GREG SHAKER
Bonus Play
New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins
Play: Yankees
I am not even close to being a Yankee Fan but I have to give them their Due as they are playing outstanding baseball and they are winning games They have won the first two of this series and they find themselves in another good situation to win again. Yes, I do know that Aceves will be limited to just 65 pitches but is that a bad thing? Perhaps not with the way the Yankee Pen has been performing and the fact that they are very well rested with both Sabathia and Burnett going fairly deep into their contests over the last two played. Aceves has been strong this year out of the Pen and just 5 days ago threw 4 Shutout innings at the Bluejays, allowing 1 hit and fanning five Bluejay Batters. He does have very good control and the Twins Pitcher sometimes does not. That is not very good with Tim Timmons umping behind the plate. He is a hitter's friend and his K/BB ratio is not too kind. The Yankee Bats are exploding of late and they are especially tagging lefties. They have maintained a batting average of .305 on the road this year verses these Southpaws and they will be in their absolute best hitting posture because of that. The Twins will not be. They are striking righthanded pitching this year well below their season average overall and below the .250 mark over the last 10 played. New York has had the Twins number for a very long time and are 46-16 in the last 62 meetings. That does include 6-0 this year. I think they have a good chance of making it 7-0 today and with a quality betting number, I am going to bite.
Bonus Play
New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins
Play: Yankees
I am not even close to being a Yankee Fan but I have to give them their Due as they are playing outstanding baseball and they are winning games They have won the first two of this series and they find themselves in another good situation to win again. Yes, I do know that Aceves will be limited to just 65 pitches but is that a bad thing? Perhaps not with the way the Yankee Pen has been performing and the fact that they are very well rested with both Sabathia and Burnett going fairly deep into their contests over the last two played. Aceves has been strong this year out of the Pen and just 5 days ago threw 4 Shutout innings at the Bluejays, allowing 1 hit and fanning five Bluejay Batters. He does have very good control and the Twins Pitcher sometimes does not. That is not very good with Tim Timmons umping behind the plate. He is a hitter's friend and his K/BB ratio is not too kind. The Yankee Bats are exploding of late and they are especially tagging lefties. They have maintained a batting average of .305 on the road this year verses these Southpaws and they will be in their absolute best hitting posture because of that. The Twins will not be. They are striking righthanded pitching this year well below their season average overall and below the .250 mark over the last 10 played. New York has had the Twins number for a very long time and are 46-16 in the last 62 meetings. That does include 6-0 this year. I think they have a good chance of making it 7-0 today and with a quality betting number, I am going to bite.
Freddy Wills
Bonus Play
St Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Play: St Louis Cardinals
This is a pitching mismatch in my opinion with Joel Pineiro vs. Manny Parra. Parra will start for the first time since 6/13 and he has awful numbers against the Cardinals. Cardinals have a .310 average with a .385 2HR coming from Pujols' protection Ryan Ludwick. I really like the emergence of Colby Rasmus 13-29 4HR in his last 8 games hitting in the two hole in front of Pujols.
Pineiro has a .84 whip and 1.99 ERA and should keep the ball on the ground in Milwaukee. He has 2 quality starts in Milwaukee 13.1IP and 4ER giving up just 9H in his career. Expect much of the same here today with a Brewers team who has a .250 avg of Pineiro.
Bonus Play
St Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Play: St Louis Cardinals
This is a pitching mismatch in my opinion with Joel Pineiro vs. Manny Parra. Parra will start for the first time since 6/13 and he has awful numbers against the Cardinals. Cardinals have a .310 average with a .385 2HR coming from Pujols' protection Ryan Ludwick. I really like the emergence of Colby Rasmus 13-29 4HR in his last 8 games hitting in the two hole in front of Pujols.
Pineiro has a .84 whip and 1.99 ERA and should keep the ball on the ground in Milwaukee. He has 2 quality starts in Milwaukee 13.1IP and 4ER giving up just 9H in his career. Expect much of the same here today with a Brewers team who has a .250 avg of Pineiro.
Mike Rose
Bonus Play
Texas Rangers (165)
Tommy Hunter had a birthday he won’t soon forget his last time out against Tampa Bay. The righty picked up his first career victory in the “Bigs” by limiting the Rays to just three hits and one earned run while throwing 90 pitches through his 5.1 innings of work. He struck out a career high five batters, and 55 of his 90 pitches went for strikes. Since giving up a combined 20 ER’s in his first three starts at this level last season, Hunter has surrendered a total of just six earned runs in his three 2009 starts.
Felix Hernandez put together a phenomenal month of June that saw him earn Pitcher of the Month honors by going 3-0 with a miniscule 0.94 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 35/12. He remained undefeated at Fenway Park his last time out where he earned a no decision by going seven innings and allowing seven hits and three ER’s in the M’s extra inning road win. Strangely, he’s been more hittable in the pitcher friendly Safeco Field where he’s 3-2 with a 3.64 ERA & 1.36 WHIP in seven starts. He’s also had a rough go of it solving the Rangers potent line-up going 4-9 with a 4.35 ERA & 1.33 WHIP in 18 career starts.
Even though this will be Tommy Hunter’s first road start of the season, this line is laughable. The Rangers are on a roll right now and playing with extreme confidence, while the M’s come into this one just having their hearts ripped out. Their bullpens been bad throughout the last week, and that’s not a good sign for Manager Wakamatsu’s club knowing that Texas’ line-up isn’t intimidated by Hernandez’ stuff in the least. Too much value here… back the nice sized division leading road pups in Game 1!!!
Bonus Play
Texas Rangers (165)
Tommy Hunter had a birthday he won’t soon forget his last time out against Tampa Bay. The righty picked up his first career victory in the “Bigs” by limiting the Rays to just three hits and one earned run while throwing 90 pitches through his 5.1 innings of work. He struck out a career high five batters, and 55 of his 90 pitches went for strikes. Since giving up a combined 20 ER’s in his first three starts at this level last season, Hunter has surrendered a total of just six earned runs in his three 2009 starts.
Felix Hernandez put together a phenomenal month of June that saw him earn Pitcher of the Month honors by going 3-0 with a miniscule 0.94 ERA and a K/BB ratio of 35/12. He remained undefeated at Fenway Park his last time out where he earned a no decision by going seven innings and allowing seven hits and three ER’s in the M’s extra inning road win. Strangely, he’s been more hittable in the pitcher friendly Safeco Field where he’s 3-2 with a 3.64 ERA & 1.36 WHIP in seven starts. He’s also had a rough go of it solving the Rangers potent line-up going 4-9 with a 4.35 ERA & 1.33 WHIP in 18 career starts.
Even though this will be Tommy Hunter’s first road start of the season, this line is laughable. The Rangers are on a roll right now and playing with extreme confidence, while the M’s come into this one just having their hearts ripped out. Their bullpens been bad throughout the last week, and that’s not a good sign for Manager Wakamatsu’s club knowing that Texas’ line-up isn’t intimidated by Hernandez’ stuff in the least. Too much value here… back the nice sized division leading road pups in Game 1!!!
John Ryan
Bonus Play
Florida Marlins vs. Arizona D-Backs
Arizona D-Backs -107
Ai Simulator 3* graded play on Arizona as they face Florida starting at 9:40 EST. Supporting this graded play is a strong system that has posted a 38-8 mark making 29.9 units since 1997. Play against road teams when the money line is +125 to -125 with a mediocre bullpen whose WHIP is 1.450 to 1.550 on the season facing an opponent with a starting pitcher who is winless after 5 or more starts. Arizona starter Petit certainly qualifies under this system having no wins since 8/28/2008. He has had 7 starts this season and is winless with 3 no decisions. He was activated from the 15-dat DL July 5th. He has a fantastic slider, but with so much movement that it more times than not misses the strike zone. Misses by a big enough margin that batters lay off of the pitch. He throws 56% fastball, 20% slider, 13% change, and 9% curve. Batters are hitting just 238 on the slider and 182 on the curve so despite his winless record and strike zone struggles he does have MLB staying abilities. He dos now that if he does not pitch well that there are several options in the minors for the Diamondbacks to bring up to permanently replace him in the starting rotation. Florida starter Miler has really struggled in his last 2 starts allowing 8 ER, with 3 home runs in 12 innings pitched.
Take Arizona
Bonus Play
Florida Marlins vs. Arizona D-Backs
Arizona D-Backs -107
Ai Simulator 3* graded play on Arizona as they face Florida starting at 9:40 EST. Supporting this graded play is a strong system that has posted a 38-8 mark making 29.9 units since 1997. Play against road teams when the money line is +125 to -125 with a mediocre bullpen whose WHIP is 1.450 to 1.550 on the season facing an opponent with a starting pitcher who is winless after 5 or more starts. Arizona starter Petit certainly qualifies under this system having no wins since 8/28/2008. He has had 7 starts this season and is winless with 3 no decisions. He was activated from the 15-dat DL July 5th. He has a fantastic slider, but with so much movement that it more times than not misses the strike zone. Misses by a big enough margin that batters lay off of the pitch. He throws 56% fastball, 20% slider, 13% change, and 9% curve. Batters are hitting just 238 on the slider and 182 on the curve so despite his winless record and strike zone struggles he does have MLB staying abilities. He dos now that if he does not pitch well that there are several options in the minors for the Diamondbacks to bring up to permanently replace him in the starting rotation. Florida starter Miler has really struggled in his last 2 starts allowing 8 ER, with 3 home runs in 12 innings pitched.
Take Arizona
Thursday mlb comp play
On Thursday we shoot for a 7th straight winning comp play.Lets go with the LA.Dodgers here tonight.Game 905 at 7:10 eastern as they fit a nice system that pertains to teams with high win percentages as a road fav off a road fav loss vs losing teams.The Dodgers dropped one to the Mets on Wednesday.However they have still taken 4 of the 5 games this year.Tonight they have lefty R.Wolf going and he has given the Mets probles in his career.He is 3-0 in Newyork over the last 3 years.The Mets have Livan Hernandez going tonight and whille he has been decent this year,his last 3 starts have produced a 6.35 era.The last few years he has struggles leading into July and he may be approaching the down side of his season.The Mets are just 1-5 as a home dog in this range and the Dodgers dont play around in the last game of a road series when they are off a loss winning 4 of 5 times in this role.The Mets have struggled against teams above 500 and the Dodgers have struggles against no one.Those looking for a pounder consider another big 21-3 system side that leads tonights card.Wednesday 5 star cashed a solid 2-0 night and bases has been on a solid run..For the Bonus Play take the Dodgers tonight to get the rubber game.bol GC-
On Thursday we shoot for a 7th straight winning comp play.Lets go with the LA.Dodgers here tonight.Game 905 at 7:10 eastern as they fit a nice system that pertains to teams with high win percentages as a road fav off a road fav loss vs losing teams.The Dodgers dropped one to the Mets on Wednesday.However they have still taken 4 of the 5 games this year.Tonight they have lefty R.Wolf going and he has given the Mets probles in his career.He is 3-0 in Newyork over the last 3 years.The Mets have Livan Hernandez going tonight and whille he has been decent this year,his last 3 starts have produced a 6.35 era.The last few years he has struggles leading into July and he may be approaching the down side of his season.The Mets are just 1-5 as a home dog in this range and the Dodgers dont play around in the last game of a road series when they are off a loss winning 4 of 5 times in this role.The Mets have struggled against teams above 500 and the Dodgers have struggles against no one.Those looking for a pounder consider another big 21-3 system side that leads tonights card.Wednesday 5 star cashed a solid 2-0 night and bases has been on a solid run..For the Bonus Play take the Dodgers tonight to get the rubber game.bol GC-
