Game Picks - Monday: June 13, 2011

"So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Whenever this picker has a lackluster effort when picking games, that verse always comes to mind. It wasn't a bad day. It wasn't a good day. It was just a barely over .500 day. The day was defined by two pitching performances. One was by Vin Mazzaro for the Royals. This picker wasn't kind to him yesterday. His gem was a crow-eating event here. And Francisco Liriano flirted with another no-hitter. His performance against the Rangers blew that pick out of the water. Ubaldo was terrible. Another bad pick. The Reds couldn't hold down Aubrey Huff, who was just panned in this space two days ago, and ruined another pick. Brian Matusz didn't even make it through the second inning. Bye bye that pick. The Diamondbacks bit the Hand that fed them. Brad Hand that is. And the Mariners scored like nine runs against the Tigers. What!?

Ah well. So the Fan kissed his sister. It's time to move on. Monday features nine games. Not bad for a Monday:

• The Yankees over the Indians: Picking A. J. Burnett to win is like trying to hit a golf ball through a thicket of trees. One time out of ten, you won't hit a tree. This might be the one. Carlos Carrasco goes for the Indians.
• The Mets over the Pirates: Jose Reyes is simply on fire and Mike Pelfrey tries to erase his terrible former start against the Pirates. Paul Maholm hasn't been that bad this year most of the time. But he gets little run support.
• The Bay Rays over the Tigers: Young Alex Cobb needs to keep getting his curveball over the plate like he did against the Angels. If he does, he should be better than Phil Coke for the Tigers, who blow yet another chance to overtake the Indians.
• The Marlins over the Diamondbacks: Ricky Nolasco needs to come up big to help the struggling Marlins. He is helped by another start by Zach Duke for the D-backs.
• The Braves over the Astros: Derek Lowe was good last time out after a couple of stinky outings. He faces Wandy Rodriguez, just off the DL. Never like to pick pitchers just coming off the DL.
• The Brewers over the Cubs: The Brewers are in first place? Yup, they are. Randy Wolf has pitched well lately with nothing to show for it. Ryan Dempster was very good his last time out. But this is the Cubs we are talking about.
• The Padres over the Rockies: Can a Triple A pitcher be better in Coors Field than Aaron Cook? Sure. Why not? Anthony Bass gets the low timbre win.
• The Mariners over the Angels: It's hard to pick against Dan Haran. But the Angels have so little going on lately and the Mariners have a spunky team despite their lack of offense. Jason Vargas has to pitch well though.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Dodgers over the Reds: Hiroki Kuroda will come up big against the Reds at home. Bronson Arroyo has to face the red hot Matt Kemp.

Yesterday: 8-7
Week: 8-7
Month: 93-73
Season: 536-440
Games of the Day: 45-29