Friday’s MLB schedule is a full slate of 15 games, including a number of rivalry games with playoff implications. The Yankees and Red Sox battle again in the Bronx, the Mets visit the Braves while trying to stay in the Wild Card hunt, and the Dodgers and Padres battle for NL West supremacy in San Diego. There’s no shortage of MLB betting choices to make at the top sportsbooks on Friday.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every MLB game 10,000 times. It enters Week 21 of the 2025 MLB season at a profitable 31-23 on top-rated MLB money-line picks. The Inside the Lines team has locked in on its most favorable props for Wednesday’s games. Here are some of their best plays.
Best MLB player prop pick for Friday, Aug. 22:
Sportsbook promos for MLB player props on Friday, Aug. 22
The FanDuel promo code offers new users $300 in bonus bets after placing a winning first wager of $5 or more. The bet365 bonus code gives new users $200 in bonus bets after making a first bet of $5 or more, win or lose. The DraftKings promo code also offers $200 in bonus bets, and also gives new users a one-time $200 discount code for NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube TV.
The BetMGM bonus code gives new users up to $1,500 in bonus bets, up to the amount of the user’s first bet if that bet loses. The Fanatics promo code gives new users a $100 No Sweat Bet every NFL or college football weekend game day through Oct. 12 if their first bet on football that day loses.
The Caesars Sportsbook promo code offers 20 100% profit boost tokens to new users after they place a first bet of at least $1.
Best MLB prop on Friday
Blake Snell Over 5.5 strikeouts
Blake Snell is our top projected strikeout pitcher and there is solid betting value on his Over 5.5 Ks prop. Most books have this set at around -115. We’d set the Over 5.5 at -190. We’ve had success with Overs on other pitchers (notably Brandon Woodruff) who have missed most of the current season, resulting in lower K lines. Those lines would likely be higher if the pitchers had been healthy all season. Snell basically missed the first four months of the campaign, but since returning to the rotation in August, he’s averaged the same seven strikeouts he did last season (he’s 12-8 to this Over). The southpaw only had three strikeouts in his last start, but it was a very good outing as he threw six shoutout innings.
MLB home runs, stolen bases, strikeouts cheat sheet
The SportsLine Projection Model was developed and is powered by the Inside the Lines team. You can find all of the team’s picks and content at our blog, which has all our personal best bets for free. The system is simple: We take the strongest SportsLine Model projected values vs. the best available prices at the time we publish our content. In most cases, lines move in our direction, so you should bookmark the blog, follow us on social and make it a habit of checking for updates throughout the day to maximize your expected value.
The table below shows today’s projected leading home run, stolen base and strikeout leaders. We include the projection, and for HRs and SBs, the money line we’d set for YES HR/SB. You can use this cheat sheet to compare it to your book’s line, and if your book’s line is significantly higher than ours (and you like the player), then you would want to consider that bet.
