Atlanta Braves vs Oakland Athletics Prediction: Can Jared Koenig Rack Up the Strikeouts in His MLB Debut?

Atlanta Braves vs Oakland Athletics Prediction: Can Jared Koenig Rack Up the Strikeouts in His MLB Debut?

We need a respect pick today. If you don't know what a respect pick is, it's when you're with your friends talking bets. It can be in a group chat, in person, whatever. Respect is respect. Everyone knows that. While they're all throwing out their -200 MLB money lines and over 10 runs bets, you bust out with a guy nobody has ever heard of to cover a strikeout prop. Now keep in mind it has to be a guy nobody has ever heard of. You want someone to say "who?" or "I've never even heard of him" or something along those lines. You're instantly in charge of the group for at least the next 30 minutes. If there is a decision to be made in that half-hour, you're making it. That's just how being a king works. The beauty of this situation is when this guy goes off and covers, you're a god. It's pretty much like the movie Juice except you don't have to kill anyone.

Let's dive into my player prop pick, prediction, and the odds for the Braves vs Athletics game.

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Braves vs. Athletics Start Time, Where to Watch, and Odds

• Date: June 8, 2022
• Game Time: 7:20 pm ET
• Where to Watch: BSSE, BSS, NBCSC, MLB.TV

Click Here for Braves vs Athletics Odds

Braves vs. Athletics Line Movement

Atlanta Braves vs Oakland Athletics Player Prop Pick

Jared Koenig Over 3.5 Strikeouts (-128) (Bet $128 to win $100)

*Odds available at FanDuel at time of publishing*

We're at FanDuel here because no other book on the planet has the stones to toss up a line on this guy. It's a shame too because the people would love it. I checked DraftKings, BetMGM, and Barstool and they've all got nothing on this kid. It's crazy. We live in a world where you can order Taco Bell and have it delivered to your home yet we can't get a $100 down on Jared Koenig to fan four people at any other book than FanDuel. That's crap.

Atlanta Braves vs Oakland Athletics Prediction

I'm going to be honest. I've never heard of this guy but that's the beauty of respect picks. Nobody has heard of these guys. But I looked him up and we've got the exact type of guy everyone creates in video games. The official industry term for this type of pitcher is "big-ass lefty". We're talking 6'5", 240 pounds here people. And judging by pictures I've seen, there's no chance this guy is only 240 pounds. Nice try Jared.

From what it looks like in his game logs, Jared is everything we want in a pitcher. He throws hard as hell and he strikes guys out. So far this season, Koenig has pitched nine games in AAA and has whiffed at least five guys in eight of those games. The time he didn't was the night he faced the Salt Lake Bees and only got one of them to sit down. The Bees are probably a team that never strikes out so that start doesn't count. Everyone knows that.

The best part about this respect pick is that we have the proper opponent in the Atlanta Braves. Between me and you, I'd take pretty much any lefty against these guys. There are three of them who are highly likely to be in the lineup tonight that fan 31+% of the time against southpaws. There are another seven that are 22+% versus wrong siders. Honestly, this pick is probably going to get all of us into the Gambling Hall of Fame. It is respect time people.

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