Baseball - April 18th

[Tinfish]

YTD (29-28) +$245

today:

Baltimore Orioles ML -137 and -1.5 +145
Last year they met 6 times and Baltimore won all 6 meetings. Now we have a surging O's club at home vs Jason Johnson a man who has looked awful from Day 1 of the Spring except his 1st start vs KC who we know isnt exactly a good offensive club(made a few pitchers look good this year). He pitched poorly in both his starts vs Baltimore(his former team) in 2 starts last season while Bedard pitched well in a May start at Detriot leading the O's to victory. Early on Detriot has struggled to hit LHP and Bedard has been pretty sharp in his 2 outings. They have a .203 average on the season vs LHP, .185 on the road and .216 Last 10 games. Now O's have managed to go 4-0 in Game 1 of Series to date this season.

Yankees -1.5 Runs -101
Tampa was outclassed in Boston this weekend an NY beat up on the better version last year. Rob Bell was not a particularily good in his 2 outings vs the Bombers last year and lets hope Jaret Wright turns his gutsy performance in Boston into another W.

White Sox -114
You want a quirky trend regarding the WSox? How bout 8-0 combined in Game 1 & 2 of Series to date but 0-4 in those Series in Game 3 going for the sweep(including an earlier series @ Minnesota)! Basically comes down to Lohse just being a mess again this year and posting a 3-7 record with a 6.19 ERA in 19 starts away last year. How bout 137 hits in 104 innings. His numbers @ US Cellular last year nothing spectular and basically think that Contreras just in a groove right now with 2 solid starts vs Cleveland already. Twins have struggled vs RHP early.

Under 9 -102 KC/Tribe
Greinke is tough in his home park and the Tribe just not hitting this year. On the flip side Lee improved after his 1st horrible start vs Chicago and pitched a nice game last time out. KC has a lofty average vs LH pitching but lacks pop after Sweeney IMO. Despite a .306 home average for KC vs LHP they have just 1 game at home in 6 when they scored more then 2 runs there lone win on Friday . The Tribe in there last 9 have put up more then 4 runs just twice in that span(scoring 4 three times in that span). Young Zach Grienke recovered nicely last outing vs Seattle after being struck by a liner in his 1st start. Last year in 14 starts at home he was 6-6 with a 3.30 ERA compared to 2-5 4.90ERA on the road(typical of a young pitcher). His ERA was just 3.29 in Nite starts and his numbers vs Cleveland last year solid a 3.86 ERA. Lee had a nice start @ Kauffman last year and decent numbers in his 2 starts vs them.

Under 10.5 Oakland/Texas -103
Yeah I am trusting Danny Haren and Chan Ho Park here. Haren has been solid both times out and park has as well. Park actually pitched fairly well vs Oaklnad last year and both temas in mini offensive funks. As Texas scored just 5 runs in the first three games of the Toronto series before "exploding" for 6 runs yesterday! neither team hits RHP especially well and the Texas pen should be getting deeper with the return of Almanzar. Love the A's pen looking for just 6 strong innings from both.


Under 8 Houston/Atlanta -114
Lets see 2 slumping offensive clubs both two of the best SP in the league. Sure half the board is on this one should have been no higher then 7.5 even in Minute Maid Park. Clemens is filthy at home and expect Huddy to be the same tonite hopefully both going into the 8thinning cause the pens not so trustworthy!

Colorado Rockies -102
Feel like I have been getting burned all year when taking a team that opened as a dog and by gametime is a favorite! Well Colorado opened at -110 and is now basically the underdog and should be by gametime! Webb has pitched well but lost his last 4 at Coors and Chacon looked solid earlier @ Arizona. Hard to know what to expect from him but I'll go with it being he does have teh talent to be a solid SP. Dbacks just got swept @ Washington and I think thanks to there high K offense they will struggle to hit on the road even @ Coors! Oh yeah Colorado 8-1 at home last year vs Arizona and home team in the series has won 12 of the last 13 meetings. Webb early on has LHH hitting .380 off him compared to .130 for RHH lets hope they flood the lineup with LH. Oh yeah Webb 1-9 away last year with an ERA 1.50points highre then at home. Webb is 1-3 witha low 4 ERA but the misleading part is the 10 UNERANED RUNS he has allowed there in 28innnnings. How bout 50 baserunners in 28.2 Inningsand yes 23runs allowed!

Under 9 NYM/Philly -101
Real simple both teams not hitting right now. Philly struggles vs LHP cause of Lofton,Abreu, Utley and Thome while Ishii has looked pretty good nboth times out. Wolf has decent numbers vs NY and his 1st 2 starts have been fairly decent. Mets lineup not scaring anyone at this point and lets hope this continues.

Cubs -129
Reason for this play is my simple twisted logic on how this works. Last time out everyone remembers Wood getting blasted at home vs SD while Belisle was fucking the Cardinal backers pitching an unexpected nice game . Thing is many guys do well in spot starts when they dont go to sleep worrying about the game. Reds are 5-1 at home and chciago isnt hitting that well but I think Belisle falls flat on his face tonite. I think Cincy will struggle vs hard throwing Strikeout pitchers like Wood cause they swing and miss way to often. Kearns hasnt done a thing and might lose time to Pena who is pretty awful vs RHP.