Yesterday was about as bad a picking day as you can get. In fact, it was a disaster. I got Brandon League-ed in Los Angeles. The Red Sox won in extras after John Lackey's bush league move did not cost him or his team. Everything went wrong except for the last two picks of Hisashi Iwakuma (at least that was the Game of the Day) and Jeremy Guthrie beating the Tigers. Everything else was wrong.
And geez, am I sick and tired of not having good days. Mediocrity is bad enough, but downright terrible is a killer. Now I have to be extremely successful to pull this week out of the hole and the month has gotten as crappy as the Nationals.
Tuesday's picks:
- The Orioles over the Angels: Well, if the Angels cannot win with Weaver, they certainly have less of a chance even with Jason Vargas. Miguel Gonzalez is nothing to write home about, but even if this is a slugfest, the Orioles win.
- The Giants over the Pirates: Gerrit Cole makes his Major League debut. The Number 9 prospect (Baseball America) and former #1 draft pick has not been splashy in the minors this season, but effective. My problem is his Pirates scoring runs to get him a win in his five innings of work. Tim Lincecum is the pick.
- The Red Sox over the Bay Rays: Ramon Hernandez will get beat up by the Red Sox faster than you can say Fausto and Jon Lester will shut down the lefty bats of the Rays for the win. This one might get testy after last night.
- The Brewers over the Marlins: The Marlins have Giancarlo Stanton and Logan Morrison back, but they are still the Marlins. I think the Brewers get to Jacob Turner and Wily Peralta pitches a decent game.
- The Cardinals over the Mets: Michael Wacha has been a bit of a letdown after his initial five innings in the majors. But I believe he will power through the Mets' lineup, such as it is, and that the Cardinals will score off of Jeremy Hefner.
- The Reds over the Cubs: I really want to go with Matt Garza and the Cubs, but it was that kind of thinking that got me in trouble last night. After a disaster, you have to go with the percentages and the Reds are the better team as long as Tony Cingrani pitches like he has so far this year.
- The Rangers over the Indians: This is a dicey pick. The Indians are well set up to hit left-handers, which is what they will get in Derek Holland. And Corey Kluber has been decent at times this season. But again, after last night, I have to go with the better team, especially at home.
- The Tigers over the Royals: Max Scherzer should be out of Verlander's shadow as he has become a big-time stud pitcher. Why doesn't he get more attention? He should have an easy win over the Royals and Wade Davis will not help.
- The White Sox over the Blue Jays: Oh, how I would love to see Chien-Ming Wang pitch well for the Blue Jays. I will always appreciate him for his Yankee years. But I just don't see it happening. So the pick is for Carlos Quintana.
- The Rockies over the Nationals: The Rockies will ding up Dan Haren in Coors Field and Jhoulys Chacin needs to hold the Nationals to five runs or less for this pick to be correct. But the pick has to be the Rockies in that field and with that lineup.
- The Yankees over the Athletics: Bartolo Colon is the A's best pitcher. That is kind of a sad statement foe the A's, is it not, despite how well they are playing? The Yankees love fastballs. Colon loves throwing them. CC Sabathia is on a two-game roll. All things point to the Yankees, but that's why they play the game.
- The Dodgers over the Diamondbacks: Ian Kennedy has made a career of shutting down the Giants and the Dodgers, so this game will be close as Zack Greinke will be stingy as well. The Dodgers' bullpen is one scary place though.
- The Braves over the Padres: The Padres have been spoiling a lot of good teams lately and it sure did not help the picks for them to beat the Braves yesterday. But I have to believe that Tim Hudson will love pitching in Petco and will blank them allowing the Braves to win with a few runs off of Andrew Cashner.
- The Astros over the Mariners: Oh dear, this is not fun. Aaron Harang is terrible. But so are the Astros. Bud Norris is talented, but only puts it together about once a month. Will this be that once? Gosh, what a lousy game to pick.
And the Game of the Day!
- The Phillies over the Twins: The Phillies get an extra bat, which will help as they can DH Ryan Howard and put Mayberry at first. Cole Hamels finally got a win his last time out and will now pull off a string of them. P.J. Walters is a average, generic starter.
Yesterday: 2-8 oh man
Week: 10-16
Month: 68-60
Season: 531-416
Games of the Day: 42-27
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