Eric Schroeder
My free winner for Monday is the Houston Astros over the Detroit Tigers. And in this one do yourselves a favor and list starter Brad Peacock only.
Cheap price to pay, as Peacock, who is normally a reliever, will make a spot start in place of Dallas Keuchel, who was placed on the disabled list with a pinched nerve in neck.
This is a great chance for Peacock, who is 2-0 this season with a 1.10 ERA. The right-hander will be out to prove himself and will be looking to make a statement in his surprise start.
Take Houston as your free winner.
5* ASTROS
Frank Sawyer
White Sox vs. Diamondbacks
Play: Diamondbacks -1½
Arizona (26-19) has won 22 of their last 30 games at home. The Diamondbacks have also won 5 of their last 6 games at home with Greinke on the mould. Chicago (20-22) has lost 5 straight games against teams with a winning record. And in their last 5 road games with Gonzalez facing a team with a winning record, the White Sox have lost 4 of these games. With the Diamondbacks being a money-line favorite in the -200 range, that is too expensive for me to endorse out of principle (-150 or lower is my range).
Handicappers Hub
Warriors vs. Spurs
Play: Under 218
The only way this stays remotely close and the Spurs stay in the game is if they can play some good team defense as well as hope for an off shooting night from the Warriors but I still have a hard time believing that this Spurs team without Leonard will get to 100 making this an easy under tonight in San Antonio!!
Mike Rose
Detroit Tigers at Houston Astros
Play: 1H Detroit Tigers +115
The Astros are in the midst of adversity for the first time this season. The team has been smoking hot all season, but now finds itself losers of three in a row for only the second time this season, and has some viable components injured. Peacock’s being taken out of the pen and installed into the rotation to take the place of ace Keuchel who is expected to only miss one start. More important is the injury suffered to backstop McCann whose done a fabulous job calling games for the pitching staff. Fulmer is the only starter in the Tigers rotation I’m comfortable backing blindly every time he takes the bump. He’s 5-1 and led Detroit to wins in 6/8 starts. He’s allowed 4 ER through 13.1 combined innings over two starts against Houston lifetime. That said, I still have no faith in the Tigers pen, so I’ll take them out of the equation and roll with Detroit through the first five innings.
Dwayne Bryant
Cleveland Indians at Cincinnati Reds
Play: Cleveland Indians -125
I have to back the Indians here. Josh Tomlin has walked far fewer hitters (2.3%) than the Reds' Scott Feldman (9.6%). Tomlin's solid 3.34 xFIP is also significantly better than Feldman's 4.33 mark. The bullpen edge also goes to the Tribe. Cleveland also has momentum on its side. The Indians are coming off an impressive 3-game sweep of the Astros in Houston, while the Reds have lost 8 of their last 9 games. With the Indians 9-5 in road games against righties (averaging 4.8 runs per game), I'll take a shot with CLEVELAND.
The Prez
Colorado Rockies at Philadelphia Phillies
Play: Colorado Rockies +106
One of the more interesting contests on the Vegas baseball betting board Monday night is a National League event at Citizens Bank Park. The Rockies take on the Phillies in a game scheduled to see first pitch at 7:05 p.m. and pits Rockies right-hander Jeff Hoffman (1-0, 5.40 ERA) against Phillies righty Jerad Eickhoff (0-4, 4.53).
The surprising Colorado Rockies own first place in the National League West. They rest two games in front of both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks and the troupe has not lost a series since late April. Conversely the Philadelphia Phillies haven't won a series since April and during that the same time frame. The National League's best record resides in Philadelphia tonight when the Roks send one of the key players from a trade with the Blue Jays, when the organization sent Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto.
Hoffman is scheduled to be brought up from Triple-A Albuquerque to make his second start of the year. The highly touted righty was the ninth overall pick in the 2014 draft and earned a win over division rival Los Angeles Hoffman just over a week ago. Hoffman registered eight punch-outs in 5 1/3 innings of work. The Colorado right-hander has been brought along carefully this season after he was 0-4 with a 4.88 ERA last season.
The Phillies send Eickhoff to the mound is off his best performance of 2017. The Phils' right-handed starter struck out eight of two run ball in six innings of work in hitter-friendly Globe Life in Texas. The performance was solid on the surface but the Phillies young starter was fortuitous stranding a large number of runners and did so with a near 50 percent hard contact rate. Before his last turn in Arlington he had allowed 14 runs and 22 hits over just 15 frames.
Eickhoff has started against Colorado twice in his career allowing 11 runs in 11 innings.
Hoffman gets the Rockies to the late innings with a lead and Colorado closer Greg Holland converts his 20th straight save in the win.
Tony Finn
Twins at Orioles
Play: Over 10
The Minnesota Twins take to Oriole Park on Monday night in an American League contest against Baltimore. First pitch is slated to take place at 7:05 p.m. ET at Camden Yards with the Twins starting Kyle Gibson (0-4, 8.20 ERA) against the Orioles Ubaldo Jimenez (1-2, 6.52).
The Baltimore Orioles have been money at home in the first two months of the 2017 campaign registering wins in 15 of their 19 games. The surprising Minnesota team sits tied in the American League Central tied with the Cleveland Indians. Baltimore is just a half-game back of the AL East's first place club, New York.
With Twins are coming off a split of a Sunday double-header against Kansas City, their second double-dip in the last four days, requiring they bring an arm for the first game of their series versus Baltimore. Former first-round pick Kyle Gibson is expected to be recalled from Triple-A Rochester to make the start tonight.
Gibson continues to be a first-round disappointment. The Twins righty allowed six homers and 13 walks in 26 1/3 innings only to find himself tossing from the Triple-A mound in early May. In his last start against the near identical lineup of Baltimore was in April of last year. He didn't earn a decision in the contest upon surrendering five walks and a home run in five innings of work.
Like Gibson, O's starter Ubaldo Jimenez is nothing short of a fifth starter in the American League. Jimenez continues to struggle with his command and when he is throwing strikes the opposition is hitting the ball in the bleacher seats. The O's righty allowed two homers for the second straight start and third time in four outings in this past Wednesday 5-4 loss at Detroit.
Jimenez has just one quality start this season in eight starts. He has allowed three runs or fewer in just two of his eight turns with one of those coming in just 3.1 innings of work against Tampa Bay.
The Twins are hitting the ball with authority which includes a red hot run by veteran 1B Joe Mauer who is 11-for-34 with five runs scored during his nine-game hitting streak. Additionally, power hitting 3B Miguel Sano is in the middle of a five-game hitting streak and registered a four RBI Sunday vs. the Royals.
Baltimore's big bat, Mark Trumbo, has multi-hit games in three straight and in four of this past week's events.
Gibson was 0-4 with an 8.20 ERA before being demoted and Jimenez trends to allow five or more runs in his matchup against the Twins tonight
Buster Sports
Royals at Yankees
Play: Over 8
The Yankees come home to the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium off of a 3-3 road trip and send RH Michael Pineda (4-2, 3.42 ERA) to the hill and he will face the Royals LH Jason Vargas (5-2, 2.03 ERA) We will be siding with the OVER tonight. This matchup just happened in KC on May 17th and the Yankees beat up Vargas and won the game 11-7. Now both pitchers get a chance in their next start to make up for their bad starts. We believe that will not happen. Vargas just has trouble with the Yankees. He is sporting a 7.27 ERA with a WHIP of 1.569 when pitching against New York. The Yankees are 7-3 against LH starters this year. Pineda has been great at home this year but in his last 3 starts he has been getting beat up a bit sporting a 3.86 ERA. The total is 8 at the time of this writing and we know one result does not lead to another but we had this total a 8.7 so there is a little value here.
Bob Balfe
Cubs -1.5 -110
The Cubbies have been crushing left handed pitching all season and are facing a Giants team that has been week on offense this year and have been hit with the injury bug. The Cubs should get a big win at home tonight behind Lackey.
Harry Bondi
PHILADELPHIA (-115) over Colorado
Today we take a rare opportunity to back the Phillies.They are a rare favorite tonight and that role is deserved as they square off against minor league call up Jeff Hoffman. Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff has a lousy 0-4 record but he has been the victim of poor run support rather than lousy pitching. Eickhoff is coming off a solid performance against Texas in which he struck out eight and allowed just two earned runs over six innings at Texas but still lost. Tonight, against minor league pitching the Phillies will get back on track.
Rob Veno
Pittsburgh at Atlanta
Play: Under 8.5
It’s impossible not to like the personal results Pittsburgh's Garrett Cole has posted thus far this season, especially if you subtract his Opening Day start at Boston. He has now recorded eight consecutive quality starts which have produced these numbers: 0.96 WHIP, 2.25 ERA, 4.36:1 K:BB ratio and 15.0 pitches per inning. The latter is very impressive (5 of the 8 starts have been below 15.0) because it indicates Cole has been able to get through a majority of his innings pretty economically. Every opponent he has faced during this stretch ranks in MLB’s Top 15 in OPS (Atlanta, St. Louis Cubs twice, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Arizona & Washington), five are in the Top 10 and only once has he allowed more than two earned runs. That start was against the Braves back on April 9th in his second start of the season when he went six innings, allowed eight hits (2 HR) three earned runs. It should be noted that three of the eight hits he allowed (1B/2B/HR) were to Atlanta's Freddie Freeman who is now on the DL.
While it’s easy to take on glance and immediately praise Cole’s statistics, you have to dig just slightly to come up with similar praise for tonight’s Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz. His numbers overall are skewed by a pair of tough starts but his last six starts have seen five brilliant ones sandwiched around a brutal one. Minus out Foltynewicz’s four inning, seven earned run debacle on May 5th against St. Louis and you have five starts which are all quality and show a 1.00 WHIP, 2.25 ERA, 3.2:1 K:BB ratio and 15.2 PPI. The results are almost mirror images of Cole’s with the exception of the K:BB ratio. He has one start versus Pittsburgh this year where he lasted only 3.2 innings but gave up just two runs.
Offensively there is a major gap between these teams and the lack of Pirates offense is what has caused Cole to be just 2-4 on the season with three no decisions. That lack offense (MLB OPS rankings of 27th Total at .672 / 29th vs RHP .665 & 29th on the road .649) figures to help Foltynewicz tonight. Cole will be glad to not see Freeman in the lineup especially since he’s held newly acquired replacement 1B Matt Adams to 2/14 .143 with five strikeouts in their matchups. Home plate umpire is unknown at this time but factors here suggest a play on the under 8.5.
OC Dooley
Giants +180
Since the visitors are going with a "lefty" hurler this evening the Cubs have made LINEUP changes as hot hitting rookie Ian Happ (batted cleanup twice in the past three days) is sitting out along with slugger Kyle Schwarber. The Cubs will have the likes of Ben Zobrist and Albert Amora in a lineup this evening which I feel is depleted. While it has been a poor campaign for San Francisco they have WON THREE CONSECUTIVE "SERIES" and tonight's starter Ty Blach is coming off a win. Amazingly the Giants are 1-8 so far in the (Blach/Madison Bumgarner) slot which in my mind makes them undervalued . Chicago veteran hurler John Lackey LOST to the Giants both in the 2002 World Series and a 2016 Divisional playoff