I will be writing a weekly article that will be updated every Tuesday at http://www.scoresdaily.com for all of those interested.
Montreal (Pavano) @ Houston (Redding)
Well can two teams look anymore different than they did last year? Frank Robinson has completely turned this team around, while Jimmy Williams is showing the same incompetence that got him fired in Boston last year!
Montreal sends Carl Pavono to the mound who has been up and down this year he is 2-2 on the year with an ERA of 4.50 striking out 25 while walking 12, he has been a little better on the road with a record of 1-0 ERA of 3.86 in 7 innings of work striking out 6 while walking only 2. He is 1-1 against the Astros with an ERA of 4.15 with both of those starts coming in Houston.
Houston counters with Tim Redding who has just been horrible this year in 5 innings pitched he has an ERA of 16.20 with 6 strikeouts and 6 walks and has been even worse at home pitching 1 inning with an ERA of 22.50 fanning 2 and walking 3 and now he gets to face arguably one of the hottest hitting teams in baseball.
The bullpens on both sides are shaky but the Montreal pen has shown signs of improvement with an ERA of 3.02 in their last 3 games, while the Astros pen has been pounded with an ERA of 5.60 in their last 3 giving up 11 homeruns so far this year.
Montreal is 8-2 in their last 10 games, 7-4 on the road and 3-1 as a road dog of +100 to +125. They are batting a very solid .277 as a team against right handed pitchers with a 15-9 record against them scoring an average of 5.6 runs a game while giving up 4.8. The Astros are 4-6 in their last 10 games, 4-7 at home and 1-3 as a home favorite of -100 to -125 batting .242 against righties with a record of 10-14 against them scoring an average of 4.9 runs while giving up 5.4.
Well add these all up and I will take my chances with the team that is on a winning streak that are hitting the ball well and have the much better manager. In my own personal opinion Jimmy Williams is an albatross wrapped around the Astros neck dragging them down and will continue to do so until they get rid of him!
Playing the Montreal Expos +108