MLB All-Star Props Preview

MLB All-Star Props Preview – MLB’s All-Star weekend started with a bang last night with the wonderful show that is the Home Run Derby.

Pete Alonso defended his crown running through the competition with hype and swagger.

Alonso burst into the competition with a record 35 home runs in the first round and made it look easy against Salvador Perez. He then went on to defeat a tired Juan Soto in the semifinals.

Soto had a grueling first-round matchup versus the betting favorite and the crowd favorite, two-way star Shohei Ohtani. It took going to a three-pitch swing off to end the contest between the two after they tied after the original round and the additional swing off.

Soto also tallied the longest home run in derby history with a 520 Ft moon shot in his first few home runs of the first round.

Pete Alonso then advanced to the Final versus Trey Mancini and his 23rd homer of the final round walked it off against Mancini, the Orioles star who missed the 2020 season with colon cancer.

Alonso became just the third person ever to win the Home Run Derby in back-to-back years after both Ken Griffey Jr. (1998-1999) and Yoenis Cespedes (2014-2015)

All the excitement of last night will lead directly into the festivities us baseball fans will be treated to tonight with the MLB All-Star Game.

The 2021 MLB All-Star Game will take place on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX) from Coors Field in Denver, as the superstars from the American League take on the superstars of the National League once again.

Last season’s game was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this year’s game will be the first since 2019 when the AL got the better of the NL 4-3 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

The AL has won seven straight matchups versus the NL dating back to 2013, but the betting trend this year suggests that the National League will end the drought.

PointsBet Sportsbook currently lists the National League as slight favorites at -113 and the American League as slight dogs at -104.

Besides the straight money lines, there are a ton of valuable prop bets that will be present for tonight’s game.

MLB All-Star Game MVP? Who hits the first home run? Who gets the most K’s?

Let’s look at the best props for tonight’s Midsummer Classic.

Best Bets

With the simpler bets, it does not take too much research to determine what bets to favor in this star studded matchup. The AL has won 25 of the last 32 meetings for the Midsummer Classic, and the last seven as previously mentioned.

Both teams have strong pitching staffs and lineups, and they are virtually equal.

I’m tempted to cautiously take the National League to win their first All-Star game in eight years, and end the long streak for the American League. The NL has some great depth throughout their batting lineup and their pitching staff, and it should be enough to carry them to victory.

With pitching being absolutely dominant in the MLB this year, it is hard to think that this one will carry over it’s set total of 11 runs. Look for pitching to dominate and for the NL and AL’s lineups to capitalize off of a few power shots for their runs.

The Under is also an amazing 11-3 over the last 14 All-Star games.

An interesting number when you consider that the game sees baseball’s best players all coming together for one humongous event. But as always the best pitchers will beat the best hitters everytime.

There has been also been an average of 6.86 total runs scored per game over this time period and they have only reached 10 runs or over once in that stretch.

From there, there are the props. The biggest of them all will be betting on the All-Star Game MVP.

Shohei Ohtani is the odds on favorite for this bet that as of the time of this article does not have odds present on DraftKings or PointsBet Sportsbook. Given that Ohtani will have the opportunity to pitch and bat in this game, I do not see any reason he won’t be given a ton of votes tonight with a decent performance.

Especially after what some would call a disappointing performance in Monday’s Home Run Derby when he got eliminated in the first round.

But if the AL is not able to pull through for the victory, then it is unlikely that Ohtani gets the award being apart of the American League team. My vote from the NL would go to Nolan Arenado.

He is returning to the starting place of his MLB Career after leaving this offseason for St. Louis. He will be looking to have a good performance back at the familiar Coors Field.

Moving on from the MVP bet, props get slim, but there is one I particularly like and that is National League to score first and win at +265 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook. I think Max Scherzer will put together a solid first few innings for the NL and their offense will pull through early on Ohtani.

NL is due for a victory here as well and runs will come at a premium.

Other than that, many of these bets are true toss ups simply because of the superstar talent on both sides. Betting on which superstar will get the better of the other is hard to do, especially in baseball with all the different advance metrics.

I will stick with what we know from All-Star game past and that recently means a lower scoring affair with a few power shots that contribute to the final total. It would be quiet the story for Arenado to return to Colorado and put on a show.

And same thing applies for the already record breaking Shohei Ohtani. He has already become the first to be voted in as both a positional player and pitcher, why not add an All-Star Game MVP to the trophy case.

Best Bets: Ohtani or Arenado for MVP – National League ML (-113) – u11 runs (-115)