Sunday, June 26, 2011

Game Picks - Sunday: June 26, 2011

The week did end on a positive note yesterday. But all it did was finish the week exactly at .500. That's the second straight week that has finished at that mediocre mark. But considering that we've had two weeks of interleague play, it's hard to complain. The coup of yesterday was picking the Pirates to beat the Red Sox. Those kinds of picks are like getting a birdie in golf. But unlike birdies, such picks don't count for anything on the scorecard.

The Royals and the Marlins both won. In the former game just mentioned, both starters did a good job and left with the score tied at two. Jeff Samardzija then came in and pitched a horrible inning and it cost the Cubs the game. In the latter game mentioned, Chris Volstad had the rare effective outing and drove in a run himself as the Fighting Fish scored four times to beat Jason Vargas and the Mariners. Both of those were losses on this picker's scorecard.

The Mets walloped the Rangers, which wasn't expected. Josh Hamilton and his blue eyes whiffed four times in the game. Golden Sombrero? Hiroki Kuroda couldn't get it done and the Angels beat the Dodgers again. Another bad pick. In the final bad pick of the day, Juan Rivera hit a three run homer off of Jaime Garcia which sunk the Cardinals. Lance Berkman has gone cold since Albert Pujols got hurt. Carlos Villanueva pitched very well for that win for the Blue Jays.

And here we are for a new week. It would be nice to get off of this .500 crap and get back to successful picking. Sunday's picks:

  • The Tigers over the Diamondbacks: We start off with a clunker as Joe Saunders matches up with Brad Penny. How awful is that match up? Cripes. Going with Penny at home.
  • The Pirates over the Red Sox: The Fan hates to admit this, but the Red Sox lose something without David Ortiz in the line up. Andrew Miller doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence either. John McDonald better be on his best behavior though.
  • The Reds over the Orioles: Homer Bailey returns (again) to pitch for the Reds. The Orioles counter with Jeremy Guthrie, who hasn't been effective for a while now.
  • The Phillies over the Athletics: Roy Halladay marches on like the methodical robot that he is. Josh Outman doesn't get enough outs in this one to matter.
  • The Yankees over the Rockies: The Yankees will make young Juan Nicasio throw too many pitches early in the game. Ivan Nova is this year's Phil Hughes. Not pretty, but he wins.
  • The Rays over the Astros: The Bay Rays are sneaking up on the AL East while the Red Sox fiddle around in Pittsburgh. Jeff Niemann over J. A. Happ.
  • The Royals over the Cubs: See what happens? The Royals finally get a win and the Fan expects them to win another. Talk about greedy, eh? Well, Luke Hochevar is going to have a good game and Randy wells will not. So there.
  • The Twins over the Brewers: Carl Pavano has his ERA all the way down to 4.05 after a horrible start. While Pavano has been heading in the right direction, Chris Narveson has been going the wrong way.
  • The White Sox over the Nationals: Wasn't Peavy amazing yesterday in relief? Wow! The White Sox ride that with another good performance from Phil Humber as the White Sox get to Livan Hernandez for enough runs to win.
  • The Cardinals over the Blue Jays: Very torn on this one. Kyle McClellan has been very good but so has Ricky Romero. Despite Romero's 2.98 ERA, his team has lost nine of his fifteen starts due to poor run scoring. But the Blue Jays are hitting better of late. Oh heck.
  • The Rangers over the Mets: Yeah, it's Dillon Gee's turn. But that magic spell was broken in his last start. Derek Holland has been terrific and that's what the Fan is counting on for this one. It is a day game, so watch out for Ol' Blue Eyes.
  • The Dodgers over the Angels: In the battle of the aces, Clayton Kershaw will beat Jared Weaver. Maybe. He's at home, so that's the pick.
  • The Giants over the Indians: The Giants are the most amazing team. They have nothing. And yet they keep winning those 1-0 and 2-1 games. Amazing. Madison Bumgarner gets the win over Fausto Carmona.
  • The Marlins over the Mariners: Anibal Sanchez is the Marlins' most effective pitcher and Doug Fister is the Mariners most unreliable. So there you go.

And the Game of the Day!

  • The Braves over the Padres: Cory Luebke? Uh, no. Going with Tim Hudson instead.

Yesterday: 9-6
Last Week: 45-45
Month: 184-157
Season: 620-524
Games of the Day: 65-32

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