No great systems, trends or otherwise today, so we’ll let today go.
What I found today – Will this be the year the National League finally ends the American League’s six year reign of terror? Though just 42 of the 252 official interleague games have been played in 2010, the numbers are evenly divided at 21-21.
Some of the usual suspects performed up to their high standards (see article below), as Boston and Minnesota both won series over the National League. However, even traditionally dreadful clubs like San Diego and the Los Angeles Dodgers came thru and won two of three.
Get out the cell phone to take a picture of this.
Tampa Bay is the first team to get 20 games over .500 and they are the best bet in baseball at +13.3 units, think about that being possible after the 2007 season.
Next is two very unlikely candidates, San Diego (+10.1) and Washington (+10.1).
The Padres are still in first place in the NL West despite a batting order that does not raise the blood pressure of opposing pitchers, but they have pitching staff that leads the National League in ERA at 2.98. While some will say this is a by-product of playing at cavernous Petco Park, San Diego is 14-9 on the road and their ERA is third in the big leagues at 3.8.
Washington being over .500 at 23-22 at this stage of the season is remarkable for them. The reason the Nationals have been successful to this point is improved defense and pitching. Instead of ranking in the lower 25 percent of virtually every category, they are now average, which has them as more competitive club.
At the beginning of the year Seattle was considered a serious threat to knock the L.A. Angels off the throne as AL West champs. The question was why?
Last year Seattle was 85-77 after a hideous 61-101 2008 campaign. Because they lacked offensive firepower, the Mariners front office built the team around pitching and defensive in particular. The move paid off with surprising season.
In the offseason, Seattle added Chone Figgins trying to get another player on base for the middle of the lineup and thought Milton Bradley would find the Puget Sound a more calming area than Chicago. Seattle was 28th last season in runs scored and without changing the main part of the heart of the order, the M’s remain 28th in scoring at 3.5 runs per game, lacking any offensive punch.
With every team placing a greater emphasis on defense, the Mariners edge is negated and Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee can’t pitch shutouts on every start, which helps explain why Seattle is 16-28, -13.9 units.
Sharp sports bettors knew this before the season started. The 2009 Mariners were the 13th team since 1900 to post a winning record after losing 100 or more games. The very next year these teams have a .487 win percentage or roughly 79 wins. (From Bill James 2010 Gold Mine)
What does the home court mean in the NBA Playoffs?
Favored teams thus far in the postseason are 36-13, 31-17-1 ATS when playing in their own building.
On Twitter at: http://twitter.com/3Dailywinners
Note- If you prefer to have this sent to you daily instead of having to visit the site, sign up for our FREE mailing list on the right.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment