9-14-11

[timbob]

New Guys!

Don’t be afraid to post services if you come across any. Anything you contribute will be appreciated, and your user reputation will grow (the green dots under your name.)

Note:

ALL PLAYS POSTED ARE UNCONFIRMED UNLESS YOU BUY THEM YOURSELF. THERE IS BAD INFO PASSED AROUND FROM TIME TO TIME, SO PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK

[Mr. IWS]

MLB NEWS AND NOTES
Texas Rangers Collide With Cleveland Indians
By Willie Bee


Cleveland Indians at Texas Rangers (-205, 10)

Huff and Holland sounds like the name of a law firm or maybe a snuff film set in Amsterdam. Instead, it's the Wednesday pitching matchup in Texas between the Rangers and Cleveland Indians.

The middle of this 3-game set will be featured in the first of an ESPN doubleheader starting at 7:00 p.m. (ET). A pair of lefties square off on the mound, David Huff for the Indians and the Rangers' Derek Holland.

Things are suddenly getting exciting in the AL West. Texas entered the series with a 3-game lead over the Angels in the division standings, and with nine of their final 12 games following this series on the road – including the last three of the season in Anaheim – the Rangers know they're just a short stumble away from being caught.

This series gets underway Tuesday evening when Justin Masterson and Matt Harrison are the initial mound duel. Texas was priced at -160 on the MLB odds board with the results still pending.

It will be just the second career start for Huff (2-5, 3.05) against the Rangers, and he sure hopes it goes like the first one. He tossed a complete game 4-hitter at home over Texas in April 2010, one mistake pitch to Michael Young that was negated by one mistake pitch from Harrison a few innings later.

Huff has started September with losses on the road at Kansas City and Chicago, allowing seven earned runs in the 12 1/3 combined innings. The Tribe has dropped his last four assignments away from Cleveland, Huff's only winning road start this campaign coming in his first outing of 2011 in Minnesota on July 18.

Holland (16-13, 4.12) was lit up by the Tribe in this ballpark on Aug. 5, punched out before the end of the second inning when Cleveland held a 6-2 advantage. Texas battled back for an 8-7 win in 12 innings to cash on a -150 money line.

The other time Holland pitched against the Tribe this year season resulted in a complete-game shutout June 4 in Cleveland. It was his first of four shutouts on the season, part of this young southpaw's 2011 repertoire that has been very, very good, and very, very bad at times.

Holland has 17 quality starts in 2011, above average for MLB hurlers about to make their 30th trip to the mound. Of the 12 starts that lacked quality, 11 have been real shellings. Holland's ERA in those 48 1/3 innings is over 10; his ERA in the 18 'non-shellings' is very stingy 1.85.

Texas was expected to see two players return from the disabled list in time for the start of this series. Outfielder Nelson Cruz (hamstring) and reliever Darren O'Day (shoulder) have both been missing since late-August.

The Rangers started Tuesday with a 6-1 lead in the season series vs. the Indians. They swept four at Cleveland in early-June and took two of three here at home in August. The 'over' prevailed in two of the three at Rangers Ballpark.

This game is being moved up an hour from regular start times at Rangers Ballpark, so there's a chance it's still 100ºF at first pitch, at least the upper 90s and an 8-12 mph breeze coming from the SW (RF corner to LF corner).

[Mr. IWS]

Wednesday's Streaking And Slumping Starting Pitchers


STREAKING

Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies (17-5, 2.44 ERA)

Halladay is surging down the stretch as he’s in the mix for another Cy Young award as his club gets ready for another postseason run. Even though the Phillies have won just two of his last five starts, his numbers have held strong. He has allowed just nine earned runs over his last six trips to the hill, including last week's 5-3 win over Milwaukee that saw him go eight innings while yielding one run as he struck out nine.

Daniel Hudson, Arizona Diamondbacks (16-9, 3.41 ERA)

Hudson is coming off his third complete game of the season on Friday when he allowed five hits and one earned run to push the Diamondbacks to a 3-2 win over the Padres. He has now yielded only four runs over his last four starts, striking out 26 batters over that span.

SLUMPING

John Lackey, Boston Red Sox (12-12, 6.36 ERA)

Lackey took a comebacker off the leg in his last start, but expects to be OK to go Wednesday against the Blue Jays. He has allowed 11 runs over his last eight innings on the mound and is looking to snap a three-game losing skid. Lackey has walked at least three batters in each of his last five starts and owns the worst ERA of his career.

Rich Harden, Oakland Athletics (4-2, 4.74 ERA)

Harden’s strikeout numbers are still pretty impressive with 22 punch-outs in his last three games, but the Athletics have lost each of those contests. That’s partly because Harden has allowed 13 combined runs over that span including five home runs. He gave up three runs to the Royals in the first inning of his last start and was pulled after allowing four runs in five innings even though he struck out 10.

[Mr. IWS]

HOT LINES

Wednesday's Best MLB Bets

Colorado Rockies at Milwaukee Brewers (-185, 8)

Even though the Milwaukee Brewers are cruising into the playoffs, some feel that they’ve done most of their work against the lesser teams in the bigs and haven’t proven their worth against the NL's elite.

It’s a notion manager Doug Melvin takes issue with.

"It depends when you played them," Melvin told reporters. "Were they winning teams when you played them? Pittsburgh was a winning team earlier in the year when we played them. Florida was a winning team when we played them. Cincinnati was winning earlier in the season. The good teams are separating themselves from the bad teams. I think that's what's happening."

The Brewers are definitely in a different class from the Rockies, but Kevin Millwood has been pretty good lately. Not good enough to entice us to make a Rockies wager, but we do like the under.

PICK: Under


San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants (-160, 5.5)

While the Giants can probably kiss the NL West division title goodbye, they still have an outside shot at the wild card – albeit a very outside shot.

At this point, many have given up on the Giants heading back to the World Series and are already thinking ahead to the offseason and even that is causing some concern.

Pablo Sandoval lost a ton of weight last offseason, but some are speculating that he’s fallen off the wagon a bit as the season has rolled along. The slugger has also said he plans to take a full month off after the season is over, which has manager Bruce Bochy worried.

“This month he’s planning on taking has to be done the right way,” Bochy told the Mercury News. “We’ll keep an eye on him. He knows how important it is to keep the weight off. He’s a different player, offensively and defensively.”

To us, he doesn’t look all that out of shape and we don’t think the Giants are the sort of team to roll over. We’ll eat the chalk with Tim Lincecum starting.

PICK: Giants

[Mr. IWS]

Wednesday’s Betting Tips: Over Bets Cash With Cueto

Who’s Hot

MLB: The Toronto Blue Jays have won nine of Ricky Romeo’s last 10 starts.

MLB: The White Sox have won 20 of their last 29 games as a favorite.

Who’s Not

MLB: The over is 2-12-2 in Jered Weaver’s last 16 starts against Oakland.

MLB: San Diego has won just three of its last 18.

Key Stat

20-7-4 – While Johnny Cueto is looking to become the first Cincinnati Reds pitcher to lead the NL in ERA since 1944 (his currently sits at 2.38), the over is cashing in on his starts at home, going 20-7-4 in his last 31 outings at Great American Ballpark.

Injury That Shouldn’t Be Overlooked

Hakeem Nicks, New York Giants – Nicks woke up Monday with a swollen knee and his status for Week 2’s matchup with St. Louis is now uncertain. The wideout was able to return to action after hurting the knee in New York’s loss to Washington and X-rays were negative initially.

Game Of The Day

Arizona Diamondbacks at Los Angeles Dodgers (+135, 7.5)

Notable Quotable

"To be honest with you, I think the intensity and the effort is right there. Everything is just kind of going in a different direction at once. The good thing is we know how to figure that out and put it back together all at once. It seems like everybody is in a funk right now, you know what I'm saying? There's nobody to blame but everybody, so hopefully on Tuesday we come back and play better." – Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz about the club dipping to just three games ahead of the Devil Rays in the AL wild card race before Tuesday’s action. Ortiz sat out Tuesday’s game with back spasms.

Tips And Notes

Just about all of the early action for Thursday’s big matchup between LSU and Mississippi State has come in on the Tigers. As of Tuesday evening about 72 percent of Covers.com Consensus bettors were backing LSU, which is currently set as a 3.5-point road favorite. LSU has covered in 11 of its last 14 meetings with Mississippi State.

It didn’t take long for some books to react to the Kansas City Chiefs’ terrible performance in Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills. After taking a 41-7 beating from the Buffalo Bills, some sportsbooks moved the reigning AFC West champs from around 50-1 to win the Super Bowl all the way to around 285-1.

Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel both returned to the Minnesota Twins' lineup for Tuesday's affair against the Kansas City Royals. Cuddyer has been sidelined for five games because of a sore left wrist. Kubel has not started since Friday because of a foot injury. First baseman Justin Morneau was not with the club as he returned to Minnesota for a family matter. He has been out of action since Aug. 28 with concussion-like symptoms. Cuddyer is batting .282 with 18 homers and 64 RBIs while Kubel is hitting .281 with 12 home runs and 57 RBIs.

[Mr. IWS]

Mighty Quinn

Mighty hit with the Cardinals Tuesday.

Wednesday: Red Sox. Deficit: 2677 sirignanos.

[Mr. IWS]

Hondo

The D'backs slithered past the Dodgers last night, sparing Hondo, who'd already lost with the Jays and Tribe, the dreaded triple-flusher and leaving the debt at 2,485 suttons.

Today, Mr. Aitch will take a wild stab with the 'Stros against Halladay, and go with the Blue Jays to reiterate that Lackey's a flunky -- 20 units apiece on Norris and Romero. Tonight, he will float a wager on Hudson -- 20 units on the D'backs to coast in L.A.

[Mr. IWS]

Gamblers Data

Free Play Wednesday

Braves -155

[Mr. IWS]

Free Selection from Arthur Ralph Sports

718- 527 57 % Run over 3 YEARS

Free one WED: Mets -140

[Mr. IWS]

Today's MLB Picks

Toronto at Boston

The Blue Jays look to build on their 9-1 record in Ricky Romero's last 10 starts. Toronto is the pick (-105) according to Dunkel, which has the Blue Jays favored by 1 1/2. Dunkel Pick: Toronto (-105). Here are all of today's picks.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 Time Posted: 7:00 a.m. EST

Game 901-902: Florida at Atlanta (12:05 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Florida (Nolasco) 15.132; Atlanta (Delgado) 15.797 Dunkel Line: Atlanta by 1/2; 7 1/2 Vegas Line: Atlanta (-150); 8 Dunkel Pick: Atlanta (-150); Under

Game 903-904: St. Louis at Pittsburgh (12:35 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: St. Louis (Jackson) 16.755; Pittsburgh (Morton) 14.703 Dunkel Line: St. Louis by 2; 9 Vegas Line: St. Louis (-140); 8 1/2 Dunkel Pick: St. Louis (-140); Over

Game 905-906: Philadelphia at Houston (2:05 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Philadelphia (Halladay) 16.070; Houston (Norris) 15.277 Dunkel Line: Philadelphia by 1; 6 1/2 Vegas Line: Philadelphia (-240); 7 Dunkel Pick: Philadelphia (-240); Under

Game 907-908: San Diego at San Francisco (3:45 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: San Diego (Latos) 14.372; San Francisco (Lincecum) 15.667 Dunkel Line: San Francisco by 1 1/2; 6 1/2 Vegas Line: San Francisco (-165); 5 1/2 Dunkel Pick: San Francisco (-165); Over

Game 909-910: Washington at NY Mets (7:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Washington (Peacock) 14.320; NY Mets (Pelfrey) 14.003 Dunkel Line: Washington by 1/2; 8 Vegas Line: NY Mets (-125); 8 1/2 Dunkel Pick: Washington (+105); Under

Game 911-912: Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati (7:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Cubs (Coleman) 13.917; Cincinnati (Cueto) 15.145 Dunkel Line: Cincinnati by 1; 9 1/2 Vegas Line: Cincinnati (-180); 8 1/2 Dunkel Pick: Cincinnati (-180); Over

Game 913-914: Colorado at Milwaukee (8:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Colorado (Millwood) 15.270; Milwaukee (Marcum) 15.586 Dunkel Line: Milwaukee by 1/2; 9 Vegas Line: Milwaukee (-180); 8 Dunkel Pick: Milwaukee (-180); Over

Game 915-916: Arizona at LA Dodgers (10:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Arizona (Hudson) 16.183; LA Dodgers (Kershaw) 14.964 Dunkel Line: Arizona by 1; 5 Vegas Line: LA Dodgers (-140); 6 Dunkel Pick: Arizona (+120); Under

Game 917-918: Toronto at Boston (1:35 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Toronto (Romero) 15.895; Boston (Lackey) 14.181 Dunkel Line: Toronto by 1 1/2; 11 Vegas Line: Boston (-115); 10 1/2 Dunkel Pick: Toronto (-105); Over

Game 919-920: Detroit at Chicago White Sox (2:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Detroit (Penny) 16.226; White Sox (Axelrod) 16.599 Dunkel Line: Chicago White Sox by 1/2; 8 1/2 Vegas Line: Chicago White Sox (-110); 9 1/2 Dunkel Pick: Chicago White Sox (-110); Under

Game 921-922: LA Angels at Oakland (3:35 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: LA Angels (Weaver) 14.919; Oakland (Harden) 16.158 Dunkel Line: Oakland by 1; 6 Vegas Line: LA Angels (-150); 7 Dunkel Pick: Oakland (+130); Under

Game 923-924: Minnesota at Kansas City (4:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Minnesota (Hendriks) 14.759; Kansas City (Hochevar) 14.184 Dunkel Line: Minnesota by 1/2; 9 1/2 Vegas Line: Kansas City (-150); 8 1/2 Dunkel Pick: Minnesota (+130); Over

Game 925-926: Tampa Bay at Baltimore (7:05 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Tampa Bay (Davis) 16.395; Baltimore (Guthrie) 15.696 Dunkel Line: Tampa Bay by 1/2; 9 Vegas Line: Tampa Bay (-135); 8 1/2 Dunkel Pick: Tampa Bay (-135); Over

Game 927-928: Cleveland at Texas (7:05 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: Cleveland (Huff) 14.792; Texas (Holland) 17.365 Dunkel Line: Texas by 2 1/2; 9 Vegas Line: Texas (-200); 10 Dunkel Pick: Texas (-200); Under

Game 929-930: NY Yankees at Seattle (10:10 p.m. EST) Dunkel Ratings: NY Yankees (Nova) 14.864; Seattle (Vargas) 15.169 Dunkel Line: Seattle by 1/2; 9 Vegas Line: NY Yankees (-200); 8 Dunkel Pick: Seattle (+170); Over

[Mr. IWS]

Baseball Crusher
Play of the Day:

Giants -160 over Padres

[Mr. IWS]

Sportsbook Investing
Play of the Day:

Giants -160 over Padres

[Mr. IWS]

CAPPERS ACCESS
Toronto Blue Jays ML
Tampa Bay Rays ML

[Mr. IWS]

JOE WIZ SPORTS
DAILY FREE PICK
Under 8 runs bet. Colorado and Milwaukee

[Mr. IWS]

MLB PREDICTIONS
St Louis Cardinals @ Pittsburgh Pirates: Saint Louis Cardinals TO WIN -139 ML
(Note: I'm risking 2.78 units to win 2 units)