Category Archives: MLB
Giants look to stay hot in Cincy
Newly acquired outfielder Carlos Beltran didn’t do much in his debut with the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants Thursday, but they won anyway. The Giants now head to Cincinnati for the opener of a three-game series Friday night with the struggling Reds (7:10 pm Eastern). Bookmaker has set the line at Reds -110
San Francisco just took two of three games from the Phillies in Philadelphia, even though they scored a total of just eight runs in the series. So heading into this series the Giants, winners of 13 of their last 18 games, lead the NL West by four games over the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks.
Beltran went 0-4 Thursday night, but the Giants beat Philly anyway 4-1.
Cincy, meanwhile, just got swept four games at home by the New York Mets, losing 10-9 Thursday afternoon. So the Reds, who are just 8-15 this month, sit in fourth place in the NL Central, 6.5 games back of the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
Ryan Vogelsong (8-1, 2.10), who would lead the NL in ERA if he had one more inning pitched, will start for the Giants Friday night against Dontrelle Willis (0-1, 3.71) for Cincinnati. As of Friday morning BetOnline.com is listing the Reds as -109 favorites for Friday night’s game, with an over/under of 8.5.
Vogelsong, who spent the last four seasons playing in Japan and in the minors, is 13-for-16 on quality starts this year for San Fran. Over his last four starts Vogelsong has allowed just six earned runs on 25 hits in 25 1/3 IP. The Giants are 11-5 in Vogelsong’s starts this year, with the O/Us going 4-12.
Vogelsong has started once vs. the Reds this season, allowing two ER on eight hits in six innings of a 3-2 San Francisco victory back in June.
Reclamation project Willis is one-for-three in quality starts this year. In those three starts lefty Willis has given up seven ER on 16 hits and eight walks in 17 IP. The Reds are 1-2 in Willis’ starts, and all three of his starts have played under the totals.
Willis hasn’t pitched against the Giants since 2007.
San Fran is 29-26 on the road this season, while Cincinnati is 27-27 at home.
The Giants are also 20-8 in games in which their opponents have started left-handed pitchers this season.
In the first encounter between these two teams this year the Reds split four games out in San Francisco back in June. Three of those games played under the totals.
The over/unders are 41-58 in Giants games this season, 56-45 in Reds games and 31-20 in games played at Great American Ballpark.
As for Friday’s game Vogelsong and the Giants have been on a bit of a roll, so we’ll go with San Francisco to open this series with a win.
MLB Preview – Cincinnati Reds at St. Louis Cardinals
MLB Odds Provided By BangTheBook.Com
Cincinnati +137
St. Louis -157
8o -115
The Cincinnati Reds will try and even things up against the NL Central rival St. Louis Cardinals tonight in Game 2 of the three-game set. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. (ET) and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.
Cincinnati’s normally active bats went quiet on Monday in a 1-0 shutout loss as a 115 road underdog. The setback dropped the Reds to an even 43-43 on the year and three games in back of the Cardinals in the division. They are 23-21 at home this season and 20-22 on the road.
This is still the most productive lineup in the National League with an average of 4.71 runs per game, but it has only managed to score a total of 10 runs in its last four games. Edison Volquez will be on the mound tonight for Cincinnati. He is 5-3 on the year with an ERA of 5.65 in 15 starts. He got the win against Tampa Bay last Wednesday; giving up three earned runs on four hits in 6.1 innings of work. Volquez is 1-2 with a 4.94 ERA against the Cardinals.
St. Louis is now 5-2 in its last seven games including a three-game sweep over Baltimore last week. It is 46-40 overall and one game ahead of Milwaukee and a game and a half ahead of Pittsburgh in the NL Central. The Cardinals are 24-22 on the road and 22-18 at home.
Albert Pujols, who broke a bone in his wrist in mid-June, has been upgraded to questionable for this game after coming off the DL. His return would be a welcome sight for a lineup that has struggled a bit in his absence. St. Louis still leads the NL in hitting with a .269 team batting average and is second in runs scored with 399, but is 6-7 since he went out.
Jaime Garcia is slated to get the start for the Cardinals. Last Thursday against the Orioles, he gave up five earned runs on 10 hits in just 5.1 innings but still managed to get the win. Overall this season he is 7-3 with a 3.33 ERA. Garcia is a perfect 4-0 against the Reds with an ERA of 4.33.
Head-to-head, the Reds are 4-3 this season including a three-game sweep at home in mid-May. The total has gone ‘over’ in four of the seven games. This time around, stick with Cincinnati to even this series as its lineup bounces back tonight to get the win.
Fox Saturday Baseball Betting: Minnesota Twins vs. Boston Red Sox Pick 5/7/11
 Minnesota Twins (12-18, -$482) |
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 Boston Red Sox (14-18, -$1,283) |
A day after breaking a seven game drought at Fenway Park, the Minnesota Twins will look to get back in the saddle once again in MLB betting action against the Boston Red Sox.
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Needless to say, the Twins aren’t really doing much to help out their chances of making the playoffs this year, as they are just 12-18. However, what we do have to remember is that this is a team that is playing its 21st road game of the year on Saturday. It only has 10 games played at Target Field, and some of those have come against some absolutely red hot opponents. Dating back to last season, Manager Rod Gardenhire’s club is just 14-29 though, and that doesn’t bode well for the future. Thanks to a solid pitching performance by Scott Baker and the fact that the team was able to get to Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball quite a bit, Minnesota picked up a 9-2 win on Friday night. Brian Duensing will need to turn in the same type of performance to beat the MLB betting lines on Saturday. At 2-1 with a 2.91 ERA, one could argue that Duensing has been the best pitcher for the Twins all season long. He hasn’t had a start this year in which he has allowed more than four runs, and he has conceded just seven earned runs in his last four starts. The southpaw also has thrown 34.0 innings in five outings, making him a consistent relief on the bullpen to boot.
Boston just hasn’t figured it out as of yet. It has dropped three in a row, all of which have come at Fenway Park, and it is only batting .247 and averaging 4.09 runs per game as a team. Only Jed Lowrie and Adrian Gonzalez are batting anywhere near .300 on the season, and only David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury are batting batter than .237 beyond that. Now it’s up to Clay Buchholz to start to turn the tide in the other direction. Buchholz really hasn’t pitched well in his career against the Twins, going 1-1 with a dud of a 6.57 ERA. This year though, the 26 year old has been awfully consistent, yet not he hasn’t been pitching up to his full potential. Last year, Buchholz had a 2.33 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. This year, his ERA is 4.81 and his WHIP is 1.78. Walking 18 batters against just 17 strikeouts is bad, bad news for Buchholz, and six homers allowed in six starts is nowhere near the nine he conceded in 28 starts a season ago. Buchholz has also given up 20 hits in his last two starts, which is why batters are hitting a stunning .311 against him for the year.
At some point, things are going to turn around for the boys from Beantown. Perhaps we’re overpaying to get the Sox on our side, but we are confident that this is the right MLB pick, knowing that Buchholz should be improving and that the Twinkies have still had absolutely no luck here in Boston.
MLB Free Pick: Boston Red Sox
Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs Pick with MLB Odds 5/7/11
 Cincinnati Reds (17-15, -$179) |
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 Chicago Cubs (14-17, -$432) |
We’re back at Fastline Sports with another great MLB betting battle at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon, as we make Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs predictions for Fox Saturday Baseball.
The Reds have been the dominating team in this series over the course of the last eight games, taking care of the Cubs in seven of the eight duels. To make matters worse for the hosts, Cincinnati is 21-6 in its last 27 games played on Saturday. The bullpen really pitched well in the game on Friday night, and Jay Bruce blasted his seventh home run of the season to help lead the team to victory. Now, Bronson Arroyo hopes that he can get that type of help as well. Arroyo really hasn’t been anything all that special this year, especially of late. He is only 1-3 in his last four starts and has watched his ERA jump from 2.08 to 4.17. Arroyo does have some decent splits though, with a K/BB ratio of better than 4/1 and a 1.31 WHIP. We know that batters won’t hit .277 against him all year as well. There’s also something about the Cubs that brings out the best in this righty, as he is 9-7 with a 2.80 career ERA against them. On the road, Arroyo has been remarkable as well, going 2-0 with a svelte 0.73 ERA.
The Cubs clearly have some major pitching problems right now. They have a 4.70 team ERA and a 1.45 WHIP as a team. Both numbers rank second to last in the league. There are only 10 quality starts in 31 games, and none of those have come from Saturday’s starter, Casey Coleman. We’d like to say that this is a last chance of sorts for the 23 year old from Fort Myers, but we really don’t know what other directions that Manager Mike Quade can turn to if this project doesn’t work out. Coleman is just 1-2 this year with a 7.36 ERA in four starts. He has more walks (13) than strikeouts (12), and he hasn’t made it through six innings yet on the season. In his one previous start at Wrigley Field this year, he allowed six runs in 2.2 innings of work against the Los Angeles Dodgers and got the hook quickly. About the only thing that can save Chicago is a solid offense, which is headed up by Alfonso Soriano and his 11 dingers on the campaign.
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It’s so hard to back Cincinnati as road favorites, but we know that the Cubbies are being overvalued right here at just +100. Coleman looks absolutely lost right now and overmatched by some of the best bats in the game, and Cincinnati’s hitters should be able to make mincemeat out of him. As long as Arroyo keeps his head on straight and comes up with a respectable start, the Reds are the right play on the MLB odds.
MLB Free Pick: Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Atlanta Braves Pick with MLB Odds 4/30/11
 St. Louis Cardinals (15-11, +$43) |
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 Atlanta Braves (13-14, -$323) |
The MLB betting lines will be tightly contested for sure on Saturday afternoon at Turner Field, as the Atlanta Braves take on the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Redbirds just keep finding ways to eke out wins. Sure, that outstanding batting average of darn near .300 came down just a tad on Friday, but a 5-3 win in extra innings was nothing to be ashamed of even though the middle of the lineup of Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman only went 3-for-14 at the dish. The big question right now for Manager Tony LaRussa is whether Jake Westbrook has just completely lost it or not. Westbrook has a WHIP of just over 2.00 for the season, something that is certainly unheard of for a man that was highly coveted at the trade deadline last year. Westbrook is 2-2, but he has a 7.40 ERA and he has had two absolutely atrocious starts. The good news is that he pitched well for six innings against the Cincinnati Reds in his most recent outing, walking three and allowing three hits against four punch outs. He didn’t allow a run for the first time in a game since last October. The bad news though, is that 17 starts into his career with the Cards, Westbrook is just 6-6, and it’s hard to back him with that type of a record.
Jason Heyward is most certainly the real deal. The young outfielder was able to snare two more hits on Friday night, including his seventh home run of the season. In spite of the fact that Atlanta was defeated, the Braves’ faithful got yet another glimpse at just how bright the future could be both for Heyward, and for their organization. The bullpen absolutely has to be gassed right now, as it took five different pitchers to finish up the extra innings 5-3 loss last night. Brandon Beachy, a 24 year old rookie, has done well this year for Manager Fredi Gonzalez, and the hope is that that will continue on Saturday. The eye popping stat that comes off the page in a hurry is the strikeout total for Beachy. He has fanned at least seven batters in four of his five starts this season, and since his first start of his career, he has averaged just under seven K’s per game. His K/9 is over 9.00, something that is very, very rare for a starter, and he isn’t walking a ton of batters either, just nine in five starts, four of which came in one game.
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It’s getting Beachy out there! We absolutely love this youngster for the Braves and think that he is the real deal. Westbrook is turning into a gas can before our eyes, and we are going to take advantage of the situation by pounding the hosts at very, very generous baseball odds.
MLB Free Pick: Atlanta Braves
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Fox Saturday Baseball Betting: Los Angeles Angels vs. Tampa Bay Rays Pick 4/30/11
 Los Angeles Angels (15-11, +$403) |
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 Tampa Bay Rays (14-12, +$88) |
A day after winning a huge road game against one of the best pitchers in the game, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will be back at it in MLB betting action on Saturday afternoon at Tropicana Field when they take on the Tampa Bay Rays.
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It’s pretty clear that 17 hits and eight runs is usually good enough to get the job done against any pitcher in the bigs, but when you can get that type of production off of David Price, you know that you are doing something right. This is almost a bit of a shocker though, as the Halos are only just barely averaging four runs per game this season. It is the pitching staff, which has a sub-3.00 ERA for the campaign that is really making the biggest difference in the world. The question is whether Joel Pineiro, a man which hasn’t thrown a pitch in the bigs since last September can get the job done and keep up what Manager Mike Scioscia and company have gotten started. Pineiro has been on the DL with shoulder issues, something that has to be a bit scary. However, he has only had one start since June in which he allowed more than three runs, and he very consistently threw between 6.0 and 8.0 innings in all of those starts in the interim.
Tampa Bay’s five game winning streak went by the boards on Friday night, but Manager Joe Maddon really shouldn’t be all that concern. He’s the big league leader in RBIs on his team in Ben Zobrist, and he’s got a first baseman that is starting to tear the cover off of the ball in Casey Kotchman. Now to make matters all the better, Maddon is counting on James Shields to get the job done on Saturday against Anaheim. There is no doubt that “Big Game James” has lived up to his moniker of late, as he has back to back complete games and has only thrown a total of exactly 200 pitches in doing so. Shields has allowed just four hits in both games and has a total of 16 strikeouts. Not bad for a man that has only allowed a total of one run. Shields’ splits are amazing, as he has a 2.35 ERA and a fantastic 27/8 strikeout to walk ratio. The question is whether the bullpen, which had to use five players on Friday night, is going to be able to pick up the slack for Shields should he not go the distance for a third straight start.
Tampa Bay is getting a nice price here at -150 in spite of the fact that the Halos have won 60 of the last 89 meetings between these two squads. The Rays are still playing great baseball, and we tend to think that they’ll get back in the win column on the MLB betting lines on Saturday afternoon.
MLB Free Pick: Tampa Bay Rays
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Free MLB Picks: Chicago White Sox vs. New York Yankees Preview 4/25/11
 Chicago White Sox (8-14, -$779) |
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 New York Yankees (12-6, +$415) |
The struggling Chicago White Sox are going to have a heck of an uphill task to beat this 1-10 losing skid over their last 11 MLB betting battles, especially in Monday night’s nationally televised clash against the New York Yankees.
Not only are the Sox in terrible form right now, but they also are in terrible form here in the Bronx. They’re just 3-13 in their last 16 games played here, which is why they are such tremendous underdogs in this game. Chicago has been shut out in back to back game, and it only has one game with more than three runs scored since the middle of the month. Aside from that nine run game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Sox have only scored a total of six runs in their last two series in total. Needless to say, Phillip Humber has his work cut out for him in his first career game against the Yankees. Humber started this year in the bullpen, where he has made 26 of his 31 career appearances, but this will be his fourth start of the year and the sixth of his career. Humber is 1-2 with a 4.42 ERA this season, and none of his numbers really jump off the page. He is holding batters to just a .250 batting average this season, but he only has 11 Ks in 18.1 innings of work, a number which is certainly not sparkling.
The question is whether the AL East leading Yankees can continue to survive playing with fire when AJ Burnett is on the mound or not. Burnett really hasn’t had a tremendously quality start this season, as his best start was two runs allowed in six innings of work. He hasn’t pitched through seven innings this year, and he has only made it into the seventh once. Still, Burnett has led the team to a 3-1 record in his starts, and he has all three wins to show for his work. Burnett’s 4.37 ERA and 1.46 WHIP aren’t flattering, nor is the fact that he already has four gopher balls allowed in just 22.2 innings of work. We do love the 22 strikeouts in that time, but the 10 walks could be minimized, especially after allowing five free passes in his most recent start. Of course, when your team is giving you 26 runs of support in four outings, you tend to be able to get away with a little more than usual. Against the White Sox in his career, Burnett is just 2-4 with a 5.58 ERA.
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This is a whole bunch of chalk to be laying here on the MLB odds with the Yankees. The implied odds here suggest that the White Sox should only be winning this game about 35 percent of the time. We tend to believe that a team that is a lot better than its record will get the job done more often than that against a gas can like Burnett.
MLB Free Pick: Chicago White Sox
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Sunday Night Baseball Betting: Cincinnati Reds vs. St. Louis Cardinals Pick 4/24/11
Cincinnati Reds (11-10, -$216) |
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St. Louis Cardinals (11-10, -$235) |
First place in the NL Central will be on the line in Sunday Night Baseball MLB betting action this week, as the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds battle it out.
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Manager Dusty Baker has a hole in his rotation to fill after the rainout on Thursday night, and it is most certainly still up in the air about who is going to fill it on Sunday. The Cincinnati bullpen ended up having to pitch the entire way in that game, so Edinson Volquez, the man who was slated to start that game, could reasonably be the man that takes the mound in this nationally televised MLB betting affair. It could also be Sam LeCure, whom Baker probably hoped to let start later this coming week. Either way, the pitching situation is likely to be really, really shaky in this one for the Reds. The good news is that fact that the team did drop five runs yesterday in a game in which Chris Carpenter started, but the bad news is that it has only scored nine runs over the course of the last three games against the Cardinals. Cincinnati is now 2-7 over the course of its last nine games against the Redbirds, though both wins are here in the Arch City.
The Cards have a significantly better grasp on their pitching situation for this one. Jake Westbrook is going to be the man on the bump trying to win this series. Westbrook, whom the Cardinals traded for last season from the Cleveland Indians, really hasn’t pitched well this season, going just 1-2 with a 9.82 ERA. He really is lucky to have that one win as well, as he allowed five runs on nine hits in just 5.1 innings of work against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but St. Louis supported him with 15 runs on that day. For his career, Westbrook has been serviceable against the Reds, going 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA in 25.2 innings of work. Manager Tony LaRussa’s team had won three in a row before yesterday’s destruction in the eighth inning. Miguel Batista allowed three unearned runs in the frame to spoil a relatively good effort by Carpenter. Matt Holliday’s seven game hit streak went by the boards with an 0-for-4 day, while Albert Pujols only went 1-for-4. The two are having vastly different seasons this year, as Holliday is still batting well over .400, while Pujols is right at a very mediocre .250.
Without really knowing who the Reds are starting in this game, it’s awfully hard to handicap the MLB lines. Still, Westbrook might not be the greatest pitcher in the world, but Cincinnati has had a lousy history against the Cards. On top of that, the Redbirds are 13-3 in their last 16 duels played on Sunday.
MLB Free Pick: St. Louis Cardinals
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Atlanta Braves vs. San Francisco Giants Pick with MLB Odds 4/23/11
Atlanta Braves (9-12, -$548) |
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 San Francisco Giants (10-9, +$63) |
Two of last season’s playoff teams meet up by the Bay for Fox Saturday Baseball betting festivities, as the San Francisco Giants play host to the Atlanta Braves in the second game of this series.
Give the Braves a lot of credit for coming out and knocking off the defending champs on Friday night in a drag down, knock out 4-1 game, just their fifth road win in 12 tries this season. There were only six hits on the day, but a slew of them came in the third inning in which all four Atlanta runs were scored. Tim Hudson is going to be the man on the mound to try to do the impossible task of beating “The Freak” in his home park. Hudson hasn’t been all that great this season, as he has two good starts and two iffy starts. Unfortunately, those two iffy starts are the two most recent ones. He only made in six innings against both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Florida Marlins, and he conceded a total of nine runs in those two games, striking out just six batters against four walks. The good news is that Hudson’s career against the Giants has been great. He might only be 5-4, but he has a 3.56 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP in 13 career starts.
And then there’s Tim Lincecum. The former Cy Young Award winner has gotten off to a great start, but he is hoping that his offense does a little bit more for him in this one than San Fran put on last night when it accounted for just three hits and one run. The team has now put up just a total of three runs in its last two games, which has dropped its scoring average down to 4.16 runs per game, ranking No. 19 in baseball. Lincecum started off the season with a loss against the hated Dodgers, but in that start, he only allowed one unearned run to suffer the defeat. Since that point, he hasn’t been stopped, leading the team to three wins in three starts. Lincecum has pitched at least seven innings in three of his four starts this year, and he has struck out 32 batters in just 27 total frames for the campaign. His ERA is 1.67, his WHIP is 0.89, and opponents are only batting .175 against him. Lincecum is getting closer to 1,000 strikeouts in his career, as he is just 61 Ks short of the fantastic distinction, and odds have it, he’ll end up doing it in right around 135 starts or so in his career.
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Hudson just hasn’t had it this year, while Lincecum really does. It’s going to be hard for the Braves to hold San Francisco down once again offensively. Go with the Giants on the MLB betting lines on Saturday afternoon.
MLB Free Pick: San Francisco Giants
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Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies Pick, Monday Night Baseball Preview 4/18/11
 Milwaukee Brewers (7-8, -$179) |
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 Philadelphia Phillies (10-4, +$325) |
ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball heads to the City of Brotherly Love on Monday night, as the Philadelphia Phillies play host to the Milwaukee Brewers in MLB betting action.
The Brew Crew really haven’t played all that well against the Phillies in recent years. Milwaukee is just 6-14 over the course of the last 20 games in this series, including losing five out of six last year, and they have only won two games in the City of Brotherly Love since the ’08 campaign as well. They’re coming off of an absolutely atrocious series against the Washington Nationals in which they were swept, which has really put the damper on this road trip, which started off so well with two wins against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Shaun Marcum is coming off of a great performance against those Pirates from five days ago, as he threw seven shutout innings and allowed just four hits. Since a shaky first start of the year against the Cincinnati Reds, Marcum has really calmed down quite a bit, and he has evolved into a great middle of the rotation starter for the Brewers. He is 2-1 with a 2.55 ERA, and he has a relatively solid K/BB ratio of 15/8 for the season, especially considering the fact that this is over a span of just 17.2 innings of work.
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Joe Blanton is sort of the black sheep of the pitching rotation for the Phillies, as he is really the only one that doesn’t have that Hall of Fame type of mantra floating around with his name. He really has looked back this year in two starts, allowing seven runs in 4.1 innings against the New York Mets, and following that up by conceding five runs in 6.0 innings of work against the aforementioned Nationals on the road. Blanton does have 10 strikeouts in 10.1 innings in total this year, but that’s about the only stat that is really worthwhile. His last good outing was back in September, and that includes a few playoff appearances that didn’t go so smoothly either. More bad news for Philly… the team hasn’t scored more than four runs in a game in nine days. Now sure, thanks to this pitching staff, the team has four wins in that stretch, including two shutouts. However, with Blanton on the bump and a still questionable bullpen in waiting, the Phillies need to get some more offensive support.
Marcum has been the better pitcher to date, but we are confident that Blanton is going to have a decent start and lead his team to a win in this one. The Phillies are a superior team, and at -130 with a marginal pitcher on the mound against them, we have to back them in MLB betting action at home.
Free MLB Pick: Philadelphia Phillies
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