{"id":20901,"date":"2010-04-05T11:59:19","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T16:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=20901"},"modified":"2010-04-05T12:00:59","modified_gmt":"2010-04-05T17:00:59","slug":"merril-2010-2010-baseball-handicapping-pitchers-50410","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/cappers\/merril-2010-2010-baseball-handicapping-pitchers-50410\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Merril 2010 MLB Handicapping Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Merril\u2019s MLB Baseball Betting + Handicapping – Pitchers Preview<\/h2>\n
\"Steve<\/a>
Steve Merril<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Matt Josephs for Steve Merril Sports<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baseball begins this week and below is a list of play-on and play-against pitchers for the 2010 MLB season. <\/p>\n

CHECK OUT STEVE MERRIL\u2019S SPORTS BETTING + MLB HANDICAPPING PAGE TODAY \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Five Pitchers to back<\/span>:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wade Davis (Tampa Bay)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 5th starter made six starts last year for the Rays going 2-2 with a 3.72 ERA on the season. Davis started his career giving up one run and three hits against the Tigers in seven innings of work last September. While he did struggle against the Red Sox in his next start, Davis gave up just six earned runs in his last four starts of the season against the likes of Baltimore, Seattle and the Yankees. Should be noted that Davis has an 8.80 ERA in spring training but he\u2019s been tinkering with new pitches.<\/p>\n

Brian Matusz (Baltimore)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bandwagon is big for this tall lefthander as a good spring training has backed a nice finish to his 2009 season. Matusz is 1-2 with a 3.10 ERA in five outings this spring striking out 19 while walking only 3 batters.<\/p>\n

Homer Bailey (Cincinnati)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This phenom\u2019s career couldn\u2019t be more helter-skelter. Bailey spent 2007 and 2008 getting smacked around going 4-8 in 17 games over those two seasons. Last year, he improved a bit going 8-5 with a 4.53 ERA. Bailey has made three outings this spring giving up just four runs in 11.2 innings pitched. While his strikeout numbers aren\u2019t very gaudy (3), he seems to have fixed his walk problem that plagued him earlier in his career.<\/p>\n

Ricky Nolasco (Florida)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nolasco spent some time in the minors last season and it seemed to clear his head. While the 5.06 ERA last season is unsightly, he still managed to go 13-9 striking out 195 while walking only 44. This spring, Nolasco is 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA in five starts striking out 21 while walking only one batter. Ricky seems to be in midseason form already.<\/p>\n

Luke Hochevar (Kansas City)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much like Homer Bailey, Hochevar has been inconsistent throughout his career. The righthander is 13-26 with a 5.88 ERA in 51 starts over his career. Still Luke has shown flashes of brilliance. He\u2019s 0-1 with a 3.94 ERA in four starts this spring. This is purely a speculative play as I feel that the Royals will be a team on the rise this season and for that to happen, Luke will have to lead the charge.<\/p>\n

Four hurlers to fade<\/span>:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Cole Hamels (Philadelphia)<\/strong><\/p>\n

While we don\u2019t like telling people to fade the Phillies at any time, this lefthander\u2019s inconsistency presents opportunities to jump on a juicy runline. Hamels is a top 5 pitcher when he wants to be. The lefty went 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA last year allowing batters to hit .273 against him. This spring hasn\u2019t been much better as he\u2019s gone 1-1 with a 5.57 ERA over five starts. Hamels has given up 11 runs in 10.1 innings of work his last two outings and pitchers are supposed to improve instead of regress the closer the season comes. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cliff Lee (Seattle)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course the injury helps us here, but I feel like even when he gets healthy, the lefthander will be fade material. Lee expressed dismay at his trade from Philly to Seattle and has already been suspended once during spring training. In two starts, Lee has given up 11 hits and five runs during 5.2 innings of work. Lee\u2019s move back to the American League could be a struggle this season as I feel like the Mariners may not live up to expectations.<\/p>\n

Vicente Padilla (L.A. Dodgers)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dodgers named this righthander as their opening day starter and I\u2019m not quite sure why. This head case seven months ago was released by a pitching starved Ranger team and went to LA where he experienced some success. Padilla\u2019s been tattooed a bit during the spring giving up 19 hits and 10 runs in 14.1 innings of work as hitters are ringing him up to a tune of .306 BAA. I just don\u2019t feel safe backing this righthander in games where he will be pitted against other aces.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Guthrie (Baltimore)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guthrie had one of the worst seasons of his short career last year going 10-17 with a 5.04 ERA. The righthander hasn\u2019t been much better during the spring giving up 19 runs and 28 hits in 20.2 innings of work. Not only that, the righty has walked 13 batters as well.<\/p>\n

Matt Josephs is a MLB expert and the chief baseball handicapper for Steve Merril Sports.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Get on board now with a Weekly or Monthly subscriptions<\/h4>\n

Click Here For Steve Merril\u2019s Guaranteed MLB selections – Receive a full month (30 days) of Steve Merril’s award-winning Major League Baseball selections with complete detailed reports! The same MLB plays that won over +3200 units last season on this site! $275 Today!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major League baseball handicapping article by Steve Merril detailing a list of play-on and play-against pitchers for the 2010 MLB season….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[27287,14024,108,27288,2722,3775,688,27289,691,692,14237,27290,10706,10705,10704,10703,11571],"class_list":["post-20901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cappers","tag-2010-baseball-handicapping","tag-baseball-gambling-tips","tag-baseball-handicapping","tag-handicapping-pitching","tag-mlb-lines","tag-mlb-odds","tag-mlb-picks","tag-mlb-pitchers","tag-mlb-predictions","tag-mlb-previews","tag-pitchers","tag-pitching-stats","tag-steve-merril-articles","tag-steve-merril-free-pick","tag-steve-merril-handicapping","tag-steve-merril-picks","tag-steve-merril-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20904,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20901\/revisions\/20904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}