Expect no shortage of motivation in Seattle tonight as the 53-31 Baltimore Orioles face the 47-39 Mariners in a clash of American League division leaders. The AL East co-leader Orioles find themselves in a high-powered race with the Yankees, currently sitting as the 1-2 combo atop the runs scored leaderboard.…
Monday ushers in a handful of new series getting underway, joining a weekend carryover in Philadelphia. Divisional battles in Cleveland and Oakland shape up to be interesting early-season tests. This week's Breakdown turns to Target Field with a pair of teams on the right trajectory as May comes into bloom.…
We left off with a Friday night Solo Shot before the weekend hit and I headed west on the highway. The Mets bats had enough oomph to claim the team's second win of the season, all while keeping the under alive in Cincinnati. With the weekend in the rear view…
From a torrid 40-20 start through a ho-hum summer, the Texas Rangers played the role of postseason road warriors on their way to the franchise's first World Series Championship. 11 of their 13 playoff wins came away from Globe Life Field! The Rangers' third AL Pennant came at the expense…
Is the 2023 AL West a two-horse race once again after the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners rose to the top in 2022? Anchored by tested veterans and juiced up by a pair of phenomenal rookies, these two clubs represented the division in the postseason after their division mates floundered…
Imagine thinking that Wednesday night's Bundy-Bradish matchup was going to be a pitcher's duel. That's where I left off, dropping the Twins game and watching my ROI slip into a more reasonable level. The day job has been punishing enough but today we head south to kick back and hit…
I owe a lot to the AL West for being our preseason futures cash cow once again as the Houston Astros picked up where they left off in the 2020 postseason. The division title got very interesting down the stretch as Oakland's second-half fizzle coupled with an overlooked Seattle club…
The All-Star Break has come and gone. It should have marked my three-week hiatus from MLB handicapping like I usually do each year. Instead, I could not stay away and broke down the Phillies/Red Sox game on Saturday. The only thing worse than my take on that game was Boston's…
The MLB Morning Breakdown for 6-22-2021 is missing one thing - the WTF guy with a mullet GIF after I overextended on Sunday. To be honest, I liked all of those positions and have no regrets after the fact. The little things that resulted in plenty of near misses on…
I'll be damned that I can trust the Mariners more than I can my Cincinnati Reds. That's the way it goes sometimes, as Wade Miley struggled with his command early and often - giving the Rockies a healthy lead that the Redlegs could not overcome. But Seattle keeps grinding out…
So the White Sox versus lefties thing still has an edge, eh? JA Happ came in as the potential stopper against Chicago's finely-tuned offense until Tim Anderson slapped a single to lead off the game. A ChiSox rout was good enough to keep the good vibes going for The BetCrushers…
All it took was the cliched one swing of the bat from Atlanta's starting pitcher Huascar Ynoa to break the Braves/Nationals game wide open. As for yesterday's featured play - Ynoa not only held the Nats in check at the plate, he crushed a grand slam in the top of…
The MLB Morning Breakdown for 4-22-2021 says adios to the St. Louis Cardinals. After my fourth loss in as many times featuring that club this season, I received an executive order to stay away from any Cardinals games from here on out. It's simple - the Redbirds and I are…
After Tuesday's quick in-and-out solo shot on the Nationals/Cardinals first 5 inning position, it's time to stretch out the playbook in the MLB Morning Breakdown for 4-14-2021. And that play was quick because the Cardinals pounded Strasburg for 4 runs in the 3rd and a ton more in the 5th.…
We asked for a strong performance from Marcus Stroman yesterday and he delivered. Stroman plus a timely bomb from Dominic Smith enabled the Mets to take care of our first 5 inning wager and cash Tuesday's solo shot. Three Ws in a row is nice, but the MLB Morning Breakdown…
For the second time this season, my expectations for a Royals starter were way too high compared to what took place on the field. Brady Singer just did not have the stuff I called for and my solo shot of the day backing the Royals went up in flames. But…
Well, sometimes it's better to be lucky than right. And my first wager of the 2021 MLB season was a -150 play behind Brad Keller and the Royals - an amount of juice that I absolutely hate to lay. Bottom line: my read on Keller was way off the mark,…
After what seems like an eternity to us baseball fans, Opening Day 2021 is finally here! It's been five months since the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their franchise's seventh World Series Championship and now all 30 teams start fresh. And the head honchos at MLB have given us exactly what…
The AL West was front and center all throughout the last offseason. Texas was set to move into its new airplane hangar-esque stadium while the Angels scored prized free agent Anthony Rendon, joining forces with all-world player Mike Trout. Even so, all of this mundane activity was overshadowed by Houston's…
The 2019 American League West saw the Houston Astros make their second run at a World Series in three years. Oakland repeated their 2018 season with 97 wins and another loss in the Wild Card game. Below them, a trio of teams struggled to crack the .500 mark. The Angels…
A pair of one-run losses last night leads to a nasty -2.4 unit loss for Tuesday, and now makes three one-run losses in a row. We'll see about getting that turned around soon. A sloppy first inning by the Yankees spotted the Padres 4 runs, which was just enough for…
It's amazing to think that the MLB season is still young despite being in its 4th full week. Teams are starting to develop their identities, some of which we already knew about while others have been a bit of a surprise. For the most part, I have shed my pre-season…
After a couple days of wet weather at several ballparks, it looks like Mother Nature is going to let the boys play ball on Easter Sunday. Yesterday's 4 wagers were chopped 2-2 but a bit of aggressiveness payed off with the Reds play, yielding 0.76 units on the day. Pending…
Yesterday, my guys on the BetCrushers team said they don't subscribe to the "this game's a lock" mentality but that we would all be disappointed if the 2 tickets didn't cash. Well, they didn't cash. So consider me very disappointed. An 0-2 night shaved 2.1 units off the bankroll and…
It has come to this. A 2-2 push on Sunday neither harms nor fouls the bankroll, but was oddly a huge relief considering it could have easily been an 0-4 day. The 0-fer would have been a hell of a lot more appropriate for my current run, BTW. Highlights: Jean…
Yesterday presented a couple live dogs to jump on, both of which came through. There had been a drought of underdogs that looked reasonable in my handicapping opinion until yesterday, but the integration of early-season metrics help to isolate these opportunities versus relying purely on projections. Today's slate should present…
Monday started with a miss on the Pirates run line. Archer scattered 2 hits over 5 innings while picking up 8 Ks, but the Pirates bullpen looked like they were the ones with considerably less rest and gave it up. The Mets pulled out a 9th inning payback victory for…