Game Picks - Thursday: June 21, 2012

Another baseball day, another decent day of picks. The overall season record went a hundred games over .500 which is a milestone. The Game of the Day feature is on a serious roll. And the weekly and monthly totals are very healthy. This interleague picking season has gone really well. Yesterday would have been better if the Pirates had won. Those tricksters have been defeating the picks daily by winning. So they were picked and poof. No win. The Cardinals won and that was not expected against the Tigers at home. But perhaps the dumbest pick of the day came in picking against Jered Weaver. How does that pick look in hindsight? Pretty hilarious. The best pick of the day was picking the A's over the Dodgers. Looked like a genius on that one.

Thursday is a sleepy day in baseball. There are only six games on the schedule as the rest of the teams have the day off. But here are the picks for what games we have:

• The Cardinals over the Tigers: The Tigers get a spot start from Jacob Turner who is an unknown quantity. He should have been the fifth starter out of Spring Training but then hurt his shoulder. That is when Drew Smyly (The Emoticon) took over. Now Smyly is on the DL and Turner gets his shot. But he faces a really tough offense and Kyle Lohse usually wins.
• The Phillies over the Rockies: Will Jeff Francis even make it to his 75-pitch allotment? He hasn't looked good so far. But saying that, today he'll throw a beauty. That's the way picking goes. Vance Worley is a better choice for this one.
• The Pirates over the Twins: Come on, Pirates! Stop messing with this picker. James McDonald is a dominant arm and should have his way with the Twins. Liam Hendriks is not having any fun in the major leagues for the Twins.
• The Nationals over the Bay Rays: Gio Gonzalez, if he is on, should shut down the Bay Rays' offense and neutralizes guys like Pena and Joyce. Joyce might be hurt anyway. Not sure. But anyway, Matt Moore could put a wrinkle in this pick as he has looked mighty good of late. Great match up. Great series.
• The Red Sox over the Marlins: Carlos Zambrano has gone completely downhill in the last month. The Red Sox will have their dancing shoes on for this one. The one problem is that Daisuke Matzusaka is pitching and hasn't won a game yet. He should today though.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Dodgers over the Athletics: You have to go with Clayton Kershaw even though he hasn't been all there all season. He has too much talent. Travis Blackley hopes to give the A's a chance to win and looked good against the Padres his last time out.

Yesterday: 9-6

Week: 33-20

Month: 155-114

Season: 556-455

Games of the Day: 47-28