Real Animal
Miami-Florida -2
That Toledo close effort in Columbus last week certainly looks far worse for the Buckeyes now after Boise State rolled up 610 yards and 32 first downs last night in Ohio. Miami of Florida has had two weeks to prepare for Ohio State after losing at Maryland 32-24 on Labor Day night. In that contest, the Terrapins scored two touchdowns on 30-yard fumble return and a 54-yard interception return. The Hurricanes welcome back QB Jacory Harris and linebacker Sean Spence, who was All-ACC last year with 111 tackles. I can't find enough play-makers on the Buckeye roster to keep pace w/ Miami. WR Posey and RB Herron remain suspended. Throw in the fact All-Big 10 offensive lineman Mike Adams is also suspended. Tough road debut for Buckeyes Coach Luke Fickell and especially with the inexperienced Joe Bauserman at QB. Keep in mind Toledo was less than 20 yards away from upsetting the Buckeyes last week. Coach Al Golden is 11-2 ATS as either an underdog or favorite of three points or less. Providing Harris can limit the number of interceptions, take the Canes to beat the Buckeyes and cover -2.
David Malinsky
Detroit Tigers @ Oakland Athletics
PICK: Detroit Tigers
We have to fly a little blind here, but if you are confident of your navigation skills sometimes you do that. This could end up being one of the worst lines of the MLB season, with the oddsmakers making an assumption that Detroit will sit players after clinching the division last night. We are not certain that is true. The Tigers are just three games behind the Yankees for the overall home field advantage in the A.L., and it is absolutely within reach – while they close with 11 straight games against losing teams, New York plays 12 of 13 against winners, including 10 vs. the Red Sox and Rays. Here is Jim Leyland’s take after last night’s win -
“We'd like to try to get home-field advantage. So we're going to continue to play, and we're going to continue to play hard. Then we have some other things that we have to sit down and make some important decisions on. We're going to enjoy this tonight. Tomorrow, we'll get after it pretty good.”
If Leyland plays just a few of his key cogs we have tremendous value here, but he may well play them all – there is an off day coning up on Monday. So we will step in and play into the false assumption, and at the very worst even a weakened lineup has a puncher’s chance against Gio Gonzalez, who got stretched out to 119 pitches in his last outing, and is no guarantee at all to bounce back well off of that this late into the season.