Join John Ryan as he breaks down the Tuesday and Wednesday matchups between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals. With the Phillies involved in trade rumors, what should MLB bettors expect for them tonight?
We hit with our MLB pick for yesterday's game, as the Phillies went on the blow the Nationals away, 8-0. "If it aint broke, don't fix it", and the Phillies are the way we are looking again tonight.
Wednesday’s Game
I also like the Phillies in Game 2 of this three-game series. Phillies will have Vance Worley on the hill? going up against Edwin Jackson. Worley has posted a 5-6 record with a solid 3.88 ERA in 17 starts this season. He has also struck out 91 batters spanning 102 innings of work.
Worley has four pitches and three of them are elite types with excellent movement and pinpoint location. His fastball will be thrown 70% of all first pitch offerings and ranges between 88 MPH and 95 MPH. Batters are hitting just .228 on the fastball offering. His next best pitch is his slider that he throws 24% of the time to right-handed batters and 18% to left-handed batters. Batters are hitting just .230 on the slider.
He mixes in a curve about 10% of the time to both right and left-handed batters and batters are hitting just .152 on that pitch. The curve is more of a set-up pitch, but recently it has worked very well as an out pitch. He can back-door this pitch to left-handed batters and it has caught them completely by surprise, especially deep in the count.
Washington has the best pitching staff in baseball; however, they do struggle to score runs consistently. I strongly believe that Worley has the combination of pitches that has given the Nationals trouble this season.
Review Tuesday's Winning Pick
Tuesday's Pick
The Phillies have become very active in the waning hours before the
trading deadline at 4:00 PM ET today. I am writing this with just a few hours
remaining and still looking for a third move by the Phillies to cap off their
day. The Phillies have already moved Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers
for relief pitcher Josh Lindblom and minor league pitcher Ethan Martin. They
have also apparently moved right fielder Hunter Pence to the San Francisco
Giants for catching prospect Tommy Joseph, Nate Schierholz, and possibly
another Single-A prospect. I am waiting, like all of you, for confirmation of
this deal, but I do feel confident that it has been done.
The last piece I had been hearing
was a tremendous coup for the Phillies where they would acquire Justin Upton
and highly regarded prospect Bauer for starting pitcher Cliff Lee. The Phillies
would have to eat about $35 million of the remaining $87 million left on his
contract, but this deal works well for both teams. Only time will tell if it
becomes reality.
There has also been a trade
involving Garza for Upton as well, but Lee is by far the superior prize on this
day.
In another Phillies trade that
would have sent starting pitcher Joe Blanton to the Baltimore Orioles, money
terms seems to have become an insurmountable obstacle. So, with all of these
uncertainties it makes it a bit more difficult to get a real grip on this game.
The point is that I am making my MLB pick against Strasburg, as I feel that no matter what lineup the Phillies put on the field, they will win the game. There may be some Triple-A Iron
Pig players getting rides down the I-95 corridor to Washington, DC. The biggest
factor is that Cliff Lee is still the scheduled starter for this game. I
believe Kyle Kendrick would get the start if Lee is traded. This would
obviously move the baseball betting lines much higher from its’ current trade of Philadelphia
+140 to about +200 or more.
MLB Pick: Take the Phillies