Monday, May 12, 2014

MLB Game Picks - Monday: May 12, 2014

Sunday added up to a third straight day of finishing 8-7. It's like my KitchenAid Electric Mixer is permanently stuck on Mediocre. Not only that, but the Game of the Day feature was wrong again. Unbelievable.

The pick that got me the most was the Yankees. They came back and tied the game and were within a strike of getting out of a man-on-third situation with an 0-2 count on Mark Reynolds. Reynolds has been in 863 0-2 counts in his career and had struck out 512 times and had a .429 OPS in those situations. In the second guess of all second guesses, the Yankees decided to throw him a slider. What a stupid pitch to call. Ballgame.

I'm still steaming about that one.  Monday features ten games, so there is no way I can finish 8-7. Somehow that is not comforting. The picks:
  • The Tigers over the Orioles: Yes, Chris Davis is back. Even so, I do not like to pick Bud Norris...ever. Yes, he won his last time out. I am aware. But against the Tigers? No. I'd much rather go with Rick Porcello with the Orioles pounding a bunch of balls into the ground.
  • The Yankees over the Mets: The Yankees need revenge for last year's whitewash at the hand of of the Citi Field gang. They face old Shrek, Bartolo Colon. Hiroki Kuroda goes for the Yankees and was much better his last time out. My wife pointed out last night that the Mets need to trade for Danny Farquhar so that they have Shrek and Lord Farquhar on the same team. Of course, Farquhar blew one of my picks yesterday with an incredibly bad pitch.
  • The Blue Jays over the Angels: This is a tough, tough one. Mark Buehrle is pitching really well, but we all know he is not THIS good. C.J. Wilson is pitching really well too. I'm going with the Blue Jays at home. Both teams have bad bullpens.
  • The Cardinals over the Cubs: The Cardinals have trouble with the Cubs. This we know. Travis Wood is a good pitcher. And Tyler Lyons is 0-2. But two of Lyons' three starts have been pitched well. It's time for him to get a win.
  • The Rangers over the Astros: Brad Peacock had a really good Spring Training but did not carry it over into the season. Colby Lewis still makes me nervous. But he's my pick for today.
  • The Nationals over the Diamondbacks: The Diamondbacks are off life support but I still like Jordan Zimmermann way better than I like Josh Collmenter. I did pick against Collmenter last time out and he won, so there is that...
  • The Athletics over the White Sox: Jesse Chavez was pitching really well until I picked him up for my fantasy team. I killed Martin Perez the same way. I am the reverse King Midas. But I am picking him to win over John Danks who is not quite as terrible this year as past years.
  • The Dodgers over the Marlins: The Marlins are now 3-12 away from their home park. Weird. I like the way Tom Koehler is pitching. But with the above fact, I will stick with the Dodgers and Dan Haren.
  • The Braves over the Giants: Gavin Floyd cannot be as good as his first start went. However, Tim Lincecum's breaking stuff has been awful. So I am going with Floyd and the Braves.
And the Game of the Day
  • The Mariners over the Bay Rays: Felix Hernandez at home is too good to pass up. The lefty, Cesar Ramos, is a pretty good match-up against the Mariners though. But I'm going with it. What do I have to lose at this point?
Yesterday: 8-7, May: 83-72, Games of the Day: 17-21, Season: 316-246

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