Hello and good Friday to you. I love good news and Friday generally is good news in and of itself for many people. Here, under the Matt Snyder byline on CBS Sports, Friday means it’s time for another installment of picks, or, as I like to call this little exercise, Friday Night lines.
There’s a full slate of 15 games on Friday and they all come at night, so there’s plenty of time to get that action in. All lines are from Draft Kings.
Given how historically bad the White Sox have been these last two seasons, a good move is to find less obvious ways to fade them. As an example, the Astros are -245 on the moneyline today and even the run line (-1.5) is -135.
In that case, how about plus money on a workhorse starting pitcher to get the win?
The Astros are obviously the much better team here and Valdez has averaged nearly 15 wins per season since 2022-24. He’s only 1-3 thus far in 2025, but the door is open here. He’s been very good in four of his six starts. He’s worked 14 innings with four earned runs allowed in his last two and both teams were much better than this White Sox group.
Even better? The White Sox have won three of their last seven and won on Thursday, 8-0, while the Astros were off. They aren’t good enough to keep ripping off wins like that. It’s a good spot for this play.
Robbie Ray to get the win (+115)
We’re just going to live in that same mindset here. The Rockies got off to a historically bad start. They’ve now won two straight games, moving their record all the way to 6-25. Are they really going to win three in a row? Can they actually win two straight on the road against a good Giants‘ team?
It seems like such a good spot to grab the Giants, especially now that they’ve lost three of four and just had an uncharacteristic bullpen meltdown.
The Giants’ moneyline is -290 (hard pass) and the run line (-1.5) is -122.
Robbie Ray to get the win, though, is +115. Hello!
The Giants have won every single Ray start this season and he’s 3-0 in the six games. In his three home starts, he’s given up four runs in 18 innings (2.00 ERA). Those starts came against much better offenses than the Rockies.
So far this season, Judge has 10 home runs in 31 games. That’s in only 117 at-bats. At home, he has seven home runs in 15 games and 54 at-bats. Rays pitcher Ryan Pepiot can be homer-prone, as he’s coughed up eight gopher balls in his last five starts this season. Judge is 2-6 (.333) in his career against Pepiot without a home run, yet, but his last at-bat yielded a deep flyout and that was just two weeks ago. It’s ready to happen Friday, possibly even in the first inning.
If you want a little bit juicier odds here, look at Ben Rice (+300)
Futures play: The field vs. Aaron Judge for AL MVP (+425)
Judge is -650 in this one. It’s incredible to see the books acting like the AL MVP race is sewn up here on May 2, but that’s where we are.
The most likely outcome here is Judge winning his third MVP in four seasons. That’s absolutely true. I would understand anyone saying this is a stupid bet. It might well be. I just think the +425 number is enticing enough to grab right now with so much of the season left in the balance. It isn’t Sept. 2. Judge has seasons with 112, 106 and 102 games played on his resume. He only managed 28 of the 60 in 2020. Now, he did play in 157 in 2022 and 158 last season and looked pretty damn sturdy this season, so I totally get it if most people want to avoid betting on a possible injury or backslide. Just remember he was cruising in 2023 when he crashed into the wall at Dodger Stadium and missed a huge chunk of the season.
If Judge gets injured and misses at least six weeks or suffers a major slump (which feels unlikely, but remember we still haven’t even seen 20% of the season), the door opens for someone like Bobby Witt Jr. to spring into action here.
I’ll play +425 that it’s anyone else.
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