{"id":660967,"date":"2026-04-03T15:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660967\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:18:28","slug":"mlb-picks-today-best-mlb-bets-april-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660967\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Picks Today: Best MLB Bets April 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s home opener day across much of MLB so we get a glorious full day of baseball! Mike Barner is here with his best MLB Picks and Props from the packed card<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Top
\n\t\tTop MLB Prop Bets for April 3: Expert Picks & Insights<\/p>\n

There are a lot of day games Friday with many teams having their home opener for the season. Among the exciting matchups for the slate are the Royals hosting the Brewers and the Marlins taking on the Yankees. Let’s sift through the betting options and highlight three player props to consider.<\/p>\n

Mike Barner’s season record: 3-3 (-0.75 units)<\/p>\n

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Best MLB Prop Bets April 3New York Mets \"NYM\"\/ at San Francisco Giants \"SF\"\/ Betting PicksNolan McLean<\/a> over 5.5 strikeouts (-120) at FanDuel for 1 Unit<\/p>\n

McLean logged five innings against the Pirates in his first start of the season, posting eight strikeouts and allowing four runs. After taking the mound in the WBC, he threw 84 pitches in his first outing with the Mets. He threw at least 90 pitches in all eight of his starts in the majors last year and he should be able to at least approach that mark again Friday.<\/p>\n

The Giants have had problems making contact out of the gate, posting 62 strikeouts across seven games. Even though David Peterson<\/a> was limited to 68 pitches against them Thursday, he still had five strikeouts. McLean has a 31.0% strikeout rate during his brief career in the majors after missing a lot of bats throughout his stops in the minors. He has the potential to blow past this strikeout prop.<\/p>\n

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Houston Astros \"HOU\"\/ at Athletics \"ATH\"\/ Betting PicksCristian Javier<\/a> over 2.5 earned runs allowed (-118) at DraftKings for 1 Unit<\/p>\n

Injuries have put a damper on Javier’s once promising career. Over the last two seasons, he logged a total of 71.2 innings. Across eight starts last year, he posted a 4.62 ERA and a 4.97 xFIP. He only had a 21.7% strikeout rate to go along with his 9.6% walk rate. Control issues have plagued him, even when he was at his best, considering his career 10.0% walk rate.<\/p>\n

Javier was tagged for six runs over 4.2 innings in his season debut against the Angels. He issued four walks, hit two batters and had just one strikeout. He also gave up two home runs. The Athletics have struggled at the plate, but all of their games up to this point have been on the road. Last season, they had the eighth-highest home OPS in baseball. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Javier gave up a crooked number in this matchup.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies \"PHI\"\/ at Colorado Rockies \"COL\"\/ Betting PicksJustin Crawford<\/a> over 1.5 hits + runs + RBIs (-143) at DraftKings for 1 Unit<\/p>\n

Crawford is a contact hitter with speed. In 2024, he hit .337 over 41 games at Double-A. He followed that up by hitting .334 over 113 games at Triple-A last year. In addition to his stellar batting average, Crawford had an 11.5% walk rate to go along with his 18.0% strikeout rate. With his .393 wOBA, the speedster racked up 46 stolen bases.<\/p>\n

Over his first five games with the Phillies, Crawford is 7-for-17 with one walk and four strikeouts. In terms of this prop, he posted at least two combined hits, runs and RBIs in four of the games. He will look to stay hot against Michael Lorenzen<\/a> at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Lorenzen has a career 4.31 xERA and 1.31 WHIP. He’s not a swing and miss pitcher as he has just a 19.6% strikeout rate for his career. Crawford could be on base multiple times in this game.<\/p>\n

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MLB Prop Picks RecapNolan McLean<\/a> over 5.5 strikeouts (-120) at FanDuel for 1 UnitCristian Javier<\/a> over 2.5 earned runs allowed (-118) at DraftKings for 1 UnitJustin Crawford<\/a> over 1.5 hits + runs + RBIs (-143) at DraftKings for 1 Unit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s home opener day across much of MLB so we get a glorious full day of baseball! Mike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,2291,74922,4,1586],"class_list":{"0":"post-660967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","10":"tag-minor-league-stats","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116341449389884439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}