The Tigers and Twins are set to continue their series at Target Field on Wednesday night. Sam Connon shares his picks and predictions in regards to Detroit\u2019s starting pitcher, Framber Valdez, and his strikeout props.<\/p>\n
The Detroit Tigers are visiting the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, with first pitch set for 7:40 p.m. ET\/6:40 p.m. CT. Framber Valdez will take the bump for the Tigers, facing off against Twins righty Bailey Ober in Minneapolis. Looking at the odds, lines and Valdez\u2019s strikeouts prop on DraftKings Sportsbook<\/a>, here is a breakdown of how the All-Star southpaw could perform in his second outing of the season.<\/p>\n Framber Valdez Strikeouts Prop<\/p>\n DraftKings Sportsbook currently has Valdez\u2019s strikeouts thrown line set at 5.5 for Wednesday\u2019s contest against the Twins.<\/p>\n Through two starts this season, Valdez is 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA, 1.083 WHIP and 0.6 WAR. He lasted 6.0 innings in both outings, recording five strikeouts in each. Valdez enjoyed a far cleaner outing on April 3 than he did on March 27, allowing three hits, two walks and no runs after giving up seven hits, one walk, one earned run and one unearned run in his regular season debut. In that limited sample size, Valdez ranks in the 84th percentile in breaking ball run value and 97th percentile in offspeed pitch run value, per Baseball Savant<\/a>. His fastball run value, on the other hand, is in the 30th percentile. Valdez is getting batters to chase at a 38.3% rate \u2013\u00a0which ranks in the 92nd percentile \u2013\u00a0but his whiff rate ranks in the 15th percentile at 17.9%.<\/p>\n Valdez took a bit of a step back in 2025, considering what he accomplished in prior seasons. The southpaw earned All-Star bids in 2022 and 2023, on top of placing top-10 in AL Cy Young voting in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Still, he went 13-11 with a 3.66 ERA, 1.245 WHIP, 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings and a 3.6 WAR across 192.0 innings in 2025. Valdez spun that into a shorter-term \u201cprove it\u201d deal with Detroit, securing $65.6 million over the next two years, plus $75 million in options over the following two.<\/p>\n