Game Picks - Tuesday: August 30, 2011

Tim Lincecum, why are you so confusing? Et Tu, Max Scherzer? Some pitchers just fill a picker with dread and those two certainly do that. Their lack of performance marred an otherwise successful day of picking. The thing with Lincecum was that he was the Game of the Day. There were two other bad picks. The Mets swept their double-header over the Marlins when a split was predicted. The Marlins certainly played dead all day scoring only two runs in eighteen innings. The other one was the Indians beating the A's despite a brilliantly pitched game by the A's Brandon McCarthy.

But there were so brilliant picks too. The Astros over the Pirates was a really smart pick as was the Mariners over the Angels and the Blue Jays over the Bay Rays. The rest of the correct picks were fairly easy to make.

Tuesday returns us to a bit of normalcy as the schedule looks pretty much like it should. No double-headers, no hurricanes. Here are the picks:

• The Tigers over the Royals: Doug Fister is showing himself to be a good pick up for the Tigers. This picker doesn't quite trust him completely, but he should hold the Royals to fewer runs than Jeff Francis allows to the Tigers.
• The Athletics over the Indians: Perhaps Trevor Cahill's last start indicate a return to form for the pitcher. For this pick's sake, let's hope so. The Indians are starting Jeanmar Gomez, a pitcher that has made two spots starts for the Indians. Neither of them went well.
• The Orioles over the Blue Jays: This might be the only Oriole win of this series as Jeremy Guthrie was great his last time out and Brett Cecil was not.
• The Marlins over the Mets: Hate this game. Mike Pelfrey has not beaten the Marlins in his last fifteen attempts. Javier Vazquez is no picnic to pick either. Yeesh.
• The Yankees over the Red Sox: C.C. Sabathia has been whacked around by the Red Sox this year and the Red Sox have had their way with their New York rivals. The one caveat in this game? John Lackey.
• The Nationals over the Braves: Picking the Braves just doesn't feel right in this one. Jair Jurrjens gave up 13 base runners in six innings his last outing and still didn't give up a run. That's a bad case of the yips with runners on base by the Cubs there. Jurrjens simply hasn't been sharp since the All Star Game. Livan Hernandez is the pick.
• The Astros over the Pirates: Charlie Morton might be running out of gas. His last outing was not a good one. Meanwhile, Henry Sosa looks really good for the Astros.
• The Rangers over the Bay Rays: Tough pick to call. Jeremy Hellickson is great. But Scott Feldman, making his first start of the year, has a really great career line against the Bay Rays. This could become a bullpen game and the Rangers are stronger there.
• The White Sox over the Twins: The White Sox are determined to compete despite a mediocre ball club. This Fan is officially impressed again with Ozzie Guillen. Zach Stewart over Anthony Swarzak.
• The Brewers over the Cardinals: This series is a moot point at this point in the season and you would think that Edwin Jackson could be better than Shaun Marcum who has struggled against the Cards. But going with the Brewers at home.
• The Diamondbacks over the Rockies: The D-backs are on fire and pitching has been forefront. Wade Miley walked too many batters his last start, but he limited the Nationals to one run. The D-backs should score on Aaron Cook.
• The Angels over the Mariners: The improbable line of Jerome Williams versus Anthony Vazquez. Your guess is as good as this picker in this one.
• The Dodgers over the Padres: Hiroki Kuroda is finally starting to get some run support. Tim Stauffer could be tough but Andre Ethier now has a bug up his bonnet and Matt Kemp has been phenomenal.
• The Cubs over the Giants: The Giants can't score and that puts enormous pressure on its pitching staff. It's starting to show. Matt Garza shuts them down again. All Ryan Vogelsong can do is pitch well and hope.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Phillies over the Reds: Roy Halladay will help us remember that Clayton Kershaw hasn't won the Cy Young Award yet. Bronson Arroyo with the tough luck loss. 

Yesterday: 9-4

Week: 15-11

Month: 225-165

Season: 1099-906

Games of the Day: 92-55