Tom Freese
Game: Tampa Bay Rays at Minnesota Twins
Prediction: Minnesota Twins
Reason: Minnesota starter Boof Bonser is in excellent KW form with 6-1 strikeout to walk ratio in his last 3 starts. The Twins are 5-0 in the last 5 Thursday starts made by Bonser. The Twins are 21-6 their last 27 home games vs. the Devil Rays. Tampa Bay is 3-9 in the last 12 road starts made by Jason Hammel and they are 35-89 their last 124 road games. The Devil Rays are 1-8 in Game 2 road series. PLAY ON MINNESOTA
John Ryan
Game: Colorado Rockies at San Diego Padres
Prediction: Colorado Rockies
Reason: Ai Simulator 3* graded play on Colorado. Steve Francis has gotten out of the gate quite slowly and was arguably the ace starter of the playoff Rockies of 2007. I can?t help but see the comparison to Oswalt, who had been struggling mightily in his first three starts. He pitched a gem in Philadelphia in a very tough hitter friendly venue. I believe, based on my research and the AiS grading that Francis will put in a comparable performance tonight. SD bullpen is complete disarray sporting a 6.69 ERA and a 1.710 WHIP on the season. Their bats are anemic hitting just 228 and scoring 2.7 RPG. So, it is all up to Peavy to win this game nearly completely on his own efforts. He is facing a surging offensive team batting 283 and scoring 6.3 RPG over the past 7 games and a strong bullpen sporting a 2.59 ERA over their last 7 games. Supporting this graded play is a system that has produced a record of 61-29 and has made 41.1 units since 1997. Play on road teams after a game where they had at least 10 more hits than their opponent and playing on Thursday. Take Colorado.
Bob Akmens
NHL: 3* ACTION: PHILADELPHIA / WASHINGTON OVER 5.5 +105
NHL: 3* ACTION: DALLAS -130 vs Anaheim
NHL: 3* ACTION: DALLAS / ANAHEIM UNDER 5.0 -130
NHL: 3* ACTION: MINNESOTA -120 vs Colorado
Hitman NY Mets
Winners Inc Chi Cubs
Larry Ness
Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics
PICK: Seattle Mariners
REASON FOR PICK: Which team will dominate this year's series between the Mariners and the A's? The A's won 17 of 19 meetings with the Mariners in '06 but the Mariners "turned the tables' last year, taking 14 of the 19 meetings. Seattle won the first meeting of this year with Oakland last night, 4-2. Tonight's game caps a brief two-game set between the two AL West rivals, as Carlos Silva meets Lenny DiNardo. The Mariners signed Silva from Minnesota in hopes he could not only give them innings (he's thrown at least 180 innings in each of his last four seasons) but also wins. Silva gives up a 'ton' of hits (1,122 in 945 innings over the last four years) but compensates for that with a low walk ratio. Over that same span, he's issued just 112 walks, including just NINE during all of 2005 (188.1 innings). Silva has "answered the bell" in the early going for Seattle, going 2-0 with a 3.27 ERA in three starts. Lenny DiNardo of Oakland will make his second start of '08, after two relief appearances in the early going against the Red Sox. DiNardo entered this season with 78 career appearances, only 27 of which were starts. However, 20 of those starts came last year but lets' note the A's were just 10-10 in those contests. DiNardo went five innings last Saturday at Cleveland, allowing six hits and only two ERs in a 7-3 win. While Silva is facing an Oakland team which has hit just .214 and totaled only six runs in dropping three of its last four games, DiNardo will face a Seattle team which thrived against lefties last season. Seattle went 28-13 (plus-$1,730) vs left-handed starters in '07 and while the Mariners have opened 1-2 vs lefties in '08, they have averaged 6.7 RPG. Take Seattle.
Black Magic Sports
1 Unit on Milwaukee Brewers -101
(Listing Parra and Lohse)
Milwaukee will not be dropping 3 straight games to their hated rival in the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon. The Brewers face an opponent they have owned over the years. Kyle Lohse has a sub-par 5.80 ERA against Milwaukee in 7 career starts. Meanwhile Manny Parra pitched a gem against St. Louis in his only start last season against them coming out with a 1.50 ERA after allowing just 1 earned run. The Brewers struggled against Braden Looper and Adam Wainwright in Games 1 and 2 of this series, but they will get it turned around against Lohse this afternoon. Plus the Brewers are 5-0 in their last 5 games with Dana DeMuth behind home plate calling balls and strikes. Cash in with Milwaukee as a slight underdog.
Black Widow Sports
1* on Houston Astros +162
(Listing Backe and Myers)
The Houston Astros should have won Games 1 and 2 of this series with Philly. Houston blew a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 9th in Game 1, but fought back nicely with a 2-1 win last night. The Phillies are still without Jimmy Rollins, the NL MVP last season. Without Rollins in the lineup the Phillies are a completely different team. Starter Brandon Backe will have his way with Philadelphia just as Shawn Chacon and Roy Oswalt did in Games 1 and 2. In 3 starts this season, Backe has gotten through with a brilliant 2.25 ERA to this point. Brett Myers of Philly is just 1-8 (-12.0 Units) against the money line at home when the total is 10 or higher in his last 9 starts. Cash in with Houston showing great value as the underdog tonight.
Ben Burns
SJS (-200) vs CAL
Analysis: The Flames have proven to be a more formidable opponent than most people expected them to be. However, the Sharks are the stronger team and they've seized the momentum in thes series, with a huge comeback victory in Game 4. The Flames seemingly had that game under control only to see the Sharks score the tying goal late in the third and follow it up with the winner in the closing seconds. While losing in that manner was devastating enough, additional bad news for the Flames was San Jose's top sniper and leader(Joe Thornton) was the one who scored the winning goal. Look for Thornton and co. to build momentum from that big win and seize control of this series.
Bob Balfe
Major League Baseball
Devilrays +105 over Twins
Hammel/Bonser
Savannah Sports
2 Units on Seattle +105
JB's Computer Plays
Cleveland Indians - 120
New York Mets - 160
Minnesota Twins - 125
GINA
Washington Nationals (4-11) at New York Mets (7-6)
(L) John Lannan (0-2) vs. (R) Nelson Figueroa (1-0)
Washington is in a slump. They have dropped nine of their last ten games and its last five on the road. The Nationals send John Lannan to the mound. The lefthander is 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA in two starts this season and the Nationals have lost five of Lannan last six starts. Go with the Mets tonight at Shea Stadium for a sweep of the struggling Nationals. New York counters with Nelson Figueroa. The right-hander was impressive in first start of the season, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning, before allowing two-runs, two-hits and striking out six in a 4-2 win against Milwaukee on Friday.
New York Mets - 165
Mr. A's
Texas Rangers (6-9) at Toronto Blue Jays (8-7)
(R) Vicente Padilla (1-1, 3.79) vs. (R) Roy Halladay (2-1, 3.00)
The Rangers have lost five of their last six and have struggle against the Blue Jays, dropping six of their last seven and five of the last six in Toronto. Take the Toronto Blue Jays with their ace Roy Halladay on the hill. The right-hander has won his first two starts and is 7-5 with a 5.45 ERA in 18 career appearances, including 17 starts against Texas. Toronto has won four of Halladay last five starts versus the Rangers. Texas counters with Vicente Padilla. The right-hander is 3-2 with a 3.74 ERA in five career starts against Toronto, including last Friday's defeat to Toronto. He gave up five runs and seven hits over six innings, in an 8-5 lost at home to the Blue Jays.
Toronto Blue Jays - 200
Mike Rose
Chicago White Sox
Gavin Floyd flirted with history his last time out going 7 1/3rd innings before allowing a hit to Tigers SS Edgar Renteria in the Sox 7-0 win over the Tigers. Floyd threw 107 pitches in the start allowing one hit and no earned runs with a K/BB ratio of 4/4. He’s currently 2-0 with a 2.03 ERA, and will be facing Baltimore this evening for the first time in his career. In his lone road start this season, he defeated the Detroit Tigers again but that was when their bats were still being held silent.
Opposing him will be righty Jeremy Guthrie who’s pitched brilliantly throughout his last two starts. Combined, he’s allowed 14 hits and four earned runs in 13.1 innings of work with a K/BB ratio of 6/3. He's worked into the seventh inning in each of his last two starts, but had late rallies by the opposing team erase him as the pitcher of record in both. He got roughed up by the White Sox in his only start against them last year giving up nine hits and six runs (5 ER) in just 3.2 innings of work in the O’s 9-7 defeat.
With last night’s victory, the White Sox are 9-4 their L/13 visits to Camden Yards, and a perfect 5-0 their L/5 road games as an underdog. Making matters worse for the O’s is the fact that they’re 4-10 in Guthrie’s L/14 home starts and 1-6 the L/7 times Guthrie faced a winning team.
Wayne Root
Chairman - Indians
Millionaire - Mariners
Insiders Circle - Padres
Tony Karpinski
Calgary Flames vs. San Jose Sharks
Play: San Jose Sharks
Calgary at San Jose (NHL Playoffs) 10:05PM ET This series between the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames has shown how fickle momentum can be in the NHL playoffs. The Sharks hope that after alternating wins the first four games, the emotions from a Game 4 rally capped by Joe Thornton's game-winning goal in the final 10 seconds will carry over into Game 5 on Thursday night. Both teams have won once on opposing ice and the Flames will have to do it at least once more in order to win their first playoff series since beating the Sharks in the Western Conference finals in 2004. San Jose is by far the better team and they'll win this crutial game 5 on home ice. Pick on the SAN JOSE SHARKS