Welcome back to a small little preview of couple of selected MLB games. We are now heading into the business end of the season. Post All Star break and it’s now or never for a handful of teams. There has been some strengthening of some rosters, notable the Cubs going out and getting Jose Quintana from the White Sox and the Nats finally bolstering that bullpen with the addition of veteran arms Doolittle and Madson. Time will tell how they pan out, and in my opinion only 2 divisions are decided, that being the AL West and NL East. Can’t yet hand the pennants out and that’s why baseball is always going to throw up some surprises.
Wednesday 19th
Best Bet – Dbacks $1.71 (1u)
Next Best – Yankees & Twins o10.5 Runs $1.80 (0.5u)
Double – Pirates/Rockies $2.62 (0.5u)
Pittsburgh Pirates vs Milwaukee Brewers (9.05am AEST)
Pirates ($1.61) – Nova (9-6, 3.21 ERA)
Brewers ($2.36) – Guerra (1-3, 4.78 ERA)
The definition of now or never can be easily summarised by looking at the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017. The core of the team is definitely worthy of a run at the division, and GM Neil Huntington has even earmarked this week’s performances as signs for the trade deadline, whether they buy or sell. The return from PED suspension for Starling Marte is huge for the Pirates as they add him back to the outfield with a rejuvenated McCutchen and heating up Polanco. Ivan Nova will get the ball for them and he has been pretty decent at home in 2017. 6-2 with a 2.63 ERA with 29 K’s to only 6 Walks in over 51 innings pitched. For the division leading Brewers, it will be Junior Guerra, hoping of a short stay on the DL. His road work hasn’t been great with a 5.59 ERA, giving up 6 HR’s over only 19 innings. 8-2 in their last 10 games the Pirates are making some noise and with the return of Marte and Ivan Nova at PNC park I like them to take this one.
Suggested Bet – Pirates $1.61
Arizona Diamondbacks vs Cincinnati Reds (9.10am AEST)
Dbacks ($1.71) – Ray (8-4, 2.97 ERA)
Reds ($2.18) – Romano (1-1, 4.50 ERA)
Coming off getting swept at home, the Reds welcome another team coming off a series sweeping in the Arizona Diamondbacks. Losers of 8 of their last 9, that hot start to the season has been cooled of considerably. They will welcome a chance to bounce back to winning ways in a nice hitting friendly park. Robbie Ray gets the nod for the visiting Dbacks, and he has been pretty solid outside of Chase field going 4-1 with a 1.34 Road ERA. More impressive though is his .173 BAA and giving up only 4 HRS in 54 innings. For the Reds its will be rookie Sal Romano, who has only 2 big league starts. He got hit at home back in April going only 3 innings giving up 2 home runs and 4 walks on 82 pitches. If the Dbacks can get his pitch count up early again they should be able to hit their way through the Reds poor relief pitching. It’s a dangerous line up lead by Paul Goldschmidt and the hard hitting Jake Lamb, they should be able to tally up some runs at some stage. Think the price is good enough to just take the ML.
Suggested Bet – Diamondbacks $1.71
Other Games
Minnesota Twins vs New York Yankees
Two hard hitting teams with two not so great pitchers. Colon makes his Twins debut and he has been giving up the long ball a lot in 2017. It will probably continue and there is going to be runs. How many ? Well hopefully enough to cover a high total of 10.5. Take the Over.
All Prices Quoted via Crown Bet at time of writing.
Hopefully your thoughts on the games match up with mine. As always these are only a select few games I was interested in, feel free to share your opinions on any games at @MLB_TheProfits on Twitter. Happy Punting.
