Joe Catalano is at it again, as he has selected a few games that he believes hold the best value for us MLB bettors tonight. Find out who is backing and where he has found the best lines to ensure the biggest payout.
Welcome to Monday's edition of MLB Picks of the day. I'm coming off of a 2-1 run where I also added a strong underdog lean in Chicago that cashed from my last edition. Let’s try to extend our run tonight, as we try to pick out the best MLB betting options to add to our picks.
Looking at Monday's slate of games, there's actually a lot of tough matchups so a winning day would suit me fine.
Boston Red Sox at Oakland Athletics- Boston -106, total 7.5
The betting odds tell you that this is an even contest, and I think that the baseball odds makers are spot on with one. Oakland is coming off of a tough hard fought win off of pitching sensation Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers while the Red Sox are also coming off of a tough 2-1 win at Seattle. Not a lot of runs scored in either games, but both teams got the job done.
Oakland has more than lived up to expectations this season at 38-42, while Boston had gotten off to an awful start but has come roaring back into the thick of things with a respectable 42-37 record.
Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-2, 4.91) takes the mound for the BoSox and he'll be facing right hander Jarrod Parker (4-3, 2.57). Looking at this season alone, Parker definitely get's the lean, but Daisuke has only had 4 starts. In his last start, we saw the old Matsuzaka return, as he pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up just 1 run on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts.
Parker has been brilliant, providing 8 quality starts out of his last 10 appearances. In his last 7 appearances, Parker has only given up more than 1 run just once. That's amazingly consistent and more proof that he's almost unhittable at the moment.
With the exception of slugger Josh Reddick, Oakland has a really weak offense. Boston has been missing its big producers from last year’s team, and superstar Adrian Gonzalez is having the worst year of his career. Look for both of these pitchers to be competitive as this game stay's under the projected total.
Pick - Boston/Oakland UNDER 7.5
WARNING: The underdog is like a scared dog, you have to let it come to you and not chase it, and I think that I've found a nice underdog in tonight’s Monday's card. I do recommend to bet lightly and not go "all in" as this is an extreme dog.
Minnesota Twins at Detroit Tigers - Tigers -193, total 9.5Normally I'd like to take an underdog
with more reasonable betting lines, and even though the Tigers are the better team, you really have a fighting chance if you take the Minnesota Twins at +182 here. The Twins have won 3 straight games and are coming off of a 10-8 victory over KC on Sunday.
In that game, 3rd baseman Trevor Plouffe hit 2 home runs and has recorded 3 HR and 4 RBI in his last 3 games. Plouffe is on fire and Doug Fister (1-5, 3.91) doesn't necessarily scare me.
Also in Sunday's game, Josh Willingham hit a home run which was his 17th of the season. So what you have is two of the Twins best power hitters playing well as of late and Minnesota is actually feeling some momentum.
On the negative side, Liam Hendriks (0-5, 6.82) is starting for the Twins, and if you're betting the Twins, you have to hope for Hendriks to go 6 innings and give up 3 runs like he did in his last outing and leave the rest up to middle relief and the Twins offense.
The Tigers were homerless yesterday but have a strong lineup at 1-4 of Austin Jackson, Quintin Berry, Miguel Cabrera, and Prince Fielder.
I would be shocked if this game was a pitcher’s duel.
I'm going with Minnesota in this spot; a team that's not used to winning streaks, and hitting well can often feel that extra burst of adrenaline as they're coming off of a 3 game winning streak and scoring 10 runs in their last game. They have one thing that Detroit currently doesn't have and that's super hot hitters in Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham.
With the poor pitching, this game is at least an even matchup tonight. For the Twins to be a +182 underdog with Doug Fister on the mound for Detroit is absolute hogwash!
Pick - Minnesota +182
LeansI'm not adding this to my picks but looking at Monday’s slate, the Pirates look appealing as James McDonald (7-3, 2.44) takes the mound against an Astros team that's just 9-28 on the road. Food for thought.
Good luck everyone and let's nail this sucker!