Thursday, April 09, 2015

MLB Game Picks - Thursday: April 9, 2015

Man, I am terrible. My picking season is off to a brutal start. And all I can say is Aaron Freakin' Harang. Sheesh. The Pick of the Day, which tries to pick the most obvious pick to get right, is 0-3. Nice. Well...let's just say that I've started my season like the Chicago White Sox and let's see where it goes from here.
Thursday's picks:
  • The Reds over the Pirates: I don't like the odds for either pitcher in this one. A.J. Burnett always seems to be a couple of pitches away from disaster. And Anthony DeSclafani is a fly ball pitcher in the smallest ballpark in the bigs. Hmm...  I like the place the Reds are in right now and the Pirates seem a bit flat. So that's the way I'm going.
  • The Nationals over the Mets: What a big time and exciting match-up as Matt Harvey goes against Stephen Strasburg! That should be a lot of fun to watch. My thought is what happens with the bullpens after the studs are out of the game. Advantage: Nats.
  • The White Sox over the Royals: My commenter from yesterday gave the tip that I should pick John Danks today as he always pitches well against the Royals. With the way my picking season has started, who am I to argue? Edinson Volquez is easy to pick against anyway.
  • The Astros over the Indians: I have no idea how to pick this one. Asher Wojciechowski makes his MLB debut for the Astros. He's a former first round draft pick (Blue Jays) with a so-so MiLB record. Trevor Bauer is said to be throwing much better, but we'll see. Again, I have no idea. I do know that Wojciechowski just took over as the hardest name to spell in baseball. I wonder if he is related to Steve Wojciechowski?
  • The Athletics over the RangersKendall Graveman makes his first MLB start after the A's acquired him from the Blue Jays. That fact and Nick Martinez's overall non-excitement level make that match-up a wash. The A's are clearly the better team right now.
  • The Padres over the Giants: Picking against the Giants never seems to be a good idea even if this is supposed to be a down season for them. Yesterday's victory is a case in point. Tim Hudson had the first losing season of his career last year and looked a bit toasted, especially near the end of the season. I'm going with Ian Kennedy.
  • The Red Sox over the Phillies: It is hard to think about Justin Masterson pitching after hs season a year ago. And it seemed that all I heard during Spring Training is that he wasn't concerned about getting bombed in his spring outings. That all said, the Red Sox bats have been quiet and should win a high scoring game. David Buchanan pitches for the Phillies and will try to prove me wrong.
  • The Yankees over the Blue JaysCC Sabathia has to keep the ball in the park against the Blue Jays' big bats. And Daniel Norris had a very good spring. I'm going to go with the Yankees at home though and predict that Sabathia surprises people this season.
And the Pick of the Day:
  • The Tigers over the Twins: The Twins look awful. I thought they would look better. But not so far. I have a fanboy interest in Shane Greene doing well. I would probably pick him anyway over Kyle Gibson.
Yesterday: 7-8, Season: 16-21, Picks of the Day: 0-3

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