Friday night’s MLB slate is loaded, and three of the board’s biggest bats are lined up in spots that scream opportunity. We went digging through today’s home run boards and total bases numbers and came away with a trio of props that don’t need much explaining once you see the matchups: two of the league’s most dangerous power hitters chasing homers against shaky arms, and a former MVP candidate who’s quietly turned red-hot in a hitter’s park.
None of these are longshots dressed up as locks. Each one is grounded in real recent form, a favorable pitching matchup, and odds worth grabbing before the lineups lock. Here’s the best of the board for Friday, August 14.
CJ Abrams Chasing Homer No. 30 Against a Struggling Mets Arm
CJ Abrams has been one of the National League’s most productive shortstops all season, sitting at 29 home runs and 91 RBI with a .284 average and a robust .898 OPS. He’s shown he can go deep in bunches, too — five homers over a recent seven-game stretch — and he’s got a real track record of torching the Mets specifically, including a three-run blast off New York pitching back in May.
The matchup tonight only sweetens the pot. Mets right-hander Robert Stock takes the ball with an ugly 10.13 ERA and a 2.12 WHIP through his first two big league outings, having allowed far too much hard contact for a pitcher trying to hold down a rotation spot. Abrams hits left-handed and has feasted on right-handed pitching all year, and Citi Field’s dimensions haven’t stopped him before. A hitter with 29 homers already, facing a pitcher this hittable, is exactly the kind of spot bettors should be circling for a homer prop.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s Total Bases Play Fits Right Into a DK Parlay
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. isn’t having a monster power year by his own lofty standards, but total bases over 2 is a different animal than betting on a homer outright — it just needs one extra-base knock or a couple of singles to cash. Vladdy has cleared 1.5 total bases in bunches this month, including a 2-for-5, two-total-base game against Boston earlier this week, and he continues to make consistent, hard contact even in a stretch where the ball hasn’t always found grass.
Friday’s matchup pits him against Gerrit Cole and the Yankees at Rogers Centre, and while Cole is having a strong season, Guerrero has never been an easy out against elite arms — he grinds at-bats and sprays the ball to all fields, which plays well for a total bases number. As part of a same-game or cross-game DraftKings total bases parlay, this is the type of floor-raising leg that helps carry bigger combos across the finish line without needing a full breakout game — and if you want to compare tonight’s full slate of options first, the player prop search tool is a quick way to check.
Elly De La Cruz Is a Live Longshot at Plus Money
Elly De La Cruz might be the most electric power-speed combo in baseball right now, and he’s sitting on 20 home runs already this season — a number that undersells just how loud his contact has been all year. At +350 to go deep, sportsbooks are pricing him as a real threat rather than an afterthought, and the numbers back it up: De La Cruz has gone deep in roughly one out of every five games he’s played in 2026.
He gets the Marlins on Friday, a matchup that’s produced fireworks for Cincinnati bats before. De La Cruz’s blend of raw exit velocity and increasing pitch selectivity means the power is legitimate and not just empty swings — when he connects, the ball tends to leave the yard in a hurry. At plus-money odds, this is a classic power bet: it won’t hit every night, but the price makes it worth the swing, especially as part of a broader same game parlay built around big power numbers.
Lock These In
Friday’s board gives bettors a nice mix of a red-hot favorite, a steady total bases floor play, and a true power longshot — exactly the kind of combination that makes for a fun parlay or a spread of straight bets. Here’s the recap:
- CJ Abrams OVER 0.5 Home Runs
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. OVER 2 Total Bases
- Elly De La Cruz to hit a Home Run (+350)
Check your book for the latest lines before first pitch, but all three of these bats are in spots worth attacking tonight.
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