Los Angeles @ Oakland Picks & Props

The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Seth Brown will hold the platoon advantage over Jack Flaherty in today's game... and even better, Flaherty has a large platoon split. Seth Brown will have the benefit of the home field advantage in today's matchup, which ought to improve all of his stats.

Lawrence Butler is projected to hit 1st on the lineup card in this matchup, which would be an upgrade from his 67% rate of hitting in the bottom-half of the batting order this season. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Considering Jack Flaherty's large platoon split, Lawrence Butler will have a big advantage batting from the opposite side of the dish in today's game. Home field advantage typically bolsters batter metrics across the board, and Lawrence Butler will hold that advantage in today's matchup. This season, Lawrence Butler has experienced a significant increase in his exit velocity on flyballs, now sitting at an average of 95.2 mph compared to last year's 90.4 mph mark.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Zack Gelof in the 91st percentile as it relates to his BABIP talent. HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. Home field advantage generally bolsters batter stats across the board, and Zack Gelof will hold that advantage in today's game. This year, Zack Gelof's flyball exit velocity (an advanced standard to evaluate power) is in the 84th percentile at 94.6 mph.

The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Home field advantage typically boosts batter stats across the board, and Abraham Toro will hold that advantage in today's matchup.

J.J. Bleday is projected to hit 3rd in the lineup in this game. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Because of Jack Flaherty's large platoon split, J.J. Bleday will have a colossal advantage batting from the opposite side of the dish in this game. Home field advantage generally improves batter stats in all categories, and J.J. Bleday will hold that advantage in today's matchup. J.J. Bleday has been cold lately, with his seasonal exit velocity of 88.8-mph dropping to 84.4-mph over the past week.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Gavin Lux in the 77th percentile when assessing his BABIP ability. Gavin Lux is projected to bat 3rd in the lineup today, which would be an upgrade from his 90% rate of hitting in the bottom-half of the lineup this year. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Hitting from the opposite that Mitch Spence throws from, Gavin Lux will have an edge in today's game. Gavin Lux has made sizeable gains with his Barrel% in recent games, bettering his 4.5% seasonal rate to 13% in the last 14 days.

The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Hitting from the opposite that Mitch Spence throws from, Cavan Biggio will have an edge in today's game. Last season, Cavan Biggio had an average launch angle of 14.4° on his highest exit velocity balls, while this year it has significantly increased to 25.2°. Cavan Biggio's average launch angle on his highest exit velocity balls recently (39° in the last two weeks) is significantly higher than his 25.2° seasonal angle.

HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Nick Ahmed has seen a substantial increase in his exit velocity on flyballs of late; just compare his 91.6-mph average in the past 14 days to his seasonal EV of 89.5-mph. Compared to his seasonal average of 13.5°, Nick Ahmed has significantly improved his launch angle of late, posting a 49.3° mark in the last week's worth of games. Nick Ahmed's average launch angle on his hardest-contacted balls this season (15.8°) is quite a bit higher than his 11.7° figure last year.

HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. Batting from the opposite that Mitch Spence throws from, Kevin Kiermaier will have an edge in today's game. Kevin Kiermaier has seen a significant improvement in his exit velocity on flyballs this year; just compare his 90.7-mph average to last season's 87.4-mph average. Last season, Kevin Kiermaier had an average launch angle of 4.4° on his highest exit velocity balls, while this year it has significantly increased to 8.4°. Despite posting a .240 wOBA this year, the leading projection system (THE BAT X) believes Kevin Kiermaier has been unlucky given the .033 gap between that mark and his estimated true talent wOBA of .273.

Jason Heyward has primarily hit in the back-half of the batting order this season (76% of the time), but he is projected to hit 5th in the batting order in this game. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Hitting from the opposite that Mitch Spence throws from, Jason Heyward will have an edge in today's matchup. In the past two weeks, Jason Heyward's exit velocity on flyballs has seen a big rise, from 92.3-mph over the course of the season to 95.1-mph in recent games. When it comes to plate discipline, Jason Heyward's ability is quite impressive, sporting a 2.05 K/BB rate this year while ranking in in the 80th percentile.

Shohei Ohtani projects as the 4th-best hitter in the majors, via the leading projection system (THE BAT X). Shohei Ohtani is projected to hit 1st in the lineup today. It may be smart to expect worse numbers for the Oakland Athletics offense in future games, given that the leading projection system (THE BAT X) sees them as the 4th-luckiest offense in the majors this year. It is scheduled that we will see a Pitchers Umpire (Alex Tosi) calling pitches today. Oakland Coliseum grades out as the #30 ballpark in the game for home runs, according to the leading projection system (THE BAT).

Miguel Andujar's batting average ability is projected to be in the 84th percentile according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X). Miguel Andujar is projected to hit 2nd in the lineup today. HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Home field advantage generally bolsters batter stats in all categories, and Miguel Andujar will hold that advantage in today's matchup.

When estimating his BABIP ability, Teoscar Hernandez is projected as the 12th-best hitter in the game by the leading projection system (THE BAT X). Teoscar Hernandez is penciled in 2nd in the lineup in this game. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Teoscar Hernandez's average launch angle on his hardest-contacted balls in recent games (18.7° over the last two weeks) is quite a bit higher than his 14.8° seasonal figure. With a .341 Expected wOBA (or xwOBA, an advanced metric created by the leading projection system (THE BAT X) using Statcast data) this year, Teoscar Hernandez has performed in the 80th percentile for hitting ability.

HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Kike Hernandez has seen a significant improvement in his exit velocity this year; just compare his 90.4-mph average to last season's 87.8-mph mark. Compared to his seasonal average of 15.7°, Kike Hernandez has significantly improved his launch angle of late, posting a 22.6° angle in the last two weeks' worth of games.

Shea Langeliers is projected to bat 5th in the lineup in this matchup. HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Home field advantage generally improves hitter stats in all categories, and Shea Langeliers will hold that advantage in today's game. Over the past week, Shea Langeliers's exit velocity on flyballs has seen a big rise, from 95.6-mph over the course of the season to 99.3-mph lately.

HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Andy Pages has been hot lately, raising his seasonal exit velocity of 88.3-mph to 91.1-mph in the last 7 days. In the past 7 days, Andy Pages's 33.3% rate of hitting balls at a HR-optimizing launch angle (between 23° and 34°) shows big improvement over his seasonal rate of 15.8%. Based on Statcast metrics, the leading projection system (THE BAT X)'s version of Expected wOBA (.327) provides evidence that Andy Pages has experienced some negative variance this year with his .290 actual wOBA.

The leading projection system (THE BAT X) projects Brent Rooker in the 96th percentile when estimating his overall offensive ability. Brent Rooker is projected to hit 4th in the lineup today. HRs are generally more common at fields with shallow fences, and Oakland Coliseum has the 8th-shallowest in Major League Baseball. The wind projects to be blowing out to RF at 9.2-mph in this contest, the 3rd-strongest of the day for bats. Home field advantage generally boosts hitter stats across the board, and Brent Rooker will hold that advantage in today's matchup.