My son reads these posts faithfully and is down with me for a few days while I am in Florida. He likes to poke fun of me when things go wrong. For example, he wryly mentioned that I had called Tim Lincecum the worst pitcher on the Giants and the guy threw a no-hitter. I weakly replied that I had picked the guy to win and the worst pitcher on a very good rotation can still be pretty good. The Number One son wasn't buying it.
At least I had a good day, so he can't rag on me too bad (heh) today. But make no mistake, I can rag on him too. I took him to a crab place yesterday and he ordered blue crab, something he had never had before and he had no idea how to eat them and could not get any of the meat out. Ha! I stuck with the snow crab I know and had a great meal.
Thursday's picks:
- The Braves over the Astros: The Braves are never quite as dead as they appear to be and just when you think they are sinking, they pull off a winning streak to stay at or near the top of the division. Jarred Cosart is good. But Mike Minor will be better.
- The Angels over the Twins: The Angels have played .613 baseball this month and are now ten games over .500. They are looking mighty snug in the wild card race and are only four back of the A's. Mike Trout is at the magical .300/.400/.600 level and the pitching rotation is solid. Jered Weaver should win today at home against Ricky Nolasco.
- The Phillies over the Marlins: Cole Hamels has been very good. Tom Koehler is having a nice season, but the Marlins have stopped hitting, especially on the road.
- The Pirates over the Mets: Vance Worley shows you that you need to take a second look once in a while before you go on shooting your mouth (or keyboard) off. Worley has walked only one batter in his two starts (1-0) and only five in 59+ innings all season between Triple-A and the Bigs. I'll take him over Daisuke Matsuzaka.
- The Blue Jays over the White Sox: Wow did the White Sox blow their game last night. That was sad. Scott Carroll has done a decent job in June as the last guy in the bullpen mopping up innings. But I doubt he can slow the Blue Jays' lineup down very much. J.A. Happ reverted back to his happ-less days last time out but has had a good season.
- The Tigers over the Rangers: Nick Martinez has pitched two pretty good starts in a row. But the guy's WHIP is 1.58 and he only strikes out 4.22 batters per nine innings. That would qualify him for the lowest in baseball if he had enough innings to be among the leaders. I'll take Rick Porcello.
- The Nationals over the Cubs: I did not expect the Nats to lose so badly yesterday, which makes me a little hesitant today. Strasburg has really let me down. But Doug Fister has been terrific. So I will take him over Travis Wood, a guy I like very much.
- The Cardinals over the Dodgers: This is a very interesting match-up! It will be Adam Wainwright in the spacious Dodger Stadium against a reinvented Josh Beckett. Very interesting indeed. Toss a coin.
- The Giants over the Reds: Mike Leake had his best start in more than a month against the Blue Jays his last time out. It might have been his best start of the season. But I don't want to pick against the Giants at home even if Ryan Vogelsong is the starter.
And the Game of the Day:
- The Brewers over the Rockies: Christian Friedrich pitched pretty well against the Brewers at Coors in his first start. But he still lost and will probably do so again today. Wily Peralta needs to pitch a good game though.
Yesterday: 10-5, June: 187-158, Games of the Day: 42-40, Season: 641-539
No comments:
Post a Comment