The MLB Betting Market through 6/7: June 7th 2010

If you look at baseball betting as if it were the stock market, here’s a look at what we’re buying and selling through another week of play on the diamond.

Bullish Squads
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (6-1, +$526) – The Halos could’ve easily just folded up the tent and called it a season after 1B Kendry Morales broke his leg celebrating a walk off home run back on May 29th, but that just hasn’t been the case. The team has won eight out of nine games since that point, including taking six of the first seven games of this wild 14 game road trip that it is on.

Houston Astros (5-1, +$509) – What is that? The Astros are finally bullish? This could be a case of market correction, but Houston is finally getting pitching that is good enough to make up for its miserable offense. The Astros have won five out of six and six out of eight to claw back to the point where they could possibly get out of the gutter in the NL Central, but with a four game roadie into Colorado and a three game set at Yankee Stadium coming this week, keeping that up seems to be unlikely.

Bearish Squads
Baltimore Orioles (1-6, -$451) – This is about as bearish as you can get. The Orioles had lost ten straight games before beating the Red Sox 4-3 on Sunday afternoon. Manager Dave Trembley had to go and was finally dismissed, as the team is only on a pace to win 45 games all season long.

Arizona Diamondbacks (2-5, -$280) – Though we’ll talk more about the D’Backs in just a moment, there is not a doubt in anyone’s mind that this could be the most disappointing team in baseball and is certainly a bearish squad to stay away from. MLB betting fans were crushed by this team’s offensive output in LA over Memorial Day (see below). Taking two out of three against Colorado at home over the weekend didn’t nearly erase that ugly ten game losing streak that the team had to endure, though.

Player to Buy – Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies: The Rocks are staying in the race for the NL West crown thanks to Jimenez, who is on pace to shatter all sorts of records this year. His string of 33 consecutive scoreless innings came to a close on Sunday, but he still now holds the Colorado franchise record in that department. Jimenez has a 0.93 ERA and is cruising towards Bob Gibson’s infamous 1.12 ERA season, and he is only a pace to win 32 games this year.

Players to Sell – Arizona Diamondbacks Starting Lineup: When your pitchers have two of your 12 hits in two extra inning games, that’s generally not a very good sign. Arizona went scoreless in 25 innings over two days against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and only batter .139 in those two games. That really just won’t cut it at the MLB level under any circumstance, but especially when you have a pitching staff that gives you two great outings in a row after posting a 5.50 ERA, the worst in baseball, for the rest of the season.

MLB Baseball Betting: Dodgers vs. Nationals Prediction: April 23rd 2010

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals
Free Pick: Under 10 Runs
Courtesy of Mike Rose (Handicapperspicks.com)
Click here for expert MLB baseball picks

The Los Angeles Dodgers look to even up their record when they head east to the nation’s capitol for the second stop of their nine-game east coast road trip to face the Washington Nationals.

Though the Dodgers outscored the Cincinnati Reds 28-25 in the set, the lost the series 2-1. Mostly to blame for the series loss was the LA’s starting pitching staff that failed to get a real quality start in any of the three games. After posting a league leading staff ERA of 3.41 a year ago, the Dodgers starting unit has posted a whopping 5.52 ERA to date (#27/30).

Since dropping five of its first eight games to start the season, The Nationals have tallied victories in five of their next eight games played. They do however come off a loss on Thursday after they were shut down by Colorado starter Ubaldo Jimenez; the defeat earned them a split in the four-game series.

Knuckleballer Charlie Haeger gets the starting nod from manager Joe Torre for the third time this season tonight; the start will be his first career look at the Nats.

With Jason Marquis relegated to the DL after proving to be largely ineffective to start the year, Washington will call upon its farm and bring up Luis Altilano to make his MLB debut.

The 24-year old is considered to be one of the organization’s top minor-league pitchers.

The Dodgers and Nationals have been two of the best over MLB betting teams in the league throughout the first three weeks of the season. LA sports a 13-2 ATS mark towards the over, while Washington stands 10-6 ATS on the year.

That said; both line-ups will be without some of its major firepower as both LF Manny Ramirez and 3B Ryan Zimmerman won’t give it a go as they deal with nagging injuries.

Haeger can be a tough nut to crack for teams that have never seen his stuff before, and Atilano is an unknown commodity coming in.

Look for both of these hurlers to have both offenses guessing through the first two turns of the order and for both bullpens to actually have some success in the later innings.

Expecting this to be a high scorer is giving me the “Fools Gold vibe” with every freaking trend screaming to back the over. Buck the trend and look for a low scorer.

The MLB Betting Market through 4/19: April 19th 2010

If you look at baseball betting as if it were the stock market, here’s a look at what we’re buying and selling through another week of play on the diamond.

Bullish Squads

Tampa Bay Rays (6-0, +$705): It may only be April, but Tampa Bay won its biggest series in quite some time over the course of this weekend, taking all three games at Fenway Park to upset the struggling Red Sox. The Rays are in first place at 9-3 in the American League East with the Yankees, and they’re proving once again that they are going to be formidable foes in the division race. SP Matt Garza hasn’t given up more than one earned run in any of his three starts this season.

New York Yankees (5-1, +$305): The Bronx Bombers are going to be on this list of bullish squads quite a bit this year, we think. They swept the Rangers out of town in dominating fashion, outscoring them 17-6 over the three victories. The Angels were a bit more of a test, as the bullpen nearly coughed up Game 1 of the series and didn’t pitch well in Game 2 either. We’ll see how the Yanks can do when they hit the West Coast for the first time this season this week.

Bearish Squads

Boston Red Sox (1-5, -$557): It’s tough being a Sox fan right now. The boys from Beantown are a woeful 4-8 and they’re already five games in the rears of the Yankees and Rays in the AL East. On top of that, DH David Ortiz is only hitting .171 on the year, and if he doesn’t pick it up and pick it up ASAP, Red Sox Nation is going to be calling for a new DH.

Baltimore Orioles (1-6, -$439): At least the O’s stopped their wicked nine game losing streak this week! Baltimore still hasn’t won a game at home this year though after getting swept by Tampa Bay to start this week off. It may be awhile too before that happens, as there is a series in Seattle and one in Boston before coming back home to play the Yanks for three and Red Sox for three. If Baltimore doesn’t win one of those six, it’ll be until the middle of May before it records a home win.

Player to BuyUbaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies (1-0, 0.00 ERA): Jimenez became the first Colorado Rocky to pitch a no-hitter in franchise history on Saturday when he blanked the Braves in a 4-0 victory. On the season, he has been absolutely fantastic, going 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and a batting average against of .205. Even though he walked six batters, Jimenez’s stuff was never in question on Saturday night, as he also fanned seven Atlanta batters in the process. We’ll see how well he pitches this week against the Nats after throwing 129 pitches for his no-no.

Player to Sell – Jason Marquis, Washington Nationals (0-2, 28.53 ERA): Yes, you’re reading that right. Marquis had a 28.53 ERA this week. Getting blasted in the City of Brotherly Love by the Phillies lineup is at least remotely acceptable, but what Marquis did on Sunday at home against Milwaukee was inexcusable. The man who was brought in to solidify the top of the Washington rotation has only hurt it, as he allowed all seven batters he faced to score without recording an out. Marquis’ days on the Nats may already be numbered.