Jimmy Boyd
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVlCE PLAYS VlSlT THESPREAD.COM
1 Unit on LA Angels +109
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVlCE PLAYS VlSlT THESPREAD.COM
The Halos are showing excellent value in the home dog role tonight against a Rays team that is only 4-22 in their last 26 meetings in Anaheim. In fact, the road has long been unkind to Tampa Bay against elite teams as it is 56-146 in its last 202 road games vs. a team with a home winning % of greater than .600. Price is a good young prospect for Tampa, but he is 0-3 with an ERA of 8.20 in 6 road starts this season. Santana has certainly had his struggles, and I expect him to get hit tonight, but the Angels are 6-1 in his last 7 starts as an underdog and that shows you that he is a battler. The Angels are swinging hot bats, scoring 5.7 runs per game this season and they have dominated lefty starting pitching to the tune of 57-28 in their last 85 games vs. a left-handed starter. And lastly, the Angels are 20-6 in their last 26 games as a home underdog. Take the Halos for 1 unit showing good value as a home dog.
Has anyone got winnerscircles plays yet for today. They have been el fuego
Wunderdog
Sacramento at San Antonio
Pick: Sacramento +7
The oddsmakers are treating this Silver Stars team like they are the same one that blew through the WNBA a season ago at home, winners of 15 of the 17 games played here. They stand at just 6-4 so far this season at home, and resemble little of what last year's team accomplished. They have won half of those six games by four points or less. The Monarchs are not a good team, but are better than what they were at the beginning of the season. They opened by losing their first five on the road by 10+ points, collecting zero ATS wins. They have since won twice on the road and have been highly competitive. San Antonio has had great difficulties playing with short rest as they are now a woeful 1-11 ATS after just one day of rest. I like Sacramento to stay inside the number here vs. an overrated San Antonio team.
Rocketman
Oakland Athletics vs. Baltimore Orioles
Play: Oakland Athletics
Oakland is 50-62 overall this year while Baltimore is now 46-66 overall this season. Oakland is 8-3 this year as a road underdog of +150 to +175. Oakland is 213-138 overall in August since 1997. Baltimore is 8-13 last 3 years as a home favorite of -150 to -175. Baltimore is 132-240 since 1997 after 3 or more consecutive losses. Oakland has won 6 of their last 8 games overall. Baltimore has lost 9 of their last 11 games overall. Oakland is 13-4 overall vs Baltimore last 3 years including 4-0 overall vs Baltimore this year. Cahill is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA overall vs Baltimore since 1997. We'll recommend a small play on Oakland tonight!
Freddy Wills
San Diego Padres vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Play: San Diego Padres
We are catching a lot of value here today with the Padres facing off against the struggling Brewers. Brewers are now sliding down the wild card standings and are in jeopardy of not going to the post season. Padres on the other hand are playing great baseball and in my opinion the reason is no other than the return of David Eckstein. While Eckstein was out the Padres were 3-16. Since his return they are now an amazing 9-4. It just can't be a coincidence. Eckstein is the type of player that will take pitches and make an opposing pitcher work. Something that has paid off for him and the Padres since his return. Along with that we've got the young kid Clayton Richard starting against the Brewers for a third time. In two starts he has gone 10.2 IP and given up just 1 ER 6H and 6BB. He needs to improve his control, but he has good stuff and should be able to put up a quality start against the Brewers who are struggling against left handed pitchers. Brewers hitting .217 and scoring 3.38/9 vs. LHP over their last 5 and they are 2-5 in their last 7 vs. left handed starters. Looper will take the mound for the Padres and has struggled over his career vs. San Diego. He faced them and gave up 10H and 6ER less than 2 weeks ago and over his last 3 starts vs. Padres he's gone just 13 innings and has given up 15ER with 5HR. Padres are 8-3 in their last 11 vs. RH starters and are hitting .314 and scoring 6.15 runs per 9 innings vs. RHP in their last 5. Padres have a .316 career average vs. Looper including Adrian Gonzalez who is 6-15.
Lenny Del Genio
Tampa Bay Rays at Los Angeles Angels
Prediction: Over
Two marquee pitchers with ballooning ERAs in this situation meet tonight in the City of Angels. The oddsmakers love Tampa Bays David Price, but his road ERA is 8.20 in six starts. LAs Ervin Santana is even worse at home with a 12.37 ERA in six home starts. The Angels have gone Over in each of his last four starts. Of course this is a team that?s gone Over in 16 of 20 games overall. The Rays have gone Over in five straight. Take Over.
LARRY NESS
Texas Rangers @ Cleveland Indians
PICK: Cleveland Indians
The Rangers won two of three at Los Angeles over the weekend and are making a race out of this year's AL West, after finishing 21 games behind the Angels in 2008 (enter tonight's play four games back). Texas is now 9-3 vs the Angels in 2009 but will have no easy go of it the rest of the way, trying to either overtake the Angels or best the Red Sox for the AL's wild card spot. The Indians lost 21 of 28 from June 15-July 19 but despite getting rid of Cliff Lee (Phillies) and Victor Martinez (Red Sox), have gone 12-6 since that losing stretch. Dustin Nippert gets the call for Texas and it looks like he'll have a regular spot in the rotation now that the Rangers have designated Vicente Padilla for assignment. Nippert is 3-0 with a 2.73 ERA in eight appearances this year (four starts) but he remains a huge question mark. Lefty Aaron Laffey goes for Cleveland and he's got a 1.86 home ERA in five appearances (four starts) this season. He's 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA in those four home starts (team is 3-1) and is coming off an excellent outing last Wednesday, when he allowed just one unearned run in a career-high eight innings to beat Minnesota 8-1 in Cleveland. While the Rangers are 19-6 vs lefties at home this year, they are just 5-10 on the road vs left-handed starters, including 3-8 at night (3.5 RPG). Take the Indians.
Scott Rickenbach
Texas Rangers @ Cleveland Indians
PICK: Under 9.5
Both of these pitchers are still "flying under the radar" a bit and that is helping to give us line value with the under in this match-up. Dustin Nippert of the Rangers is taking the spot of Vicente Padilla whom was designated for assignment Friday. Nippert is 1-0 with a 3.50 ERA in four starts this season. Also, this will be his first appearance against Cleveland and that should certainly help the right-hander as well as the Indians hitters are getting their first looks at him. As for the Cleveland pitcher, we feel Aaron Laffey is absolutely "in the zone" right now! The southpaw is 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA in his four home starts this season. Overall, Laffey is a solid 5-3 with a 3.58 ERA on the season and he's been throwing his best stuff of the season in recent outings. Look for more of the same here against the Rangers.
Note that Texas is 67-36 to the under this season! That is simply amazing and there are angles here that also add support for playing the under. The Rangers are 27-10 to the under when facing a left-handed hurler. Also, the Rangers are 4-1 to the under (and 12-6 the last 3 seasons) when they shut-out their opponent in their prior game. The Rangers beat the Angels 7-0 on Sunday. Also, Texas is 25-11 to the under this season when playing a team with a losing record. As for the Indians, note that they are 11-4 to the under this season (and 25-12 the last three seasons) when at home and installed as small favorite (of up to -125). Consider a small play on UNDER the total in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
Dave Price
1 Unit on Colorado Rockies -1.5 +105
I'll back the Rockies on the run line at home tonight as they continue to roll against a Pirates club that has now lost 8 in a row. The Rocks have won 8 of 11 coming in and should handle a Pirates club that is 3-17 away from Pittsburgh since June 18. Colorado is an impressive 12-1 against the money line as a home favorite of -150 to -200 this season, winning by an average score of 7.7 to 3.9. Cash in with Colorado.
Bob Donahue
Mets at D-Backs
A pair of weak offenses go here, as well as a pair of pitchers who do not walk anyone. Livan Hernandez of the Mets is a veteran who can still get it done, with a winning record and excellent control. Max Scherzer is a talented young arm for Arizona, with 120 strikeouts in just 116 innings. A good spot for a low scoring tilt in the desert, Play the Mets/D-Backs Under! the total.
ATS Consultants
Washington Nationals/Atlanta Braves OVER 8.5
Solid pitching matchup between two young and upcoming starters in the National League. The Nats are red hot, and playing great Baseball under interim manager Jim Riggleman. Putting up a ton of runs, which has come by surprise.
John Lannan (8-8, 3.39) will pitch tonight for Washington. Lannan has been the Nats best pitcher all year, and will more than likely lead the young rotation into the next decade. Washington has some very good young arms in their system, and this guy will be a great anchor for the staff, hopefully for years to come. He’s 2-2 with a 2.45 ERA in his last 5 starts.
Likely rookie of the Year Tommy Hanson (6-2, 3.22) goes for the Braves tonight. Hanson has taken the league by storm and is another in a long line of great pitchers developed by the Braves. Hanson is 2-2 with a 4.35 ERA in his last 5 starts. The Nats are hot of late, and have been scoring a lot of runs, so Hanson will have to be on his game.
Kansas City Royals/Minnesota Twins OVER 9
A battle of two pitchers who are trying to find themselves right now tonight at the Metrodome. Nick Blackburn has been struggling after a great start to the season for the Twins, while Kyle Davies has pretty much been awful all year for Kansas City.
Davies (3-8, 6.37) showed some promise in spring training but it just hasn’t materialized during the season thus far. He even spent some time in the minors to try to figure it out, but was pounded for 8 runs on 8 hits in 3 2/3 innings last week in his first start back. He’s 1-4 with a 9.36 ERA in his last 5 starts and it doesn’t look to improve tonight against the Twins.
Blackburn (8-6, 3.79) has really hit the wall of late after a terrific start. Obviously his record for the entire 2009 season is very good, but his recent record is not so good. He’s 1-2 with a 7.22 ERA in his last 5 starts. What’s far more of a concern is the 47 hits allowed in just 28 innings in that span. He’ll have to turn this around ASAP if the Twins want to contend in the AL Central. They’re currently 5 games behind the Tigers with about 50 to play.
I did get Winnerscircle sports Plays
Philly +124
Yankees on runline
Twins on runline
Wunderdog
Sacramento at San Antonio
Pick: Sacramento +7The oddsmakers are treating this Silver Stars team like they are the same one that blew through the WNBA a season ago at home, winners of 15 of the 17 games played here. They stand at just 6-4 so far this season at home, and resemble little of what last year's team accomplished. They have won half of those six games by four points or less. The Monarchs are not a good team, but are better than what they were at the beginning of the season. They opened by losing their first five on the road by 10+ points, collecting zero ATS wins. They have since won twice on the road and have been highly competitive. San Antonio has had great difficulties playing with short rest as they are now a woeful 1-11 ATS after just one day of rest. I like Sacramento to stay inside the number here vs. an overrated San Antonio team.
Tampa Bay at Los Angeles Angels
Pick: Los Angeles Angels +110
After a lot of early failures, mainly do to an injury depleted pitching staff, and their best player out of the lineup, the Angels have risen steadily to now hold the third-best record in baseball. And they are still under the radar. They have been especially lethal against lefthand pitching, where they own a 24-11 mark. This isn't something new, as a year ago they went 29-18 to bring their two-year total against the port-siders to 53-29. While the Rays are vastly different the last two seasons, the biggest area it has shown up in is at home where they are 98-45, but has not translated on the road where they are just a less-than-average team at 68-78. When they are favored on the road they are an even worse 12-28. The Angels have been riding momentum as they are now 27-9 in their last 36 off a win, good enough to make them the choice here as a very live dog.