Rich Green
2* Cardinals/Titans Over 37
3* DRays/Angels Over 9
ATS LOCK CLUB
3 Units Titans -4
Wayne Root
Millionaire - Tennessee
Billionaire - Cardinals
No Limit - Braves
NSA
20* Titans -3.5
20* Braves -120
20* Rays -140
BOB VALENTINO
30 Dime Colorado Rockies
The Duke's Sports
LA Angels (+125) for 2.5 Units
We like the Angels in this spot: Los Angeles is 20-8 in this price range at home, including 5-2 with Kazmir. Kazmir, who lost to his former team in May, should turn in a good performance here and we'll look for his mates to give him the needed run support off Shields. The Rays are just 5-11 with Shields, and they're 12-39 in Los Angeles. The Angels have performed well in game 1 of a series off a loss at 14-8 and we'll grab the value with Los Angeles.
Power Play Wins
Braves
Northcoast
2* Titans -4
Red Dog Sports
3* Toronto
Beat Your Bookie
10* Play Tennessee (-4) over Arizona (Top Play
Arizona is 12-20 SU in pre-season games coming off an OVER the totalArizona is 19-28 SU in non-conference pre-season games. Tennessee is 4-0 SU in pre-season home games as a favorite the last 2 years
10* Play Detroit (-150) over Kansas City (POD)
Detroit is 22-5 when playing as a favorite of -150 or higher this season. Detroit is 31-13 at home vs. left-handed starting pitchers the last 2 seasons. Jeremy Bonderman is 7-3 as a home favorite of -110 or higher
5* Play Atlanta (-130) over Colorado
Colorado is 0-8 after batting .225 or worse over the last 10 games this season. Jason Hammel is 1-5 vs. NL East Division Opponents this season. Jason Hammel is 0-2 vs. Atlanta over his career with an ERA of 12.65
Scott Rickenbach
10* (Top Play Detroit vs Kansas City Over
The Tigers Jeremy Bonderman has lost his last three starts and he’s compiled a 9.39 ERA in the process. Since June 1st, the Detroit right-hander has allowed 18 homers in 14 starts. Even though the Royals are one of the weaker home run hitting teams in the league, they should be able to make plenty of contact at the very least as they take advantage of a struggling Bonderman. The Royals tattooed Bonderman for 7 runs on 11 hits (including one homer) in 5.2 innings the only time they faced him this season. Detroit has lost four of their last six meeting with Kansas City and they gave up at least seven earned runs in each of those defeats. All is not good news for the Royals here though. That’s because their own starting pitcher is also likely to get hammered here. Making matters even worse for Kansas City is that, after Bruce Chen exits this game, the Royals will turn the game over to a bullpen that has received too much extra work recently as Kansas City has played three games the last two days. Not only that, all three games went into extra innings.
The Royals won Chen’s most recent start but it certainly wasn’t courtesy of his success on the mound. The Kansas City southpaw allowed four runs on 11 hits in just 5.2 innings of work. The Royals have lost five of Chen’s last eight starts. Also, other than a 7-inning 3-hitter against the punchless Mariners, Chen has been getting pounded the last two months. His other seven starts have seen the southpaw give up 28 runs (27 earned) on 61 hits in just 36 innings of work. As you can see, Chen has been very hittable of late and he now faces a Tigers team that has recently enjoyed a 6-3 surge. Additionally, Detroit has averaged 6 runs per game in their last 8 games. Royals pitchers have allowed at least 10 hits in 8 of their last 10 games. Even though they won 3-2 yesterday, Kansas City again allowed double digits in hits. The good news for Royals fans is that their sticks are at least picking up the pace again. Kansas City has averaged 5.4 runs per game in their last five games. Also, the Royals have averaged nearly 10 hits per game in their last six games.
The Tigers are 8-5 to the over on Mondays this season and 26-18 to the over in Monday games the last three seasons. Detroit is also 21-13 to the over when facing a left-handed starter this season. As for the Royals, they are 29-13 to the over in divisional games this season. The Royals are also 36-26 to the over when the total is 9 or 9.5 runs. As a road dog of +125 to +150, Kansas City is 10-6 to the over this season. The Royals are a perfect 5-0 to the over this season when Chen is making the start against an AL Central opponent! The Tigers are 8-1 to the over in Bonderman’s last 9 starts! The Tigers are 6-2 to the over when Bonderman is making the start and is opposed by a left-handed starter. Tons of support for the over here…and that includes two lineups that are both swinging hot sticks! Play OVER the total in Detroit as a *10* Top Play selection.
8* Arizona Cardinals (+) @ Tennessee
The Cardinals rallied for a 19 point fourth quarter against the Texans in week one and they got the home win over Houston. They’ve had great intensity in cap, this team is hungry, and they’ve gotten strong production from their 2nd and 3rd stringers. That is a key in preseason capping and we like what we’re seeing from this Arizona team. With that said, we also like the line value we’re seeing here with this one as the injuries to Cardinals receivers seem to be getting a lot of attention. Keep in mind, guys like Larry Fitzgerald and Early Doucet wouldn’t normally play much in a game like this anyway and yet the line is still on the rise and has already reached +4 for Arizona backers! The Cardinals still have Steve Breaston and Onrea Jones at WR and we really like what we’re seeing from Stephen Williams as he is absolutely making a case for the #4 spot on this team despite being an undrafted rookie. The Cardinals completed 24 of their 35 passes against Houston and we look for another big effort here against a Titans defense that was picked apart by Seahawks QB Whitehurst last week. Also, the Tennessee rushing attack had two big gainers that netted 63 yards but they gained just 34 yards on their 21 other rushing attempts!
The Titans did rally last week against Seattle as they scored 11 fourth quarter points. That got them the cover but not the outright win and the other concern here for Tennessee fans is that they were outscored 20-0 in the 2nd and 3rd quarters alone. The Seahawks seemed to “let up” some after getting the big lead. Again, in preseason it comes down to the back-ups and the 7-0 Titans lead after one quarter is a good sign for the starters but their back-ups really struggled and we look for more of the same here. Note that in the Titans last 10 preseason games, they have only recorded three wins by a margin greater than three points! As for the Cardinals, they had a rough preseason last year and they lost all four games. Ken Whisenhunt didn’t want to repeat that this year and, as noted above, we’ve seen a lot of intensity from this Cardinals training camp. Also, by rallying from being down 16-0 last week, the Cards showed that – preseason or not – this team is not going to quit. The line value is with the road team here as a pair of WR injuries for the Cardinals are getting way too much attention considering that this is a preseason game and it’s the back-ups that most often key the ATS outcome. Play Arizona plus the points as an *8* Regular Play selection.
JR O'Donnell
2* Tennessee Titans - 4
We note that our 67% side run continues tonight with the Tenn Titans who want this MNF battle tonight bad and the Vegas odds makers have this line @ -4 for reason. Defense wins ball games and the fact coach J Fischer wants to erase a poor start last season, 0-6 right out of the gate, the Niners -2.5 got the job done last night and the boys from Nashville Tennessee will pound the poor Zona D. Look for Titan's Rb's Javon Ringer and L. Blount to get playing time and just wear down a out of since Arizona Crew. The JR O Power ratings have this game capped at - 8 , that's a full 4 points off the Vegas line. The Kurt Warner show is over and Leinart has not moved the O so far. This baby gets "Ugly"
Titans by 10.
Larry Ness
10* Rays / Angels Over 9
When the Rays made their World Series run in 2008, the starting staff was anchored by Scott Kazmir and James Shields. The former teammates meet as a opposing hurlers for the first time tonight in Anaheim, as the Rays and Angels open a three-game series. Kazmir struggled badly in 2009 and was traded late in the summer to the Angels, where he has been a major flop in 2010 (8-10 with a 6.40 ERA in 20 starts / team is 8-12). Shields was expected to be Tampa's ace in 2010 but he's 11-11 with a 4.82 ERA in 24 starts / team is 12-12) but he owns the highest ERA of any of the pitchers in Tampa's main five-man rotation. Will either of these guys "rise to the occasion" in this meeting? Could both of them do so? Both scenarios are possible but I'm going with both pitcher's "current form" and that makes it a play on the over. Shields owns a 7.90 ERA over his last five road starts (27.1 IP / 24 ERs), as those games have averaged 14.0 runs per game (FOUR of five have gone over). As for Kazmir, he's been equally bad on the road (6.56 ERA) and at home (6.32 ERA) and faces a Tampa team which has averaged 5.48 RPG in all its road games this year, including going 11-5 in road night games vs lefties (averaging 5.8 RPG). The Angels are not hitting like they have the last few seasons (especially against righties) but the team has still averaged 4.6 RPG vs right-handers this season and as I've pointed out, Shields has had a "off season" (actually, his second in a row) and let's not forget his 7.90 ERA over his last five outings .
Tony George
Tennessee -4
This line is a DEAD giveaway into an oddsmakers mind. While most games, like Sunday Night for instance, that are national TV games like this in the preseason are going to be sitting on -3 or 3.5 at the most so Vegas can grab the hook on chances the game lands on a fall number like 3 for instance. CLEARLY the -4 is huge indication Vegas oddsmakers know Tennessee is the better team here at home, and with Arizona looking like idiots on offense in the week 12 game, and having numerous injuries, and lack of a better QB rotation versus what Arizona has. Tennessee has a deeper RB stable, and bench, and QB rotation as well. I like them in this game, even with scrubs playing later, to jump out early and hang on to a lead against a team whose offense right now is not in sync and with Leinart playing poorly in camp, they simply do not go on the road in the preseason and win a game.Play 1 Unit on the Titans.
Mike Lineback
Twins / Rangers Over 10.5