Baseball Handicapping Articles

MLB Betting Advice from a Professional Sports Bettor
by Jason Sharpe - 7/27/2010

Who says there isn't much of a home field advantage in baseball? Someone may want to tell the Colorado Rockies that. While playing in the thin air of Coors Field, the Rockies lead all of baseball with a .299 team batting average, but send them on the road and they go from first to worst in baseball, hitting just .228 as a team on the road. This may be one of the highest home/road batting average differentials for a single season in MLB history.

Odds and Predictions for Cubs New Manager
by Alan Matthews - 7/24/2010

Lou Piniella announced Tuesday that he was retiring as manager of the Chicago Cubs effective at the end of the season, and while on the surface his tenure on the North Side looks like a success as he led the Cubs to the NL Central title in 2007 (going from worst-to-first in Piniella’s first year) and 2008, in reality it probably qualifies as a disappointment overall because Chicago didn’t win a single playoff game.

MLB Betting: Worst Bullpens
by T.O. Whenham - 7/23/2010

Bullpens are very tough for bettors to get their heads around because you don’t know how much of a role they are going to play on a given night, and who is going to get the call to perform. Every team obviously has some bullpen pitchers who are better than others. That being said, there are definitely some bullpen groups that are significantly worse than others - so bad that betting on their teams is often a scary notion - especially if the starter isn’t likely to go deep. Here are three such teams:

MLB Betting: How Stolen Bases Coincide With Betting Success
by T.O. Whenham - 7/23/2010

Stolen bases aren’t nearly as significant and valued in baseball now as they were years ago. Back when I was a kid guys like Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman and Tim Raines were making headlines and piling up the stolen bases. They were superstars. Now small ball has been overrun by the power game, and stolen bases are mostly an afterthought. As we get further and further away from the glory days of thievery, I thought it would be interesting to look at how stolen base success for a team relates to betting success this year, and how that compares to what we saw a decade ago in 2000:

MLB Handicapping: Betting Low Baseball Totals
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/22/2010

For a number of different reasons this season of baseball has been the summer of the pitcher. After years of juiced up sluggers belting 60 and 70 home runs, numerous shattered offensive records, bandbox ballparks and steroid abuse – which, in turn, led to pitcher abuse, the pitchers are once again taking over the game.

MLB Handicapping: Teams With Second-Half Potential
by T.O. Whenham - 7/22/2010

The MLB All-Star Game is in the books, and the second half of the baseball season is underway. The break isn’t just a chance for players and bettors to catch their breath and for the stars to show off a bit. It also marks a change in tone and style of play. Teams with no hope will start selling any assets they might have, and strong teams will be looking to get stronger.

MLB Handiocapping Predictions: Now is a Great Time to Back Roy Halladay
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/21/2010

There are no ‘locks’ in sports betting, but perhaps one of the closest things to a guarantee is betting on an elite Cy Young-winning pitcher in baseball. Of course, the one drawback bettors face is the high odds these pitchers command.

MLB Trade Rumors and Predictions
by Vegas Sports Informer - 7/21/2010

Now that the NBA free agent frenzy is over, let’s now concentrate on the MLB Trade Deadline. We have buyers looking to make a splash to maybe grab a playoff spot and sellers looking to slash payroll and think about next season. All in all this should be an interesting 10 days as the baseball trade deadline is July 31. In the following article I will go over some MLB trade rumors I have been tracking.

MLB Playoffs Predictions for American and National League
by T.O. Whenham - 7/16/2010

As the all-star break ends and we head into the second half of the baseball season this is a good time to look at the standings as they exist now and try to figure out what they will look like in early October when the playoffs roll around and we will offer some MLB Playoffs predictions. To start with this let’s look at where we were at this same time last year:

MLB Predictions for Second Half Betting and World Series
by Vegas Sports Informer - 7/15/2010

Today the second half of baseball resumes, and we are planning to continue to cash some serious baseball tickets. But at the same time this is what I’m looking at from each division for possible moves to make teams better for a playoff run, or just to slash some payroll.

MLB Trade Deadline: Buyers and Sellers
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/14/2010

With the acquisition of Cliff Lee, the Texas Rangers got the ace they wanted and got the ball rolling on pre-deadline trades. The deal the Rangers put together to acquire Lee from Seattle may be the biggest trade this season, but it will not be the last.

Best MLB Betting Teams for Profit
by T.O. Whenham - 7/14/2010

Teams have played just over half of their games and we’re at the all-star break, so this is an ideal time to look at which teams have distinguished themselves so far from a betting perspective. Here are the four best teams in baseball so far in terms of the profit they have provided to bettors:

Worst MLB Betting Squads for First Half
by T.O. Whenham - 7/13/2010

We’re at the all-star break. While we still have no real idea of which teams are playoff bound and which ones may ultimately win it all we have a pretty good sense of which teams haven’t lived up to expectations. There have been some real disappointments in baseball this year from a betting perspective. Here are four:

MLB All-Star Game Betting Preview Odds and Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2010

Never bet against a streak. That is a cardinal rule in sports betting. And right now there are few better examples than the Major League All-Star Game. The American League has won 12 straight All Star contests, with their last defeat coming back in 1996 in Philadelphia. Since then the A.L. is 12-0-1 against the Senior Circuit and has simply dominated the opposition in both the Midsummer Classic and Interleague Play.

MLB All-Star Weekend: Home Run Derby Betting Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/10/2010

The Yankees apparently will allow someone from the rest of the league win at something this year. Robinson Cano, who would have been one of the favorites at the 2010 Home Run Derby, has withdrawn his name from the field of six players to enter this year’s event. The Home Run Derby, long the marquee event at MLB All Star Week, will take place at 8 p.m. EST, Monday, July 12 in Anaheim.

MLB Handicapping: Scoring Down as Batters Struggle Against Lefties
by Robert Ferringo - 7/8/2010

Studies and statistics show that left-handed people are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, dyslexic, have mental disabilities or overall just be delinquent. Yet left-handers have survived throughout history, despite these evolutionary anchors, mainly due to the element of surprise and the simple fact that they are, well, different. In the society of Major League Baseball these days lefties aren’t just surviving, they are thriving.

MLB Handicapping: What’s Wrong With the San Francisco Giants?
by T.O. Whenham - 7/8/2010

I don’t think I have been more disappointed by a team this year than the San Francisco Giants. Okay, the Mariners have been far more disappointing, but the Giants easily earn that crown for the National League. They came into this season with momentum and swagger, and it was hard to come up with a good reason why they wouldn’t win the NL West.

White Sox and Rangers – Two Hot Teams Meet in Arlington
by T.O. Whenham - 7/2/2010

It’s fitting that the Rangers and the White Sox are starting a three-game series in Arlington on Friday night. They are the two hottest teams in the American League, and both are performing well above expectation. The White Sox stumbled somewhat in Kansas City against the surprisingly strong hitters from the Royals, but before that they had won 11 straight. The Rangers had their own 11 game win streak, and won three of five since. It’s the best June that Texas has had since 1978.

MLB Handicapping: Pitchers With Betting Value
by T.O. Whenham - 7/1/2010

You’re either a morning person or your not. Some people love to jump out of bed early to tackle the day, while others need a while - and a few cups of coffee - before they can be near their best. Pitchers are the same way. Some guys are ready as soon as spring training is over, and they start posting strong results right out of the gate. Other guys just weren’t born to pitch in April. It could be that their bodies aren’t used to the demands of real games yet, or it could be that they just need games to matter more than they do in April before they can get interested enough to do well, but some guys are entirely different pitchers in April than they are in July or August.

Handicapping Stephen Strasburg: Trends To Win Money Against Nationals MLB Ace
by Robert Ferringo - 6/30/2010

When the Atlanta Braves are selling out against the Washington Nationals on a Monday evening game in June just because Stephen Strasburg is pitching you know that there is something special going on. The Braves don’t sell out playoff games. Seriously. (I remember sports talk radio bobbleheads begging for fans to show up for a winner-take-all Game 5 with Houston in the Wild Card round in 2004.)