Doug Upstone Offers Winning MLB Trends + Free Friday (7-15-22) Baseball Pick
THE TRENDS:
--After the All-Star break, it is always fun to speculate what teams might play better or worse for the remainder of the season and could be Play On or Play Against candidates. Pittsburgh looks to fit the bill as Play Against, since only Washington has a poorer run differential in the National League, and they are 10-21 in games decided by four or more runs. That is a bad sign the rest of the way.
--The Los Angeles Angels have gone from double-digit games above .500 to double-digits below .500 this season. There are two reasons. First, is not hitting from the No. 5 spot in the batting order on down. And second, the bullpen giving up leads. Maybe the Halos keep sinking, but a 6-16 record in one-run games can be turned around.
--Texas is essentially in the same boat as the Angels with a hard-to-imagine 5-18 record in one-run outcomes. Overall, the Rangers bullpen is better than their division rivals, but they also have too many blown saves. However, the Texas offense is more consistent. And since one-run outcomes tend to be random from year to year, it would not take much for the Rangers to have a winning record the rest of the way.
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THE VIDEO:
THE PICK:
Free MLB Pick
– Take Miami over Philadelphia (6:40 p.m., Friday, July 15)
On Friday, we are expecting a good pitching matchup between Kyle Gibson (4-3, 4.53 ERA) and Sandy Alcantara (9-3, 1.75) in this NL East encounter between Philadelphia and Miami. Gibson has never been a hard thrower and relies on command to hit his spots. Expect the Marlins to have as many right-handed batters as possible, because Gibson’s off-speed stuff is very effective against left-hand batters, holding them to a .216 batting average compared to .270 for righties.
Alcantara has turned into one of the best hurlers in the National League at 26, with filthy stuff. The Miami right-hander is at a point where you expect him to win every time out. Alcantara is permitting opponents to hit just .193 against his tosses, and they have a slugging percentage of only .284.
With Gibson having an ERA over 5.00 on the road and a WHIP of 1.41, the Marlins will have runners on and need the clutch hits to pile up runs. Alcantara has a low 1.59 ERA at home and has already bested the Phillies and Gibson back in April and does it again in the series lid-lifter.
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Doug Upstone's handicapping style by units is more conservative than some other handicappers but he's a big proponent of it's not how much you win but how much you keep and he doesn't have 23 No. 1 monitored titles, 97 Top 10 finishes and 28 Capper of the Month awards (latest March 2022 for NBA) by accident.
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