After the long four-month MLB offseason, the best time of the year is here: Opening Day.
Today marks the start of the grueling 162-game season which will feature breakout stars, disappointments, and ultimately, triumph when the World Series champ raises the trophy in October.
Even if the team you're a fan of is bad, there will always be at least a couple players that are still a thrill to watch and perform on a day-to-day basis.
The daily grind allows fans to constantly be researching in order to find certain players that are on fire or hitters that dominate a certain head-to-head matchup against a pitcher. Weather, advanced stats, pitching matchups, and odds should all be considered.
Of course, hitters like Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Shohei Ohtani, and other behemoths will be popular picks, but it rarely seems worth it to take a stab with their short odds.
In this article, we'll focus on a few players with odds longer than +400 that look to be in good matchup, starting with two Baltimore Orioles.
Adley Rutschman (+600) - BAL Orioles
Rutschman had an injury riddled down season last year after making the All-Star game in 2023 and 2024, but the former No. 1 overall pick still has loads of talent.
Batting fourth in the lineup, Rutschman is sandwiched in between Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo - two terrific power hitters. The O's will get a matchup against Minnesota Twins' Joe Ryan who allowed 16 homers to left-handed batters in 2025 (1.71 HRs/9 innings).
Primarily a four-seam fastball thrower, Ryan threw his favorite pitch 54.7% of the time in 2025 and 50.8% of the time in 2024. Luckily for Rutschman, that's the pitch he crushes the best.
Four of Rutschman's nine bombs last year came against right-handed fastballs, good for a .195 ISO. He also barely whiffed on the pitched (9.5%). Adley pulls the ball at a high clip and hits them hard, a perfect formula for the dimensions of Camden Yards. Hopefully that he hits a couple fly balls.
Let's move on to another left-handed Oriole who crushes fastballs.
Colton Cowser (+475) - BAL Orioles
Cowser is more known for his power than Rutschman, explaining the shorter odds. He only played in 92 games last year but hit 16 homers, a pace for about a mid-20s home run season.
The lefty slugger absolutely destroys fastballs, hitting six homers and sporting a .282 ISO against right-handed fastballs in 2025. Hit hits them hard, pulls them, and puts them in the air.
While Pete Alonso, Gunnar Henderson, Taylor Ward, and Tyler O'Neill headline the Orioles' pop, Cowser and Rutschman are terrific candidates to go deep against Ryan today.
Matt McClain (+550) - CIN Reds
This has some scary potential considering the beast the Cincinnati Reds lineup is facing today in 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up Garrett Crochet.
However, Crochet was susceptible to giving up some bombs to right-handed hitters - he allowed 21 of them last year. Crochet throws three different versions of a fastball - a four-seam, cutter, and sinker, while throwing hitters timing off with his sweeper.
The four-seam is what we want McClain to target. Crochet threw it 38.7% of the time last year, and McClain owned a .262 ISO against the pitch in 2025.
McClain had a terrific rookie season in 2023 in which he hit 16 homers in 89 games, but was just an average player last year, hitting 15 out in 147 games.
However, he might have been the MVP of Spring Training if there was such an award. McClain was on absolute fire in the exhibition games, hitting seven homers in 18 games and having an OPS of 1.540. While Spring Training shouldn't matter too much considering the amount of minor league level pitchers, it's still good to see that his timing has been impeccable for a month straight.
Moreover, McClain is 2-for-3 against Crochet in his career, with both hits having exit velocities of over 95 MPH. McClain ended last year's campaign hot, was hot in Spring Training, and has had good success against Crochet, albeit in limited opportunities.
With his odds at +550, McClain is a good candidate to go deep.
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This article is not gambling advice, it's simply a fun discussion. All odds were correct at the time of writing and are subject to change.
