Anytime a day of picks has the Astros and Cubs for wins AND those picks come in
correctly...well, that is a good day. And it was a good day with ten out of the fifteen picks
coming in correctly. The Game of the Day is on a roll, which after a long dry spell, is
gratifying. The Cardinals continue to confound this picker though as they were picked to
lose and sure enough were losing. But then they scored six runs off of Mat Latos in one
inning and put the game away. Go figure.
Saturday ends the picking week and since the picks are 53-28 this week, it would be lovely
to put a little bow on that bonnet. Saturday's picks:
- The Rockies over the Cubs: This game is impossible to pick. Alex White has looked better but can't last more than four innings. Brooks Raley has a 7.63 ERA. Umm...
- The Bay Rays over the Athletics: The A's won last night, which was a surprise and a bad pick. But Brandon McCarthy worries this picker too much to pick him. Going with Jeremy Hellickson instead.
- The Giants over the Braves: The Braves sure picked a bad time to wander over to San Francisco. The Giants are white hot. Today won't get any better for the Braves as Madison Bumgarner at home is pretty much a done deal. Mike Minor goes for the Braves.
- The Rangers over the Twins: This one could turn into a slugfest. Ryan Dempster goes for the Rangers and the thought of him pitching in Texas is still scary. But Brian Duensing is the kind of pitcher the Rangers chew up and spit out.
- The Cardinals over the Reds: Let's see all the twists and turns in this one. Jaime Garcia was brilliant in his first start after the disabled list. He struck out ten and walked none. That means he will be awful today, right? And Mike Leake seems like a safer pick. So the pick should be the Reds. But since the Cardinals' pick is never right, we'll reverse it and pick them instead.
- The Tigers over the Angels: This is a tough one. Dan Haren has not pitched well and the thought here is that he is not healthy but is still going out there anyway. The Emoticon, Drew Smyly, is back from Toledo to start for Doug Fister. Smyly really started the season well and could shut down the Angels.
- The Pirates over the Brewers: Shaun Marcum is a scary pick since he is just coming back from the DL and was never lights out anyway. Jeff Karstens is denigrated by most pundits, but all he ever does is go out there and pitch well. Yay for the everyman.
- The Yankees over the Indians: Justin Masterson has no in-between. He is either very, very good or very, very bad. He was bad last time out so that is scary for the Yankees as a pick. But Hiroki Kuroda has been amazing for the Yankees for the last two months. He has to be the pick until he isn't.
- The Blue Jays over the Orioles: What do you do with this game? The Blue Jays have Brandon Morrow back and pitching in this one. But he is limited to 85 pitches like he is with the Rockies or something. So that would normally swing the pick to the Orioles. But the Orioles are starting Steve Johnson, a career relief pitcher who won't be able to go more than a few innings.
- The Nationals over the Phillies: Gio Gonzalez throttles the Phillies attack and Roy Halladay gives up two runs and that should be enough for the Nationals to win.
- The Royals over the Red Sox: Josh Beckett is scheduled to make this start. Will he still be with the Red Sox? Picking the Royals because Jeremy Guthrie is definitely going to be there.
- The White Sox over the Mariners: What a kick in the pants that game was last night for the Mariners. They came all the way back in the ninth to take the lead. It was a brilliant and spunky rally. Only to blow the save. Ugh. That was brutal. The M's won't recover. Blake Beavan gets hit and Jose Quintana shuts the M's down.
- The Diamondbacks over the Padres: Geez, are the D-backs hard to figure out or what? Going with Ian Kennedy over Clayton Richard who is never as good on the road as he is at home.
- The Dodgers over the Marlins: This one features a doozy of a pitching match-up as Clayton Kershaw pitches for the Dodgers against Josh Johnson of the Marlins. That's big time stuff going on there. The Marlins seem to have trouble winning games when Johnson is on the mound, so that won't change today.
And the Game of the Day!
- The Mets over the Astros: Fernando Abad makes the first start of his big league career after being strictly a relief pitcher. He is starting because Armando Galarraga was cut loose by the Astros. It probably doesn't matter who starts because R.A. Dickey is pitching for the Mets and that should equal a win.
Yesterday: 10-5
Week: 53-28
Month: 198-134
Season: 1040-814
Games of the Day: 78-58
No comments:
Post a Comment