Rookie Sean Burke takes the mound for the Chicago White Sox on Friday. As with most young pitchers, the control has been an issue throughout most of his professional career. In the minors, he routinely had a BB/9 over 5.0, and it peeked above 6.0 for short periods of time.
In 48 innings this season, he’s walked 27 batters!
It usually takes multiple seasons for young pitchers to getting excessive walk rates under control. As a result, I will be targeting that suspect control, especially against lefties, as 20 of his 27 walks have come against them.
Best Josh Smith prop bet for opening game of series with White Sox
Josh Smith 1+ walks (+105); 2+ walks (+650)
Yeah, I’m feeling saucy. If you’re not on board with that, then 1+ walk is at +105.
Smith is a lefty and bats leadoff against right-handed pitching, which is always helpful to maximize plate appearances. He has a .359 OBP against righties and 10 of his 14 walks on the season have come against them.
While he only has one multi-walk game, he posted three in that contest.
The 5.06 BB/9 for Burke is second-most in the league behind Charlie Morton’s 5.27.
