Bruce Marshall
New York at Buffalo
Pick: Buffalo
Lots of distractions the past two weeks with Bills, with the Dareus suspension a disruptor, but this is solely based upon Rexy's 6-1 spread mark in second preseason games. His winless spread mark in preseason openers held up again last week, so he is a bit formful in exhibitions. Eli plays a bit for G-Men this week but still probably a lot of Nassib, who was miserable last week vs. Miami, which could not slow Dallas on Friday.
Don Best Consensus
Milwaukee at Seattle
Pick: Seattle
The Brewers are 17-38 in their last 55 road games. Seattle are 11-3 in their last 14 overall. Fernandez is the Mariners' ace, they have won his last 3 and five of the six starts he's made since returning from a two-month DL stint. Hernandez has faced Milwaukee just once, throwing eight scoreless innings with four hits allowed in a 2-0 win in 2013.
ASA
Athletics vs. White Sox
Play: White Sox -1½
Chris Sales is still searching for his 15th win. Though he's been denied in his most recent attempts it certainly wasn't all due his pitching. Sale is coming off of a rare rough outing where he allowed 5 earned but that was only the 4th time this season that he has allowed 5 earned runs or more in a start. The prior 3 times this has happened Sale followed it up with a solid start and, in these 3 outings, he compiled a 2.05 ERA. The White Sox southpaw, prior to giving up 5 earned runs in his most recent start, had a 2.17 ERA in his 4 prior starts. He is 7-2 at home this season and has a 2.51 ERA and 0.84 WHIP in his career outings against the A's. Oakland will have Ross Detwiler on the mound and the southpaw got absolutely crushed at Texas in his most recent start. The White Sox have won by at least 2 runs in 5 of Sale's 7 home victories this season. Overall, 5 of the ChiSox last 6 wins have come by at least 2 runs. 14 of the A's last 18 losses have come by 2 runs or more. Great value with the run line here as the ChiSox have a huge edge on the mound and we can get plus money by laying the 1.5 runs with the White Sox Saturday.
Oskeim Sports
Carolina at Tennessee
Play: Carolina -115
From a technical standpoint, NFL teams playing in their second preseason game following an opening-season loss (i.e. Kansas City) are a profitable 92-53-3 ATS since 1994 versus teams coming off a win in their exhibition opener.
This week two preseason angle, which has been made popular by my colleague in the handicapping industry, Bob Stoll, contains a very strong 55-13-1 ATS subset angle that is 10-3 ATS since 2013 (3-0 ATS last preseason; 2-2 ATS this preseason).
Buster Sports
Houston vs. Baltimore
Play: Baltimore -130
The Orioles put their 40-20 home record on the line tonight as they play the 3rd game in their 4 game set against the Houston Astros. We have a huge pitching mismatch here and the we believe the oddsmaker has come up a bit light today in setting the line. The Orioles send RH Chris Tillman (15-4, 3.46 ERA) to the hill and Tillman has been special at home this year with an 8-1 record. Against the Astros in his career he has a 2.48 ERA with a WHIP of 1.071. The Astros send RH Mike Fiers (8-6, 4.66 ERA) to the hill tonight and he has been having a rough time of it lately. In his last 3 starts he has a 6.32 ERA with a WHIP of 1.340. When Fiers ventures on the road it is not any better, as he is sporting a 6.40 ERA with a WHIP of 1.596. Backing our selection is the fact that the Orioles are 8-2 in Tillman's last 10 starts after scoring 5 runs or more in their previous game and also the fact that the Astros are 4-13 in the last 17 meetings in Baltimore. We had this line at 150 with the Orioles only laying 130 at the time of this writing. We see HUGE value in the Orioles and we will take it.
3G-SPORTS
Buccaneers vs. Jaguars
Play: Jaguars -3
Head coach, Gus Bradley, is lucky he can get some new pressure with his front four. Malik Jackson and Dante Fowler are going to be a pain for the Oline the entire time they are in there, attacking relentlessly. The Bucs are going to hate running against nasty fronts like the Jags bring to the table. Doug Martin has had his problems in the past, breaking past the first level - and Jacksonville LB Paul Posluszny is one guy that isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and chase someone down who breaks through the Dline. Buccaneers are 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games overall Jacksonville wins this one by 11 or more.
FRANK JORDAN
New York vs. Buffalo
Play: New York +2.5
The Giants had a down year last year where they had many leads late and just couldn't hold on and also gave up the most yardage by any defense. In 2015 the Giants lost eight games by 7 or fewer points which lead to a 6-10 record if they split those eight games they would have been a 10-6 team and possibly of made the playoffs. Buffalo was a .500 team in 2015 with an 8-8 record, but had their struggles on the road going 3-5 and were 1-3 against NFC. In the first game the Bills came up short in their first game last week against the Colts losing 19-18. The Giants started strong against Miami scoring 10 points in the first quarter, but the rest of the game was all Miami who scored 27 unanswered. With the starters playing a little longer in this game look for the Giants to build up a big enough lead in the first half to hold on and win 27-24 in the end behind a Eli and Jennings.
Jeff Benton
Your Saturday freebie is the Cards as the road favorite over the Phils.
St. Louis can ill-afford to slip up against Philadelphia, as they did start the weekend with a way-too-close extra-innings win over the Phillies last night.
The Cardinals have won their last 5 games - all of them on the road! - and are now a sparkling 37-23 on the road for the season.
That fact will help rookie Luke Weaver who makes his second start in the bigs against a Philadelphia team that has lost 9 of 11 to St. Louis.
Jeremy Hellickson will counter, and is having a pretty nice season for the Phils, but has not started since August 10th as back stiffness forced him out of that contest.
Just too much on the line for the Cards, so expect them to keep up their strong road play and notch win # 6 in a row.
4* ST. LOUIS
Gabriel DuPont
Complimentary play, I look to improve on my 106-83 run with free picks: Chicago at COLORADO (+130).
The STORYLINE in this game today - Suddenly, there is value with an underdog against baseball's best team. The Chicago Cubs are in the Mile High City, and the Colorado Rockies are the better play in this one for a few reasons. First, we have a low chalk with the best team in the bigs, so the oddsmakers are telling you something. Second, the Rox have won three straight, including last night's 7-6 thriller over the Cubbies. Finally, there's the big-league debut intangible.
The X-FACTOR in making this choice on this game - The key for this one for me is going to be right-hander Jeff Hoffman, and that's why I'm only listing him. One of the's team's top pitching prospect will make his Major League debut. Listed as Colorado's No. 3 prospect (MLBPipeline.com), comes in with plenty of tools, including a fastball, curve, slider, and a changeup that has made rapid development. He will be good here, and could trip up the Cubs.
BOTTOM LINE is - Bottom line here is remembering that it is always important to give a starting pitcher a look in his big-league debut, as it means several things: he is pumped up for his big day and will work his arsenal to its extent and to the best of his ability. Plus, the opposition doesn't have a real scouting report and is seeing all his stuff for the first time.
5* ROCKIES
Brad Wilton
Comp play for Saturday is to side with Tampa's hottest pitcher - and pretty much one of the hottest pitchers in the majors! - Jake Odorizzi as he looks to help the Rays rebound after a loss last night snapped their 4 game winning streak.
You know there is a reason when a first place team is the underdog to a last place team this late in the season, and the main reason is the fact Odorizzi is 4-0 since the All-Star Break with a scant 1.66 ERA.
Odorizzi has also gone 2-0 in 3 starts against the Texas Rangers with a 1.37 ERA in those efforts!
A.J. Girffin will counter, and none of his last 11 starts qualify at "quality" starts. He also owns a season ERA of 4.68.
Yes, Texas won last night behind Cole Hamels, but tonight I see the Rays "ace" doing the damage and carrying the night.
Tampa Bay to even this weekend series with Texas.
2* TAMPA BAY