Scott Rickenbach
Top Play - Rockies/Astros Over
Red Sox/Tigers Over
LA Angels
Matt Fargo
Giants at Nationals
Pick: Giants +106
The Giants lost in Washington last night but I do not see it happening again tonight. San Francisco has struggled on the road this season but it is playing the worst team in baseball who won for just the first time in seven games. The Nationals wins do not come often and they have not won back-to-back games since May 8th and 9th, going 0-4 following a win since then which shows just how few and far between those victories have been coming. The Giants are 7-16 on the road but Washington is 8-16 at home so the difference is minimal. Of those 16 losses for San Francisco, 12 have come against division opponents. Randy Johnson takes the hill tonight in search of his 300th victory and it has certainly been an up and down season. He started slow, went on a solid four-game run and then went on a three-game skid. He has now pitched tow straight solid games, allowing just one run in each and covering a combined 11.1 innings. His overall numbers are not very good and hat is basically due to three starts where he allowed seven runs in each. Take those out and his ERA drops from 5.71 to 2.79 in his other seven starts so you know the ability is still there, especially when facing a bad offense like the one Washington possesses. He faced the Nationals back in mid-May and did allow four runs but three of those were from home runs. The Nationals counter with Jordan Zimmerman who is definitely having his struggles in his rookie season. He started the season with two great starts but it has been all downhill since as he has given up at least five earned runs in five of his last six starts. He has been equally bad at home and even worse in his nighttime outings. The Giants are 11-4 in their last 15 games after allowing five runs or more in their previous game. Washington is just 4-11 against left-handed starters on the season and going back further they are 18-40 in their last 58 games against southpaws. 7* San Francisco Giants.
BIG AL
American League Over/Under Crusher
At 8:10 pm our selection is on the Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox under the total. In a very short span of time, young lefthander Clayton Richard has gone from the status of rotation replacement (originally for Jose Contreras) to being the White Sox most consistent starter over his last three outings. In those three starts, going back to May 18, Richard has gone 2-0 with just three earned runs in 20 innings. His reward is another great assignment tonight at home against a very weak hitting A's squad. And Richard will actually be the senior starter in this matchup against Oakland and its lefthander, Josh Outman. Outman has also pitched very well for his team and like Richard, Outman is going to make it very hard for his team to remove him from the rotation if he continues to pitch this way. Is Outman a strikeout pitcher or a control pitcher? Hard to tell judging from his last two outings, as on May 24 he went 7 2/3 innings and despite only allowing a single run, he failed to record a single strikeout. But then he followed that up with a nine strikeout performance in his very next start, which lasted just 6 2/3 innings. Go figure. Of course that last start was against the Rangers, so that could go a long way toward explaining the nine Ks. Chicago is without its top home run producer, Carlos Quentin, who will be out until at least June 10 with a foot injury, and this has all the earmarks of a low-scoring game. Take the under.
MLB Roadkill Winner
At 10:05 pm our selection is on the San Diego Padres over the Philadelphia Phillies. Think the Phillies have returned to their dominating form that won them the title in 2008? Perhaps we shouldn't read too much into the Phillies' recent success. Last year's World Series champs are 15-8 their last 23, which seems like a pretty decent streak. But upon closer inspection, if you take out the seven games (all wins) they've played against the Majors' worst team - the Washington Nationals - the Phils are actually 8-8 during this time. Tonight they play the second of a three - game set on the west coast against the Padres, a team that has been playing very well and had a surprising .500 record heading into this series. Big righthander Chris Young gets the start for the Padres and he has been one of their most consistent starters not named Peavy since he joined them in 2006. He has three quality starts in his his last three trips to the hill, and seems to do very well as long as he's not facing Colorado. Young has been particularly strong when he's pitched at home and has only given up three runs at Petco Park once this season in five starts there. He gets to face a young lefthander in J.A. Happ who is probably better suited to the bullpen, but is getting a chance to start thanks to the most recent health issues of Brett Myers. Speaking of the Nationals, Happ is 3-0 this season but all three of his wins (two in relief) have come against Washington. Take the Padres.
WeCoverSpreads
Braves-130
Derek Lowe who dominates on the mound creating many ground balls has efficiently pitched throughout his career vs.the bats of the Atlanta Braves. Last year when pitching for the Dodgers he held Chicago to a .204 batting average and in 2007 he held them to a .209 batting average. In the past two years he has allowed just five runs against the Cubs, with a 3.25 career ERA. Ted Lilly has a tough task at hand against Atlanta who has won six of their last seven home games. Lilly has a career 5.75 ERA against Atlanta. The Cubs are just 9-15 on the road this season with a .234 batting average on the highway. The Cubs haven't played the underdog role well as of late losing 13 of their last 16 games as a dog. The Braves bat .291 vs southpaws at home and that could spell trouble for Ted Lilly who gave up seven runs in starts vs the Braves last season.
Twins+104
We are catching nice value again with Anthony Swarzak on the hill tonight. In his two starts up from the minors who owns a 2.04 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. He has given up just three earned runs in 13 innings of work against solid Milwaukee and Boston offenses. He'll have the upper hand tonight since the Indians have dropped 9 of their last 10 games in the Metrodome. The Indians are without three of their best batters Asdrubal Cabrera, Travis Haffner, and Grady Sizemore. Cliff Lee has a 2-6 record this season but just hasn't gotten the help from his batters in his starts and without those three big bats tonight doesn't seem any different. Cleveland has just scored five runs in three games in the Metrodome this season. The Twins bullpen has been perfect there last three games with a 1.12 ERA vs a Cleveland bullpen that has imploded this season with a 5.16 ERA. We'll back the Twins tonight.
Tony George
Chicago White Sox
Bob Balfe
Washington Nationals
Stephen Nover
SD Padres
Ron Raymond
Phillies/Padres Over
Opposite Action Plays
NY Mets
Nick Parsons
Seattle Mariners
Tom Freese
Boston Red Sox
NY Mets
John Ryan
10* Boston Red Sox
Gamedaynetwork
Cincinnati @ St Louis
50* St Louis -130
Giants @ Washington
50* OVER 9
Baltimore @ Seattle
40* UNDER 8.5
Oakland @ White Sox
40* OVER 9
NY Mets @ Pittsburgh
40* Mets -120
C-Stars Sports
1000 Units Top Play Boston over Detroit
Does anyone keep track of how the various cappers presented on this forum do?
And would you be willing to share that info, particularly the winning ones?