It is Monday and we are back with another MLB slate breakdown for PrizePicks.

There aren’t as many games as usual, as we have one morning game and nine evening games.

Thanks to all of the different projection categories, we still have plenty of options to choose from.

I’ve narrowed it down to my favorite four picks for tonight’s baseball. 

Maeda gets to square off against the same team that he carved up in his last start.

He racked up nine strikeouts against the Mariners in Seattle and now gets to face them at home in Minnesota.

He has now recorded at least six strikeouts in four of his last five starts, which has been his best five-start stretch of the season.

Maeda typically doesn’t throw more than 86-88 pitches, but he has a 29% strikeout rate and is facing a team that has the second-highest strikeout rate against right-handed pitching this season. 

The Brewers may not have the most potent offense (25th in team wOBA against right-handed pitching), but they take a ton of pitches.

In fact, they average the fourth most pitches per plate appearance against right-handed pitching.

This is a great statistic to look at when it comes to driving up an opponent’s pitch count.

In two starts against the Brewers this season, Ashcraft has only thrown for 10 innings combined (or 30 pitching outs).

There are a lot of paths to success in this one, as the Brewers can drive up the pitch count, draw walks, or score runs early and often. 

I typically don’t venture into the pitches thrown market, but I have my eye on this one for tonight’s slate.

Gray has thrown fewer than 89 pitches in four of his last six starts.

In his last outing, he was hit with a come-backer and had to leave the game immediately.

So, in addition to regularly throwing less than 90.5 pitches, there’s also the potential for his leg to start hurting during this start.

It also helps that he has a tough matchup on the road. Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Chas McCormick, and Yainer Diaz all boast at least a .350+ wOBA against right-handed pitching. 

Carroll has one of the highest projections of any hitter on the slate over at RotoGrinders and it’s easy to see why – he’s facing the struggling Adam Wainwright in a game that has one of the highest totals on the slate.

Carroll owns a .416 wOBA and a .323 ISO against right-handed pitching this season.

In addition to the power, he has already stolen 29 bases. He should be licking his chops for this matchup, as Wainwright has allowed a .485 wOBA and a 36% hard contact rate to batters from the left side of the plate.