Baseball Handicapping Articles

MLB Predictions: Rangers vs. Rays Betting Odds and Baseball Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/16/2010

Two of the top three teams in the American League meet for the second series this season, but likely not the last. Both the AL West-leading Rangers and the Rays, who are atop the Wild Card standings, seem destined for the postseason.

MLB Predictions: Padres vs. Giants Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/13/2010

A pair of lefties and NL West contenders square off in the first game of a weekend series with major playoff implications Friday night at 10:15 p.m. ET in San Francisco’s AT&T Park. The NL West-leading Padres have overcame a light hitting offense by riding quality starting pitching and the best bullpen in baseball. They have allowed the fewest runs in the majors this season.

MLB Predictions: Handicapping the Texas Rangers Down the Stretch
by T.O. Whenham - 8/13/2010

The Texas Rangers are in a very interesting spot right now. It’s the middle of August, they are up by 7.5 games in the division, they are playing decent baseball, and neither of the two teams chasing them - the Angels and the A’s - seem to be built for a menacing stretch run. Anything can happen in baseball but Texas is in a pretty confortable spot.

MLB Predictions: Twins vs. White Sox Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/12/2010

This critical three-game series between AL Central rivals looks to be a microcosm of the division race. The White Sox have the bats but the Twins have the pitching, consistency and now, even the momentum. The rubber match of this series is Thursday night at 8:05 p.m. ET in the South Side of Chicago.

MLB Predictions: Yankees vs. Rangers Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/11/2010

The Rangers/Yankees matchup looks like a potential ALCS preview, but what this abbreviated two-game series ultimately represents for Texas is a true test. The second game of the series is slated for Wednesday night at 8:05 p.m. ET in Arlington, Texas.

MLB Predictions: Red Sox vs. Blue Jays Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/10/2010

To the surprise of everyone, especially its own management, the Toronto Blue Jays have been the surprise story of baseball this summer. At 59-52 Toronto is looking like anything but the rebuilding team they were supposed to be after trading away Roy Halladay.

MLB Power Rankings
by Jason Sharpe - 8/9/2010

With the first week of August in the books, the MLB divisional races look to be tight all over except for in the AL West, where the Texas Rangers have all but wrapped things up. After the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays, there are still 10 other teams who have between 61-65 wins on the season, which means all of these teams are still on a 90-win pace for the year. Keep in mind that this group doesn’t include some top teams around the league, either, like the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have more then enough talent to make some noise if both were too get hot.

MLB Predictions: Red Sox vs. Yankees Baseball Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/6/2010

The four-game series begins tonight in Yankee Stadium at 7:05 p.m. ET. The Yankees are separating themselves from the Red Sox, currently holding a six-game lead over their rivals. Boston is chasing both the Yankees and Rays for either an AL East title or a Wild Card berth. Friday’s game is the start of a 10-game road trip for Boston that could make or break its season.

MLB Predictions: AL Central Race Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/6/2010

Over the past decade the American League Central has been the easiest division to win in the AL in terms of how many wins have been needed to come out on top. But don’t try telling the White Sox, Twins or Tigers that it’s an easy division to win.

MLB Predictions: NL East Race Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/5/2010

The National League East race appeared to be a four-team race with everyone but the Nationals in contention for the division crown. Then the MLB Trade Deadline came and went and we quickly found out that only the division-leading Braves and surging Phillies are serious about contending.

MLB Predictions: Phillies vs. Marlins Baseball Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/5/2010

The Phillies latest surge has put the heat on Atlanta in the NL East and also has its opponent tonight looking more and more distant in the rearview mirror. The Marlins are facing a near must-win situation Thursday night at 7:10 p.m. ET in Florida when they entertain the second-place Phillies in the rubber match of the three-game series.

MLB Betting Odds: White Sox vs. Tigers Betting Picks and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/4/2010

The Chicago White Sox are doing their best to make the AL Central race a two-horse race. They have been locked in with Minnesota back and forth atop the division for the better part of the summer. Detroit is a distant third, currently sitting seven games back heading into the third game of this four-game series with the division-leading White Sox.

MLB Betting Odds: Giants vs. Rockies Picks and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/3/2010

The NL West race is starting to resemble a round-robin tournament with all four contenders, San Diego, San Francisco, Colorado and Los Angeles, seemingly all involved with series against one another. The Padres have had a stranglehold on the division for more than a month, but they have been slowly losing that grip.

MLB Betting: Handicapping Baseball’s Stretch Run
by Jason Sharpe - 8/2/2010

To continue to be successful at something one must always be looking for ways to improve his or her performance. Individuals must be constantly making adjustments and never be completely satisfied with their results, always believing that they can do better and accomplish even more. The same can be said about someone who is a winning sports bettor. They too must be working hard to maintain their winning edge while also striving to improve their results.

MLB Handicapping: NL West Betting Odds and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/28/2010

The San Diego Padres continue to be the surprise team in baseball. They own the best record in the National League and have made first place in the NL West seem like home owning the top spot since June 19. Through July 26 the Padres held a 3.5-game lead over San Francisco, a six-game lead over Los Angeles and an eight-game lead over Colorado in the division.

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.