Tasty trio of thumpers for Dinger Tuesday

Dinger Tuesday is back, and so is our foray into this market. While we did not identify a HR hitter last week, we did circle the right games, collecting a good chunk of free bets back from FanDuel. The promotion gives you $5 per HR hit in the game that you bet on a player, a fun weekly tradition for our summer baseball fix. Let's get some picks right today, shall we?

Philadelphia Phillies @ Cincinnati Reds

We're a sucker for weather, and the Cincinnati forecast is suggesting a 14% increase in homers today. Both teams could conceivably knock it out of the park here. Philadelphia's Kyle Gibson has surrendered a nice chunk of homers this season, and the Reds are trotting out a very green T.J. Zeuch, who has logged just four innings this year. Given that the Phillies rank fifth in the league in home runs, we're going to zero in on that side for our pick today.

Rhys Hoskins (+290) — We're going with Rhys Hoskins, who has hit 24 HRs this year for Philadelphia. Hoskins has been getting the ball in play lately, with a hit in nine of his last 11 games. After hitting a homer in four straight games, he's been quiet since. This feels like a nice opportunity for him to get back on track.

Houston Astros @ Chicago White Sox

The Chicago wind is blowing out favorably today, giving us a 14% expected boost in homers. It's a quality game between two good starters in Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease, so the bats are going to need to step up for us to turn a profit on this game. We've found just the guy.

Jose Abreu +440 — Since 2017, Jose Abreu has faced off against Justin Verlander 51 times. He's knocked six home runs off the right-handed hurler and that's history we will gladly follow today. Abreu is on a tear at the plate, with two hits in three straight, so now it's just about harnessing that power he has displayed before. Abreu has 14 HRs on the season; let's make it 15 by tomorrow morning.

Seattle Mariners @ Los Angeles Angels

This is the biggest projected boost to HRs today, Los Angeles is bringing the heat and wind that elicit more long bombs. Ballpark Pal has this game slotted as a 20% boost to homers. Both teams rank inside the top 14 for total homers as a team, so this is the quintessential game designed for Dinger Tuesday. Robbie Ray has given up 22 HRs this season for Seattle, which is the fourth-most in the league. That makes our choice clear: the Angels.

Luis Rengifo +630 — Let's ride the hot hand, shall we? The Angels third baseman has three HRs in his last seven games, and six of his eight HRs this year are off LHPs. He has a hit in 25 of his last 30 games and has a much better slugging percentage and batting average against lefties. Did we just fall in love with a +630 HR pick? Yes we did. 

That will wrap our Dinger Tuesday picks. We'd sure like to nail some. Parlays are irresponsibly fun, but we'll note here that a parlay of these three gentlemen comes in at a tidy +15076 on FanDuel. Cheers to MLB tonight!

In other news ...

Cristiano Ronaldo granted permission to find a new club — 37- year-old star Cristiano Ronaldo has been trying to leave Manchester United all summer and the feeling appears to now be confirmed as mutual. If Ronaldo can find a new club, United will grant his transfer, but he's running out of time. The market isn't high on Man U this year, currently +15000 to win the EPL. Any movement from Ronaldo will surely have an impact on the odds, whether his next club remains in the Premier League or elsewhere. This is one to monitor.

Dodgers lose their ace for the season — After finishing fourth in the NL Cy Young race last season, Walker Buehler of the Dodgers has dealt with arm issues all year long and has been shut down for the year. Despite the absence of Buehler and Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles still owns the best record in the NL. The Dodgers are the +360 favorites to win the World Series, even with this news. Reliable arms are supremely important in October, so the team certainly needs to see Kershaw get healthy sooner before later.

No cause for concern with Brady absent from Tampa Bay training camp — Buccaneers QB Tom Brady has been absent from camp for a few weeks now, but according to the team, this was preplanned and cleared by the organization. Our guess is that the 45-year old Brady has been to enough camps and is looking to spend some time with his family before the grind of the season gets going. We still like Brady's chances at bringing home a fourth MVP award, a bet we wrote about at length a few weeks ago.

Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll