Tonight Ryan Vogelsong and the SF Giants will
take on Jered Weaver and the Angels. After getting drubbed 12-5 last night, the
Angels have opened as -155 favorite. We feel this is too good of a take back on
the Giants to pass up.
For as spectacular as
Weaver has been this year with the no hitter and all, for him to come
off the DL and face a team swinging the bats like the Giants are - and against
a quality pitcher like Vogelsong (a -155 favorite) - is a bit too much in our
mind. Weaver went to the DL with a strained lower back; that's the type of
injury that lingers and ruins careers. We don't want to over-speculate here, but having not pitched in almost three weeks combined with the injury, it's going to be very tough for Weaver to get loose. When a pitcher is
throwing tight, his mechanics get out of whack; thus, no control over his pitches. This may or may not be the case tonight, but with
Weaver being limited to 80-90 pitches, we won't back off the SF price to find
out.
Giants are raking at
the moment
Melky Cabera went 3-5
for the second straight game and, believe it or not, is the leading vote-getter for the NL All Star team. Cabrera leads his ballclub, hitting a big time
.369 wtih 6 HR and 35 RBI. Angel Pagan is finally healthy and now has his average up to .305; ever since he started swinging a hot bat, it completely
changed this offense, making the lineup respectable. From 1-6, the lineup consists of Gregor Blanco, Ryan Theriot, Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey, Angel Pagan, and
Pablo Sandavol. Now this may not sound like Murderers Row, but
they are all great at being stingy hitters, meaning that they are always fouling off
the "pitcher's pitch" and waiting for theirs to drive. They all set the
table, move runners over, steal bags, and drive 'em in. It's a perfect set up. If
only they had a 30-40 HR guy, the Giants would be unstoppable.
Ryan Vogelsong
Vogelsong continues
his dominance since he came out of nowhere last year and started owning
hitters. He owns a 2.29 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and has given up just 64 hits in 82 IP. Hitters just do not make solid contact with this guy's pitches. Vogelsong has
made it to the 7th inning in each of his last 4 starts, striking out 20 while
giving up a total of just 6 earned runs over that time frame. Hitters have just a .211 batting average
against him while Vogelsong owns them with a 42% ground ball ratio and very
low 17% LD ratio and just a 5.3 HR/FB% ratio. We aren't sure what it is with
this kid, but hitters just do not see the ball well coming out of his hand; plus, he's the definition of a grinder.
With lines out there
as high as +145 the Giants are just too sweet of a price to pass up. These starters are each other's equal with Weaver hobbled
and still very questionable with a lingering back injury. The Giants lineup
will certainly test him as he hasn't seen competition in almost three weeks. This game should be priced around -120
and whether this hits or not, it's still a victory in the long run getting value
like this.
We recommend adding
the Giants to your MLB picks of the Day.
Our second game
involves the Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres. Texas has opened as a huge
-175 road favorite. Yu Darvish will go for Texas while San Diego counters with
Anthony Bass. Find out why we think Texas will pound the Pads.
Anthony Bass is
starting to hit a wall
Bass was touted as a
good prospect when he came up and initially lived up to those expections, but now the
innings are racking up on his arm and it's taking is toll on him. Bass has already thrown 80 innings on the
year and, while he owned a sub 3 ERA for most of the year, it has now ballooned
to almost FIVE. This kid is not used to these many innings and stress pitches
against major league hitters. In his past 3 starts, he has been lit up for an
ERA of 8.27 with a 1.65 WHIP and now he is going to take on and shut down the best
offense we have seen in the last 5-10 years? Yeah, right. This kid is probably
shaking in his spikes, and the Rangers are probably licking their chops, waiting
to just pad their stats.
Josh Hamilton and Yu
Darvish strong returns
Hamilton hit the DL
for a few days with a nasty virus but returned to the lineup last night and
contributed with an RBI triple that propelled the Rangers to their 5th straight
victory. Hamilton owns sick numbers with a .332 average, 22 HR and 64 RBI. No one
in the league even comes close to touching his numbers; he is blowing every one
away. He already has 80 hits on the year to go along with 15 doubles and a .676
slugging percentage.
After getting roughed
up a little bit, Yu Darvish was given some extra rest and came out fireballing
striking out a season high 11 against the Astros. The Padres offense is even
worse than the Astros so one can imagine what Darvish is going to do tonight
against 'em. Darvish has been a sensation since coming into the
league, his only weakness being command, but that won't be an issue against the
Padres offense which is hitting just .229. Even if Darvish does issue some
free bases, he'll just blow the Pads' hitters away, being that they are up in
their in the NL lead for strikeouts with 531 already on the year.
-175 is a bit too much
for us to recommend for you guys to play, because this is baseball and anything
is possible on any given night, but we are fairly confident there won't be
anything crazy going down tonight, so we will take the Rangers at -1.5 as they
continue to whack the opposition. I almost feel bad for Anthony Bass tonight.
The Texas Rangers RL
-1.5 is our final MLB play of the Day. Our record is now 40-37 on the year.
Good luck everybody!