MLB Game Picks - Tuesday: June 11, 2013

Yesterday was about as bad a picking day as you can get. In fact, it was a disaster. I got Brandon League-ed in Los Angeles. The Red Sox won in extras after John Lackey's bush league move did not cost him or his team. Everything went wrong except for the last two picks of Hisashi Iwakuma (at least that was the Game of the Day) and Jeremy Guthrie beating the Tigers. Everything else was wrong.

And geez, am I sick and tired of not having good days. Mediocrity is bad enough, but downright terrible is a killer. Now I have to be extremely successful to pull this week out of the hole and the month has gotten as crappy as the Nationals.

Tuesday's picks:

• The Orioles over the Angels: Well, if the Angels cannot win with Weaver, they certainly have less of a chance even with Jason Vargas. Miguel Gonzalez is nothing to write home about, but even if this is a slugfest, the Orioles win.
• The Giants over the Pirates: Gerrit Cole makes his Major League debut. The Number 9 prospect (Baseball America) and former #1 draft pick has not been splashy in the minors this season, but effective. My problem is his Pirates scoring runs to get him a win in his five innings of work. Tim Lincecum is the pick.
• The Red Sox over the Bay Rays: Ramon Hernandez will get beat up by the Red Sox faster than you can say Fausto and Jon Lester will shut down the lefty bats of the Rays for the win. This one might get testy after last night.
• The Brewers over the Marlins: The Marlins have Giancarlo Stanton and Logan Morrison back, but they are still the Marlins. I think the Brewers get to Jacob Turner and Wily Peralta pitches a decent game.
• The Cardinals over the Mets: Michael Wacha has been a bit of a letdown after his initial five innings in the majors. But I believe he will power through the Mets' lineup, such as it is, and that the Cardinals will score off of Jeremy Hefner.
• The Reds over the Cubs: I really want to go with Matt Garza and the Cubs, but it was that kind of thinking that got me in trouble last night. After a disaster, you have to go with the percentages and the Reds are the better team as long as Tony Cingrani pitches like he has so far this year.
• The Rangers over the Indians: This is a dicey pick. The Indians are well set up to hit left-handers, which is what they will get in Derek Holland. And Corey Kluber has been decent at times this season. But again, after last night, I have to go with the better team, especially at home.
• The Tigers over the Royals: Max Scherzer should be out of Verlander's shadow as he has become a big-time stud pitcher. Why doesn't he get more attention? He should have an easy win over the Royals and Wade Davis will not help.
• The White Sox over the Blue Jays: Oh, how I would love to see Chien-Ming Wang pitch well for the Blue Jays. I will always appreciate him for his Yankee years. But I just don't see it happening. So the pick is for Carlos Quintana.
• The Rockies over the Nationals: The Rockies will ding up Dan Haren in Coors Field and Jhoulys Chacin needs to hold the Nationals to five runs or less for this pick to be correct. But the pick has to be the Rockies in that field and with that lineup.
• The Yankees over the Athletics: Bartolo Colon is the A's best pitcher. That is kind of a sad statement foe the A's, is it not, despite how well they are playing? The Yankees love fastballs. Colon loves throwing them. CC Sabathia is on a two-game roll. All things point to the Yankees, but that's why they play the game.
• The Dodgers over the Diamondbacks: Ian Kennedy has made a career of shutting down the Giants and the Dodgers, so this game will be close as Zack Greinke will be stingy as well. The Dodgers' bullpen is one scary place though.
• The Braves over the Padres: The Padres have been spoiling a lot of good teams lately and it sure did not help the picks for them to beat the Braves yesterday. But I have to believe that Tim Hudson will love pitching in Petco and will blank them allowing the Braves to win with a few runs off of Andrew Cashner.
• The Astros over the Mariners: Oh dear, this is not fun. Aaron Harang is terrible. But so are the Astros. Bud Norris is talented, but only puts it together about once a month. Will this be that once? Gosh, what a lousy game to pick.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Phillies over the Twins: The Phillies get an extra bat, which will help as they can DH Ryan Howard and put Mayberry at first. Cole Hamels finally got a win his last time out and will now pull off a string of them. P.J. Walters is a average, generic starter.

Yesterday: 2-8 oh man

Week: 10-16

Month: 68-60

Season: 531-416

Games of the Day: 42-27

MLB Game Picks - Thursday: June 6, 2013

Yesterday was brutal. A few good picks like the D-backs over the Cardinals, the Cubs over the Angels and the Royals over the Twins were overshadowed and overwhelmed by a whole lot of bad results. The Astros hit six homers against the Orioles, or one-eleventh of their season total. I could not get wins from Clayton Kershaw or Hisashi Iwakuma. The Mets sucker-punched Dan Haren. The Rays and Blue Jays shut out the Tigers and Giants respectively. I did not find out until after the picks that Johnny Cueto would not be able to pitch. It just went all wrong.

There are eleven games on the schedule today. Some of them are very interesting. Here are the picks:

• The Tigers over the Rays: The pick seems obvious, but that is what scares me. Obvious picks bite hard. But you would think that the Tigers behind the filthy stuff of Max Scherzer should beat the Rays who start Ramon Hernandez. Especially at home.
• The Orioles over the Astros: What has gotten into these Astros? They have won eight of their last ten. There were probably six bad picks in there somewhere. So why pick against them today? The Orioles are usually too good to beat twice in a row. Miguel Gonzalez is not that great a pitcher, however. So we will see. Bud Norris goes for the Astros.
• The Nationals over the Mets: It has not yet occurred to this picker that the Nationals are not a very good team this year. I keep picking them like it is 2012 when these 2013 Nats are quite mediocre. But I like Gio Gonzalez to be able to shut down Lucas Duda and the Mets with his left arm and though Shaun Marcum had a very good outing last time, I do not expect him to repeat it.
• The Red Sox over the Rangers: I expect Jon Lester to pitch well and I expect the Red Sox to score four runs or so against Derek Holland.
• The Cardinals over the Diamondbacks: Two of my favorite pitchers go in this one. Shelby Miller takes his impressive arm out to the hill and faces Ian Kennedy who has made a career of beating aces. I would not put Miller in the ace category yet, so I think I am safe. The Cards' bullpen still needs to get deeper.
• The Royals over the Twins: The Royals have not tasted a victory like yesterday's in a while and I have a theory that winning is contagious. I think that carries over today and that Wade Davis will out-pitch Mike Pelfrey.
• The White Sox over the Athletics: See above. The White Sox finally broke their losing streak and have one of their better pitchers on the mound in Carlos Quintana. If he can be decent, the White Sox have a chance to win against Dan Straily.
• The Brewers over the Phillies: I cannot seem to get a handle on Wily Peralta. He is this black hole for me where I do not know if he is decent or not decent. But the pick is based on that Tyler Cloyd has been rather ordinary for the Phillies with a base runner and a half allowed every nine innings. The Brewers' bullpen could screw this up though.
• The Rockies over the Padres: Everybody seems to be jumping on the Rockies bandwagon and maybe there is something to it. There is not a gigantic split in their home and away hitting like most years and of their eighty team homers, only 40 of them have been hit at home. Therefore, they seem more balanced and their pitching is holding up. Jhoulys Chacin over Andrew Cashner.
• The Braves over the Dodgers: There is a lot to like from both pitchers in this game. Both Zack Greinke and Tim Hudson can pitch big-time games and both are good hitting pitchers too. I just like the Braves' lineup better than the Dodgers' at this point.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Yankees over the Mariners: Each team has an advantage in this one. The Yankees had to fly all the way across the country without a day off. But that advantage is overcome by pitching Aaron Harang and having a burnt up bullpen for the Mariners after a sixteen inning game. Phil Hughes should be better in a big ballpark.

Yesterday: 6-9  oof

Week: 29-27

Month: 39-31

Season: 501-381

Games of the Day: 40-24

MLB Game Picks - Thursday: May 16, 2013

My last night in Augusta, Maine, brought more mediocrity as the picks just barely broke .500. And it was truly a bizarre night in baseball. Cole Hamels was awful...again. David Price was terrible and hurt, which explains the terrible. The Orioles lost to the Padres and Jason Marquis shut them down. Whuh? Adam Dunn has done something to his mechanics and is killing the ball all of the sudden. Oh sure, Dunn, make my last magazine article look stupid. As predicted, Zack Greinke only lasted five innings. But the bullpen did its job and that was not predicted. The Astros beat the Tigers and Max Scherzer. I did not see that coming. I did see Hisashi Iwakuma beating the Yankees, but what the heck, Phil Hughes?

So, yes, it was a night where I was probably lucky to break just above even. But I need to get going on these picks because I need to pack up and hit the road.

Thursday's picks:

• The Cardinals over the Mets: Jonathon Niese is due for a good performance. But it will not matter if he does because Adam Wainwright will be better. And by the way, I really enjoy watching Carlos Beltran hit a baseball.
• The Pirates over the Brewers: See, this is the thing. Francisco Liriano has made a career the last four years of giving you hope after a good performance by then going back to being terrible. But he looks different this time. Is he really? Or am I just being suckered for the thirty-fourth time? Oh, and Hiram Burgos goes for the Brewers.
• The Yankees over the Mariners: After King Felix and Iwakuma, Aaron Harang is going to look like manna from heaven. That then should give them a win as long as Andy Pettitte pitches like he did his last outing and not like the two outings before that.
• The Red Sox over the Bay Rays: I do not know I picked the Rays yesterday. I had every intention of picking the Red Sox. Weird. Anyway, I am tempted to go with Alex Cobb. But the Rays have a terrible time against lefty pitching and that is what Felix Doubront is. As long as Doubront does not melt down as he is apt to do, He should win.
• The Reds over the Marlins: Yes, phenom, Jose Fernandez is pitching for the Marlins. But Mat Latos is pitching for the Reds. I cannot see the Reds losing here.
• The Rangers over the Tigers: What a match-up! Justin Verlander against Yu Darvish. How cool is that? Justin Verlander's velocity is still down a few ticks, but he is pitching great despite his 4-3 record. But I am going with Yu Darvish at home. Darvish versus Miguel Cabrera is going to be worth the price of admission by itself.
• The Giants over the Rockies: Matt Cain has pitched eleven times at Coors Field and has held his own there with a 5-3 record and a 4.11 ERA. Not bad considering. Jhoulys Chacin is uneven and up and down and it is hard to predict what you will get from outing to outing. Cain seems the better choice.
• The White Sox over the Angels: If you cannot beat them, join them. The Angels continue to spiral down. Jerome Williams has been their best pitcher. But he is due for a clunker. Adam Dunn is killing the ball and Carlos Quintana can be decent.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Nationals over the Padres: This is supposed to be the guaranteed pick of the day and Stephen Strasburg is 1-5. Bryce Harper out hurts the Nats' lineup a lot. But Strasburg is the pick as Edinson Volquez is pitching better, but is due to return to form.

Yesterday: 8-7

Week: 30-26

Month: 115-86

Season: 344-250

Games of the Day: 31-13