World Wide Sports
St. Louis Rams vs. Oakland Raiders
Play: St. Louis Rams +1
The St Louis Rams open up their preseason vs the Oakland Raiders. Both teams finished last season with a losing record but are hoping for better things in 2015. The Rams will have Nick Foles behind center this season as they shipped Bradford to the Eagles. The Raiders are the Raiders but things are looking up for them. Quarterback Derek Carr is a solid young talent and they picked up WR Amari Cooper in the draft. The Rams are the stronger defensive team and that gives them the edge in this preseason matchup. Rams HC Jeff Fisher will want to give his team off to a good start as the heat will be on this year.
Jesse Schule
Tennessee Titans vs. Atlanta Falcons
Play: Tennessee Titans +2.5
Few expected Marcus Mariota to make an easy transition into the NFL, and that's why he was the second quarterback selected behind Jamies Winston of the Tampa Bucs. The news out of the Titans training camp though is that Mariota is already looking like a seasoned veteran. He hasn't had any trouble learning the offense, and after his first 10 practices, he's thrown over 200 passes without a single interception. This really shouldn't come as that much of a surprise, when you consider he threw for a 105 TDs and just 14 picks in three seasons at Oregon. Mariota outplayed Winston when the two met head to head in last year's NCAAF Playoffs, and it looks like Winston is off to a shaky start with Tampa. We can expect to see the Heisman Trophy winner get plenty of action this pre-season, as the Titans will want him to get as much experience as possible. Tennessee will play it's first pre-season game at Atlanta, and they will be a slight dog to the Falcons. Neither of these coaches have given us much reason to think that they put much stock in winning in the pre-season, as both rank among the worst in the league terms of career winning percentage in exhibition games. Mike Smith is 9-19 with the Falcons, while Ken Wisenhunt has a record of 10-19. Most of those games were with Arizona though, and he was 2-2 last year with the Titans. I think there's a good chance we see the young Titans put on a show here in Georgia Dome in Week 1.
Doug Upstone
Pittsburgh vs. Jacksonville
Play: Over 36½
Play OVER on road teams against the total like PITTSBURGH in the NFLX season after scoring six points or less in last game. What happens here are coaches are looking to have the offense do more and work on things that generate points and in the last 21 years this has proven to be true 47 of the past 67 times this has come up.
Scott Spreitzer
Tampa Bay Rays vs. Texas Rangers
Play: Tampa Bay Rays +104
The Rays are staying in the mix for a wildcard spot, trailing the Angels by just two games, thanks to a current four game winning streak. The bats have come alive of late and the Rays sport a team batting average of nearly .300 over their last seven games with 13 homers, while averaging over 5 1/2 rpg. Those bats will face Martin Perez, who has experienced highs and lows in a short period of time this season. Perez has allowed too many base runners in four of his five starts. Texas is six games under .500 at home and will face Nathan Karns, who continues to fly under the general radar. Karns has pitched well in nine of his last 10 starts, sporting a 2.26 ERA & 1.20 in the nine outings. He's held the opposition to two runs or less in 14 of his last 18 starts and he's been better on the road than at home. Texas enters off a seven day road trip and they have won just three of their last 13 at home in this situation. Meanwhile, the Rays are on a 15-4 run against southpaws and they're on a 4-0 run when Karns toes the rubber.
Marc Lawrence
Washington Nationals vs. San Francisco Giants
Play: Washington Nationals -142
Edges - Nationals: Max Scherzer 14-5 last nineteen overall away team starts, including a 1.87 ERA and 0.82 WHIP away this season. Giants: Matt Cain 1-8 last nine home team starts during the month of August. With the Nats a rock-solid 38-22 versus the N.L. West the past two seasons, we recommend a 1* play on Washington.
Art Aronson
Angels vs. Royals
Play: Over 8
The visitors hand the ball to Jered Weaver (4-8, 4.69 ERA), who in his first start back after a 7-week hiatus due to injury, looked pretty good in a win over the Orioles on Sunday, giving up two runs off four hits over five innings. It was an encouraging sign for sure, but Weaver has been the very model of inconsistency this year and note that he's a poor 2-6 with a ballooned 5.65 ERA on the road thus far. The home side counters with the equally as erratic Danny Duffy (5-5, 4.19 ERA) who was shelled for three runs off four hits over just 3 1/3's innings in a no-decision vs. the White Sox on Sunday. That's now two lousy outings out of his last three starts and note that a date at home is not necessarily what the doctor ordered to get untracked, Duffy owns a respectable 3.97 ERA on the road, but a rather poor 4.43 ERA in Kansas City. Recent performance is always a good indicator when trying to judge starting pitching and with each of these hurlers coming into this one with more questions than answers right now, there's no doubt that the OVER becomes a legitimate investment option in this matchup.
Jim Feist
Marlins vs. Cardinals
Play: Under 7
Busch stadium is huge, great for pitchers and Miami is in town with a bad offense, last in baseball in runs scored. The Under is 15-5-1 when the Marlins face the National League Central, plus 11-4 under the total against a starter with a WHIP less than 1.15. Tom Koehler (3.75 ERA) has good stuff but the team has scored a total of 5 runs his last three starts. The Under is 4-1-2 in Koehler's last 7 road starts. St. Louis is a below average offensive team, 21st in runs scored, great defensively in the field and on the mound, on a 47-22-4 run under the total. The Under is 37-14-3 in the Cardinals last 54 home games. Jaime Garcia (1.77 ERA) is throwing great, tossing seven innings of two-hit ball, blanking the Brewers in Saturday's 3-0 win. Garcia's been good at limiting opponents' earned runs all season long, and he's cranked it up in his last two outings. He's allowed just one earned run in 12 innings in August, and his ERA has plummeted to an impressive 1.77 on the season. He has dominated his last six starts, putting up a gaudy ERA of 1.15, and has struck out 28 batters in the process. The Under is 7-1 when he starts and the Under is 41-20-6 when the Cardinals face the National League East.
Rob Vinciletti
NY Giants vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Play: NY Giants +3
The Giants should have one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL This ear and we should see of it early on here. The Giants even without JPP should be better on defense. New York has covered the last 3 Opening NFLX Games and have taken these games very seriously as they had a league best 5-0 record in last years NFLX. The Giants are 5-0 vs AFC Teams in the Preseason and the Bengals have lost the last 3 in this series. Take the points with the Giants.
Power Sports
Tennessee vs. Atlanta
Pick: Atlanta
For years under Mike Smith, the Falcons floundered in the preseason (9-19 straight up), but Friday sees Dan Quinn making his home debut and I expect better results. I'm really not surprised at all too see such heavy action on the home team here and laying less than a field goal seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Tennessee is the opponent and of course the big story here will be rookie QB Marcus Mariota. But let's face it, this team has a lot of issues coming off a horrible 2-14 season and they can't all be possibly fixed by the preseason opener. I expect to see a lot of attrition throughout the depth chart, on both sides of the ball, by the time the regular season rolls around.
The Falcons players will be looking to impress the new coaching staff and as I've mentioned in past years, no new HC wants to lose in front of the fans in his debut, preseason or not. First impressions can go a long way and I expect Atlanta to be the more motivated side.
Brad Wilton
Your comp play winner for Friday is the take the Tigers and Astros to play Over the total at Minute Maid Park.
Houston is back home after a dreadful 2-7 road trip that saw them get held to 2 runs or less in 4 of their last 5 games. Look for the home confines to help wake their bats up, and look for facing Alfredo Simon and his 4.74 season ERA to keep those Houston bats active tonight!
Simon's ERA for his last 3 starts stands at 5.40, and 2 of those 3 starts have played Over the total. Oh, and then there is the fact that Detroit is now 33-13-3 Over the total their last 49 games played after Wednesday's game at Kansas City eclipsed the price.
As for Houston, no knocking Dallas Keuchel, but even he has proven that he is human, as the southpaw's ERA is 4.43 over his last 3 starts.
We are not staring at a huge total, and series number do show a 3-1-1 Over record for the last 5 series meetings between the teams.
Detroit has been good to me when playing the Over, and they remain good to me with another Over tonight!
2* DETROIT-HOUSTON OVER
Matt Fargo
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Play: Pittsburgh Steelers +1
Pittsburgh is coming off a loss in the Hall of Fame game against Minnesota but I like the Steelers chances of bouncing back in their second game. Already having a game under their belt is huge and teams in these situations have covered 60 percent of the time following the Hall of Fame game. That percentage is even higher for teams that are coming off a loss so we can expect a big effort from Pittsburgh on Friday. Additionally, the Steelers played without Ben Roethlisberger and many other high profile veterans but they will all see time Friday. Don't expect much from Jacksonville in its first game. "You will probably see us be more cautious with our guys right now," Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said. "Their health is number one.
Jimmy Boyd
San Diego Padres -120
The Padres are showing excellent value here as a small road favorite against the Rockies, who have lost 3 straight and are just playing to finish out the season at this point. San Diego has won 7 of the 9 meetings between these two teams in 2015 and I like their chances of adding another victory tonight.
Tyson Ross will take the mound for the Padres. Ross hasn't had the season that dominant season that Padres' were hoping for, but it hasn't been all that bad either. Ross has been much better on the road than at home, as he comes in with a 2.77 ERA over 14 road starts.
The Padres are 8-1 in their 9 road games this season following a loss by 4+ runs, 5-1 in Ross' last 6 starts against a team with a losing record. Colorado is 1-7 in their last 8 division games and 0-5 in their last 6 home games following a road trip of 7 or more days.
Tony Stoffo
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Play: Pittsburgh Steelers +1
The Pittsburgh Steelers will travel on short rest to Jacksonville to face the Jaguars. "In terms of how we're going to play, our intentions at this point are all healthy men are going to play," head coach Mike Tomlin said. Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell and other offensive superstars who didn't play at all last week are only expected to play at least a series or two. The Steelers only managed 3 points last week against the Minnesota Vikings and now have lost their starting kicker Shaun Suisham to a torn ACL. Their defense, missing starters Shamarko Thomas, Mike Mitchell, Cortez Allen and James Harrison, surrendered 14. Expect an improved effort on both sides of the ball tonight.
The initial preseason game is typically a great way to assess a team's depth and youth. I assume that Blake Bortles will get 10-12 snaps at the least and could be in for two complete series. The starting offensive line won't see a ton of time against the Steelers starters either. The right side has been terrific throughout camp, while the left side has been inconsistent. Also, center has been split by Stefen Wisniewski and Luke Bowanko, so consistency needs to be established on Friday night. This is a big deal for games 2 and 3 because of the time the starters will play.
Fully expect to see the Pittsburgh starters to outshine the Jaguars' starters and the depth appears to lie in the Steelers favor also.
Brandon Lee
Cleveland Indians vs. Minnesota Twins
Play: Cleveland Indians -136
This is a great price to back the Indians with their ace Corey Kluber on the mound. Cleveland has been playing well of late, as they come in having won 4 straight. Kluber has a 2.66 ERA over his last 3 starts, which includes a 1-run complete game performance at home against the Twins. It was Kluber's 4th straight starts against Minnesota where he pitched at least 8 innings while allowing 2 runs or less. Cleveland is also a strong 27-9 in Kluber's last 36 starts in the 2nd half of the season!