THE GOLD SHEET'S HOOP LATE PHONE SERVICE
L.A. LAKERS -6½ over Utah
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1. 100,000♦ Angels
2. 50,000♦ Indians
1. I do understand that the Angels are not great and will miss K-Rod for sure but the Mariners are terrible without Ichiro. I don't care if Seattle has been overachieving and off to the quality start, this team is still terrible talentwise and well overvalued today.
The Mariners have very little offense without their star outfielder and Carlos Silva is awful and can implode with the best of them at the drop of a hat. Certainly I cannot promise a gem from Shane Loux as the guy is not exactly Cy Young and still has a ton to prove but in no way shape or form do I feel he is inferior to Silva and all in all the Halos are the far superior overall team.
On Sunday the Angels finished off a winning series against the Red Sox and were as close to being in a fight as a team could be when Josh Beckett threw a bit too far inside against Bobby Abreu. Baseball is not a total team type of a game, I understand that, but I don't think that comraderie the other day will hurt anything as we saw in that games' upset win over the 170 chalk Sox.
Anaheim's bullpen is far better than Seattle's even without Rodriguez closing games out. Arrodondo, Shields and Fuentes still form a quality pen and after losing JJ Putz the Mariners do not really boast all that much.
Loux probably will give up some runs today there is no doubt about it as he is an inexperienced but yet fairly old 29 year old which says something but Silva is not a guy that's good at all and could get blasted by Vlad, Kendrick, Hunter, Napoli and the visiting Angels.
Mike Scioscia's team should be giving a decent sized price and they're rerally not. I'm not complaining about it!
2. Kyle Davies just hurled an absolute gem in Chicago and the Royals are not a bad team at all but I'll take this price back and take my chances with the Indians, who when push comes to shove are still better than Kansas City.
Cleveland certainly was very slow out of the gate as they lost their first five games but with Sizemore, Hafner, Martinez, DeRosa and others the Tribe are going to be just fine when all is said and done. Eric Wedge has a squad full of talent that can definitely get to Davies. Let's face it, the former Brave is not exactly a feared hurler no matter how good that first outing was and no matter how much people say he is about to have a breakthrough season. Yes the righty has some good stuff but he also has been lit up at times and to get a price like this back with Cleveland is a no-brainer.
Carl Pavano was the opposite of Davies in that first outing as he was horrific. I am not exactly putting my full trust in Pavano as the guy is an oft injured career underachiever who may be pitching his way out of the big leagues but he also could be alright here and at this sweet enough takeback it is just too good to not give it a go.
Pavano probably will go no more than five innings but Davies will get hit and with Kerry Wood now in the Cleveland pen and believing these visitors can definitely win this game I'm all about the Indians here.
N.Y. SPORTS INVESTORS
POD BRAVES -145
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2* Rangers -145 (McCarthy)
2* Twins -115 (Perkins)
1* Brewers -134 (Parra)
Eddie Mush
6* Celts +6
7* Jazz +6
7* Heat +9
Beat Your Bookie
100* Play LA Lakers (-8) over Utah (NBA)
LA Lakers are 8-1 SU after allowing 85 points or less the last game
LA Lakers are 7-0 SU vs. Utah at home the last 3 seasons
LA Lakers are 35-5 SU in all home games this season
LA Lakers are 13-4 SU vs. Northwest Division Opponents
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50* Play Philadelphia (-2.5) over Boston (NBA)
Stan Lisowski
4* Lakers
3* Over Lakers
Indiancowboy
4 Unit Play. Take Over 11 between Baltimore Orioles @ Texas Rangers
I had already considered making this a Pod yesterday prior to the game finishing between these two teams. We have cashed on or against the Orioles and Rangers consistently this year including the winner on the O's yesterday as +115 dog. Regardless of who wins today, these two offenses put up 19 runs on the board yesterday and the pitchers today are no better than the two that took the mound yesterday. For starters, Simon is a young kid that had a 7+ era in his first outing and he faces a very good hitting team in the Rangers, in a hitter's ballpark, who come off 9-10 loss and who are itching to snap a losing streak they are currently on. On top of that, the Orioles face McCarthy who had a 5.4 era against an Indians team that is not playing well right now and struggled to pick up the win against them while walking 4 and even hitting a batter. The Orioles will not be as kind with McCarthy as they are likely to enjoy hitting in Texas just as much as they put up 10 runs on Padilla yesterday. Look for the Rangers on the bounce-back to hit Simon well, and the Orioles to hit McCarthy well who was fortunate against the Indians to get by with his control problems, but will likely not be as fortunate today. The over is 5-0 for the Rangers when they are an Underdog by this margin and the Over is 4-0 in the last 4 home games for the Rangers.
2 Unit Play. Take the Kansas City Royals RL +140 over the Cleveland Indians
I'm not a huge fan of the RL, but we did use it for our 5* GOTW on Sunday with the Rays over the Orioles. A similar situation applies today as Davies was lights out against the Whitesox as he didn't yield a run to this team but did not pick up a win. Davies returns home to face an Indians team that although he has a 1-3 mark against, he was 1-0 against them last year. KC has been great for Davies as he has left a bit of the pressure in Atlanta and thrived in late September and looks to continue thriving after a strong scoreless first start against the Sox. The Indians lineup has not done well in the early start of the season as they are just 1-6 and although this game might be high scoring as the Indians look to give Pavano some help, Davies clearly has his stuff together as compared to Carl, who had an 81 era in his first start. Although Pavano will look better in this outing, I question how drastically an individually could have gotten better over the span of 1 start. I still believe although Pavano will not have a 81 era start, he is likely to give up about 4-5 runs in the span of 5 innings and Davies will hold the fort down. I think at +140, this is good value to take for a 2 unit wager and we will continue to make mini-plays of 2 units every now and then if we can feel like we can pad the bankroll with an additional win. It's a long season, so over the long haul it will be worth it for us. Let's take the stronger pitcher and currently the stronger team in the Royals who are 4-3 and are solid at home while the Indians continue to struggle to find an identity as they are not pitching, nor hitting well currently.
4 Unit Play. Take Philadelphia -4 over the Boston Celtics
There is a limited number of games on the docket today, but we will take the Sixers at home against the C's. Boston has the #2 seed in the East either way and Garnett will not play. Allen is Questionable and in fact, Doc Rivers rest his starters today. Remember, Philly lost to this team by 1 point last time at home 99-100 and come off five straight losses including a loss to Toronto on the road. Obviously Philly will look to bounce-back, have some revenge, and have their starters on the floor so this game is far more important for them in many ways than Boston. The Celtics do come off an embarrassing loss to the Cavs on the road, but then again, I don't think that loss really means anything to this team, as they have already clinched and even after that loss, they plan on resting essentially everybody today to give some of their young guys some playing time. There is a similar case in Atlanta today where the Heat reserves will likely play against the Hawks as Moon, Wade and O'Neal are likely to rest. But, rather than laying that 9, we will lay the 4 here with Philly who also comes off a series of losses and has revenge here.