Dontrelle Willis has certainly improved over his past two seasons, but the Tigers southpaw will run into a hard-hitting Yankees lineup tonight at home in Detroit.
Our Monday night MLB selection is on the New York Yankees on the road at Comerica Park over the Detroit Tigers.
It's a bit of a half-empty/half-full situation for Tigers starter Dontrelle Willis so far. The half-full part is that the veteran left-hander has bounced back from a disastrous 2009 season (1-4; 7.49 ERA) to post a 3.99 ERA so far for his team.
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The half-empty part is that Willis only has a single win over his first five starts and he is clearly still miles away from the form he showed early in his career with Florida when he was looking like one of the top young lefthanders in baseball.
Willis really has his work cut out for him today, as the Yankees are not only the top hitting team in the AL, but they are also far and away the top hitting squad in all of baseball versus left-handers. Coming into this week, the Bronx Bombers lineup sported a scorching .911 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) vs. southpaw pitching.
The Yanks will send right-hander Sergio Mitre to the mound for a rare spot start this evening, and as far as spot starters go, Mitre is not half-bad. In fact, he could probably make the top half of a couple of MLB rotations.
Mitre has an excellent 2.79 ERA so far this season, and he has plenty of prior experience as a starter. Take the Yankees.
Free Pick: Yankees -125