Thursday, October 17, 2013

MLB Game Picks - Thursday: October 17, 2013

I did not get anything correctly yesterday. In fact, I was about as wrong as wrong could be. My faith in Joe Kelly was misplaced. And that got me thinking about why Shelby Miller is even on the Cardinals' roster. The guy did win fifteen games during the season and is more talented than Kelly. And then not to remove Kelly early and insert everybody but Miller the rest of the game allowed the lead to build to the point where the Cardinals could not catch up. And those two double-plays by Yadier Molina were killers.

Over at the ALCS, I did not expect Jake Peavy to totally ralph the game. Say what you want about Dustin Pedroia not making that double-play, but the game never should have been in that position in the first place. John Farrell's hook was too slow as well.

Doug Fister and Zack Greinke were very good, but these losses go to their opposing starting pitchers. Oh, and one more thing. I love when Yasiel Puig gets emotional on the field. But I hate what Adrian Gonzalez is doing. One seems like genuine exuberance. The other seems like arrogant prickness. But that might be clouded by my view of Gonzalez as a Hispanic and modern day version of Steve Garvey. Smug pugs.

So now I don't know what I am doing. I thought I had these two series figured out. But nothing is ever figured out when it comes to predicting what is going to happen in baseball. Where do these series go from here? If the Tigers win today, then the Red Sox are in big trouble because the games in Boston will probably be split. The Cardinals get Clayton Kershaw tomorrow and if he wins, then that series is all square and anything can happen.

Today's pick:

  • The Red Sox over the Tigers: First, I cannot imagine Anibal Sanchez being as sharp in his second ALCS start as he was in the first. If it was Verlander or Scherzer, sure. But Sanchez needs batters to swing out of the strike zone and for his control to be pinpoint. But then again, the Tigers' bats seemed to awaken a bit, or perhaps it just seemed that way because Peavy was so bad. Who knows. Spare me the lineup change as the reason. Most of their bats are from the right side with the lefty, Jon Lester, on the mound. Lester is going to have to come up with a big game. Because, like I said, if the Tigers win this one, the Red Sox are in big, big trouble. It will help if Xander Bogaerts starts the game. I stand firm with my belief that the Red Sox are the better team. So they are my pick.

Yesterday: 0-2
Post season: 17-13
Season: 1391-1080

No comments: