsLine’s proven computer simulation model.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every MLB game 10,000 times. It went 331-285 on top-rated MLB money-line picks (+357) over the past two seasons, and it finished the 2022 MLB season on a 20-14 roll. Anybody who has followed it has seen profitable returns.
For Opening Day, the model has locked in four confident MLB best bets for games that begin after 4 p.m. ET. If you successfully parlay the picks, you’d be looking at a payout of almost 15-1. You can only see the model’s MLB picks at SportsLine.
Top Opening Day MLB picks
After simulating every game on Thursday 10,000 times, the model is high on the chances of Philadelphia (+115) knocking off Texas. The Phillies are coming off a magical season in which they won the National League pennant and came within two victories of winning the World Series. In the offseason they bolstered their already potent lineup with the addition of Trea Turner from the Dodgers.
Philadelphia faces a Rangers team that struggled mightily with its relief pitching last season. Texas blew 30 save opportunities in 2022; only the Rays (36), Cubs (31) and Marlins (31) had more blown save opportunities. The front office did little in the offseason to bolster the bullpen; lefty Will Smith, who struggled last season, was the most significant addition. You can see who else to back here.
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