Game Picks - Wednesday: August 12, 2009

The good vibe is back and this picker is 18-7 in his last two days. That somewhat erases the horrid taste left on the palette from last week. As bobook pointed out (thank you), it's a pretty good day when picking the Pirates, Reds, Padres and Royals to win and three out of the four do win. Heck, the picker is even on top of the list this week on ballhype.com (too bad that site's screwy scoring system won't allow this picker to stay there). For those of you keeping score, the picker is now 1312-1155 in picks for the season. That's 157 games over .500. Do you know what the Fan's cumulative ballhype.com score is for that record? -6. Yes, minus 6. Something is screwy there huh?

Anyway, the morning is frittering away, so we better get to the picks:

• The Yankees over the Blue Jays: The Blue Jays are playing tough, but the Yankees are too much.
• The A's over the Orioles: Mazzero versus Berken. Flip a coin on which young pitcher will perform. Who knows.
• The Bay Rays over the Angels: Neimann should beat Bell. But again, this pick is fraught with danger as the Angels are playing well and the Bay Rays are playing like there is still the whole season to get into wild card contention. In other words, there is little urgency there.
• The Diamondbacks over the Mets: The good Oliver Perez or the bad one? Who can ever tell.
• The Giants over the Dodgers: Torre must have a Jeff Weaver fixation. Only that can explain why the great manager has this weak spot for this awful pitcher.
• The Rangers over the Indians: Again: The Rangers need to win just about every game.
• The Marlins over the Astros: The Marlins should teach the Bay Rays a thing or two about how to act in a wild card race.
• The Braves over the Nationals: The Nats' winning streak is history and so is their nice little buzz.
• The Red Sox over the Tigers: The Red Sox will eat Galarraga for lunch while Beckett cleans up.
• The Padres over the Brewers: The Brew Crew might as well wave the white flag as they keep trotting Villanueva out there.
• The Cubs over the Phillies: Pedro's first start of the year for the Phillies? Not feeling it.
• The Royals over the Twins: Those dang Twins screwed the Fan up again yesterday.
• The Cardinals over the Reds: Carpenter. Homer Bailey. Yeah. That's what the Fan thought too.
• The Rockies over the Pirates: Thought about taking Hart and the Pirates. But then thought against it.
• The Mariners over the White Sox: Buehrle threw 14 straight perfect innings and hasn't gotten anyone out since. Whuh?

Yesterday: 11-4
Week: 23-17
Month: 74-75