Game Picks - Tuesday: July 28, 2009

Did you see that play last night where a ball was hit on a line to the outfielder who slid to catch it only to have the ball ricochet (one of the best words in the English language) off his shin fifteen feet forward? Did you see that second baseman dive to catch it before it hit the ground? Amazing play. The Fan can't remember the players or even the game because it was before bedtime and the Fan saw it on Baseball Tonight. The play was awesome except that the ump blew the call and said it hit the ground. Plus, there was another blown call at the plate where once again a runner was called out though clearly the catcher was late with the tag. Replay folks. Replay. Enough!

The Fan finished in fifth over at BallHype.com despite finishing the week (the site's week runs from Tuesday to Monday for some reason) at 61-40. The Fan is now 157 games over .500 for the year and has -.4 total points for the season. What a total whack of a system they have. For being 19 games over .500 for the week, the fan received 12.7 points. Some other guy went 48-49 and picked up 5.2 points. What crap. That site has a widget for putting results on your site, but no way does this Fan want to sully this site with that bull feces.

Anyway, we have games to pick and the Fan's therapy session seems to be getting in the way, so we better get to the games:

• The Yankees over the Bay Rays: Sabathia should win this one. It's so weird to watch these games and see the Yankees having fun in the dugout. Weird.
• The Royals over the Orioles: Going with the experience of Bannister over the ineffective rookie, Berken.
• The Reds over the Padres: Arroyo over Correia. Isn't Bronson Arroyo one of the cooler names in baseball?
• The Braves over the Marlins: In one of the most intriguing match ups of the year, Jurrgens should get a slight edge over Nolasco. Both have been outstanding.
• The Mets over the Rockies: Two things: First, the Mets have been playing inspired baseball of late despite their lack of talent on the field. Second, Marquis has a blister the size of Texas on his throwing hand.
• The Red Sox over the Athletics: Buckholz wins the battle of phenoms against Mazzaro.
• The Astros over the Cubs: Got to give Oswalt the nod in a big divisional game.
• The Nationals over the Brewers: The Brewers have tanked lately and are starting Villanueva tonight. Uh oh.
• The Rangers over the Tigers: French is pitching for the Tigers and this picker still can't speak French.
• The White Sox over the Twins: Really wanted to pick the Twins in this one as there could be a let down game for Buehrle. But the Twins just can't seem to get it going.
• The Cardinals over the Dodgers: Wainwright has been great lately and Billingsley has had a bad month. This is a bad patch the Dodgers are going through.
• The Diamondbacks over the Phillies: A battle of aces of Hamel versus Haran. Haran is the better ace.
• The Indians over the Angels: Just like the way the Indians are playing lately. Huff has shown signs of being pretty good.
• The Blue Jays over the Mariners: Washburn has only given up two runs in his last four starts, but the Blue Jays hit lefties well and will put an end to that run.
• The Giants over the Pirates: Zito is pitching for the Giants. So this could be a good pick or it could be a really ugly pick. One never knows with Zito.

Yesterday: 8-6
Week: 18-11
Month: 174-127