As a football fan of both varieties, the offseason can seem extremely long. You go about half a year between football games that matter (sorry, preseason NFL), and then they finally show up, and they pummel you. From Thursday to Saturday there were college football games everywhere you looked, and it was awesome. They were then followed by games on both Sunday and Monday night. It was heaven for a football fan.

Then Tuesday and Wednesday come along, and there's no football. Suddenly, those two days seem as long as the entire offseason, but thankfully, football will return on Thursday night. The Packers and Bears will start another NFL season, and I have a pick for that game available here, but like real life, you're going to have to get through the baseball first.

All odds are via William Hill.

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1. Minnesota Twins at Boston Red Sox: Twins +130

I will gladly take the Twins as underdogs when I can get them. Particularly when they're facing a team like the Red Sox, who are still technically in the wild card hunt but aren't really in the wild card hunt. Plus, Eduardo Rodriguez is starting for the Red Sox tonight, and while he's been perfectly acceptable this season, he's also a lefty. The Twins crush lefties to the tune of a .364 wOBA and .243 ISO. Combine that power with Rodriguez's tendency to lose his control, and the most homer-happy team in the league should add to its total tonight.

SportsLine's DFS Guru Jacob Gibbs crushed MLB season last year, cashing around 58 percent of the time in cash games and nearly 45 percent of the time in tournaments. See who he's stacking in Wednesday's MLB lineups only at SportsLine. 

2. Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Indians: Under 8.5

The pitching matchup here bodes well for a lower-scoring affair. Chicago's Ivan Nova doesn't strike out nearly as many hitters as Cleveland's Shane Bieber, but not allowing many walks is something they have in common. Nova's walk rate is 32 percent below league average while Bieber's is at 40 percent. Both also induce more groundballs than flyballs, which should depress scoring even further. Finally, the forecast calls for winds blowing in tonight, so what balls do get put in the air will have to fight against that. All of which bodes well for an under.

SportsLine predictive data engineer Mike McClure is a pro DFS player with almost $2 million in career winnings who cashed in the top five percent of tournaments on FanDuel and DraftKings multiple times. He's sharing his optimal lineups for Week 1 of NFL action; see his picks over at SportsLine.

3. Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears: Under 46.5

There's not much I like about the spread in this game, but I do like the under for a very simple reason. In football, offenses are all about timing and reps. Defense is about reacting to what you see. Well, Aaron Rodgers didn't play during the preseason. Mitch Trubisky and the key Bears starters on offense saw limited time as well. While Aaron Rodgers is Aaron Rodgers, it's not crazy to think he'll be a bit rusty in his first game action of the year. So with two offenses that aren't in the groove going against one another, I'm skeptical that we're due for a high-scoring affair here.

The SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times, is up more than $7,000 for $100 players on its top-rated NFL picks since its inception four years ago. See its picks for Packers-Bears only at SportsLine.