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Our Thursday night MLB predictions take us to Target Field in the Twin Cities where the Minnesota Twins will look to get out of their funk against the division rival Chicago White Sox.
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Only time will tell if the All Star Break messed with manager Ozzie Guillen’s clubs mojo. Regardless, the Palehose are a scorching hot ball club that closed the first half of the season out on an insane 25-5 mark to snag a half-game lead in the AL Central. They enter tonight’s series opener winners of eight in a row and have won 22 of their 41 road games on the year ($710).

The Twins have not been able to hold their ground throughout the month of July having registered wins in just three of their 10 (-$656) overall ballgames. Manager Ron Gardenhire’s club went from leading the division by 1.5-games on July 1st to trailing tonight’s opponent by 3.5-games entering the break. Minnesota’s done a decent job protecting its house on the year by winning 26 of its 43 overall match-ups($63).

Chicago White Sox (49-38, $948) vs. Minnesota Twins (46-42, -$309)
Game Date/Time: Thursday, July 15th, 8:10 ET
Game Location: Target Field, Minneapolis, MN
TV/Radio Broadcast: Comcast (Chicago), FOX – North, XM

MLB Odds: Chicago White Sox -110 (John Danks – L) vs. Minnesota Twins -110 (Kevin Slowey – R): Total 8.5 O -115 8.5 U -105

John Danks snapped his personal two-game losing streak his last time out against the Angels by tossing a complete game two-hit shutout; he took a no-hitter into the 6th inning. He’s 8-7 on the year with a 3.29 ERA & 1.13 WHIP having allowed 90 hits and 41 ER’s with a K/BB ratio of 86/37. Chicago’s won four of his seven overall road starts where he carries a 4.29 ERA & 1.38 WHIP giving up just 37 hits through 42 total IP. He’s been real tough on the opposition of late serving up just 13 hits and eight ER’s over his L/20 total innings of work. He’s come up on the short end of both his 2010 MLB betting starts against the Twins this season giving up 15 hits but just three ER’s through 13 combined innings of work.

Opposing the crafty lefty will be Minnesota’s Kevin Slowey who’s been one of the many Twins starters to struggle recently. He’s 8-5 on the year with a 4.64 ERA but has tallied just one victory in his L/5 outings. The Twins carry a winning mark with him leading their charge this season (10-8, $214). He’s been at his best pitching in front of the home faithful going 5-3 with a 3.54 ERA & 1.20 WHIP; Minny’s 6-3 in his nine overall home starts. He was pounded in his lone appearance against the White Sox this season giving up eight hits and five ER’s through just 4.2 IP.

MLB Insider Tip: The Twins have dominated the White Sox winning 12 of the L/15 overall meetings and 20 of the L/26 times they hooked up in Minnesota; they hold a 3-2 season series advantage against them in 2010. Having said that, the Twins are battling way too many injuries right now, mainly to major contributors Mauer and Morneau, and I just don’t see them continuing their domination of the Palehose in this series and beyond. The Twinkie Dome used to terrorize the White Sox in their sleep. With it now a thing of the past, the Palehose will look to improve upon their wretched record against the Twins away from “The Cell”.

My MLB predictions for this series opener have the visitors improving upon their impressive 11-1 record against the L/12 +.500 opponents they faced; look for the White Sox to add to the Twins current frustration level!

My MLB Prediction: Chicago White Sox (Danks)
Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com

The All-Star Break is here, and with just over half the season complete, BetUS Sportsbook looks at the hottest teams on the diamond. Check out who’s hot for your MLB picks on ‘over’ bets, including the scorching D’Backs!
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Season Standings
1: Arizona Diamondbacks (53-34-2) – Going into the break, Arizona’s leading hitter is only batting .276 (Kelly Johnson), but the team’s woeful 5.27 ERA still isn’t helping matters any. The surprising stat? The Diamondbacks closed out the first half of the year with three straight ‘under’ games against the Fish. Is the tide finally turning on all of these ‘overs’? We think not.

2: Milwaukee Brewers (46-37-6) – The Brew Crew finally woke up from their offensive slumber that started on the Fourth of July, but a lot of teams do great work against the Pirates. Milwaukee plated 15 runs in three days against the Buccos over the weekend, which is seven more runs than it scored in its previous five games. The great equalizer has been allowing 6.07 runs per game since June 28th.

3: Los Angeles Dodgers (48-39-1) – Los Angeles still has plenty of problems with its pitching staff right now. The unit allowed 14 runs over its L/3 games before the break against the Cubbies, but that was after a shutout on Sunday. A 4.09 team ERA is something that Dodgertown isn’t used to seeing. However, the offense continues to pick this team up, as RF Andre Ethier leads the charge with his .324 batting average over the first half of the season.

Who’s Hot?
1: Minnesota Twins (4-0-2) – The Twins are freefalling in the AL Central, and it’s not just a mistake that it’s happening. After losing out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, they still have plenty of work to do, particularly on a pitching staff that has conceded 6.5 runs per game in its L/8. In those eight games, Minnesota is 6-0-2 for ‘over’ bettors. Until the pitching staff gets its act together, the Twinkies are going to find it difficult to keep up with the surging Tigers and White Sox within the division.

2: San Diego Padres (5-1) – It’s not often that you see the Padres on the list of top ‘over’ teams this season, but that was the case after getting raked for 21 runs in three days in Colorado and 14 runs in three days in Washington. Still, there’s no shame in having a 3.27 team ERA going into the All-Star Break, and that’s why San Diego is still hanging on to the lead in the NL West at 51-37.

3: Washington Nationals (5-1) – We already discussed the three game set between the Nats and Padres early last week, but Washington played a heck of an offense series at home against San Fran as well over the weekend. The 10.7 combined runs per game in that series was nothing new for Washington. Sunday’s 6-2 defeat was the first time that this squad had played an ‘under’ affair since July 2nd. In that stretch, they combined to score an average of 11.1 runs per game.

The summer is just starting to heat up for the boys on the diamond. Today, BetUS looks at the best ‘under’ squads that are beating the MLB odds, including the ‘over’ killing Cardinals.
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Season Standings
1: St. Louis Cardinals (52-34-2) – A rare four game ‘over’ streak for the Redbirds was promptly stopped on Thursday, as they went 3-1 for ‘under’ bettors over the course of the weekend. The pitching staff was great, allowing just ten runs in those four games, but one must remember that the final three games in that set were in Houston. The Cards are getting closer towards having the best staff in baseball, as they have a 3.39 team ERA going into the All-Star Break.

2: Chicago Cubs (46-35-8) – Getting shutout on Sunday at the hands of the Dodgers was just a microcosm of the miserable offensive campaign that the Cubs have had all season long. In spite of the fact that guys like 1B Derrek Lee, OF Alfonso Soriano, OF Kosuke Fukudome, and 3B Aramis Ramirez all have huge contracts, the offense is only averaging 4.03 runs per game over the first half of the season. No wonder why manager Lou Piniella’s squad is 11 games under .500 and 9.5 games out in the NL Central race…

3: Washington Nationals (48-38-3) – The Nats just barely held on to their spot on the ‘under’ list for the season after playing seven straight ‘overs’ just before the All-Star Break. Things aren’t even going well for the chosen boy, RHP Stephen Strasburg, who has now watched his L/2 starts fly past the posted ‘total’ of 6.5.

Who’s Hot?
1: New York Mets (5-1) – A woeful offensive effort has left the Mets four games out of first place in the NL East race going into the All-Star Break. They picked an atrocious time to score just nine runs in five games at home against Cincinnati and Atlanta, and the end result was a wasted effort from their pitchers in that stretch as well. New York only conceded 11 runs over those five games to boot. Needless to say, all five stayed ‘under’ the number.

2: New York Yankees (5-2) – We stay in a New York state of mind, as the Bronx Bombers have now held seven straight foes to four runs or less and six of the seven to two runs or less. Imagine if LHP Cliff Lee was actually traded to the Yankees on Friday night before the Texas Rangers swooped in and snared him! A 3.81 team ERA would look a heck of a lot better without RHP Javier Vazquez in the fold.

3: Cincinnati Reds (5-2) – The Reds had a great chance to make a move in the NL Central right before the All-Star Break, but dropping four straight to the Phils really hurt that cause. Cincinnati was shutout twice in that series and was held to three runs or less six times in its ten game roadie to close out the first half of the season.

Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com

Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves
Free Pick: Chicago Cubs +185 (April 8th 2010 – Jeff Alexander)
I know Tommy Hanson is a talented young starter, but so is Randy Wells. In other words, the Braves are being severely overvalued here today. Wells has had great success against the Braves, posting a 2.08 ERA and a 0.692 WHIP in 2 career starts. In addition, we can’t ignore the fact that the Cubs are 8-1 in their last 9 games as a road underdog of +151 to +200. We’ll take the Cubs showing solid value in the underdog role tonight.

Minnesota Twins vs. Los Angeles Angels
Free Pick: Los Angeles Angels -121 (April 8th 2010 – Dave Price)
After back-to-back losses to the Twins, look for the Angels to bounce back strong tonight. The Angels are 41-15 when playing with double revenge – 2 straight losses against an opponent over the last 3 seasons. They are also 21-7 after 2 or more consecutive losses over the last 2 seasons. Even though the Twins have won a couple, they are still just 3-7 in the last 10 meetings with the Angels and only 11-24 in their last 35 road meetings with the Angels. Joel Pineiro went 15-12 with a 3.49 ERA last season with St. Louis and had a solid spring with the Angels, going 4-0 with a 4.38 ERA in six starts. Look for him to begin his career with the Angels in the win column

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