I know it is early but I don\u2019t like the look of this Red Sox team. \u00a0\u00a0They had an epic collapse last year and I don\u2019t see where they are improved at all heading into this season. \u00a0A bunch of players had great years last season and it still wasn\u2019t enough. \u00a0 <\/p>\n
Thursday April 5 Matchup<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Preview<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Probable Starters:<\/strong><\/p>\n Red Sox LH Jon Lester (2011: 15-9, 3.47 ERA) vs. Tigers RH Justin Verlander (2011: 24-5, 2.40 ERA)<\/p>\n Boston<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you really think that Jacoby Ellsbury is a 30 homer guy, I don\u2019t. \u00a0The one guy who really underperformed was free agent bust Carl Crawford. \u00a0He should rebound, once he gets off the disabled list. \u00a0This isn\u2019t a bad team but I don\u2019t think they are a true competitor in the American League.<\/p>\n Pretty good pitching matchup Thursday as is to be expected for opening day. \u00a0Last year lefty Jon Lester missed the Tigers in their two series but Boston did just fine without him going 5-1 against Detroit. \u00a0Lester is backed by a solid lineup, albeit one that couldn\u2019t push a single run across against Verlander last year.<\/p>\n The interesting thing will be to see if the aggressiveness new manager Bobby Valentine displayed in preseason carries over when the games begin to count. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n Detroit<\/strong><\/p>\n The Tigers made a huge splash when they signed first baseman Prince Fielder in the offseason.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think it was a bad move but I think it was unnecessary for them to spend what they did to upgrade a position where you could make the argument that they already had the best hitter in baseball.<\/p>\n The move shifted Miguel Cabrera across the diamond where he has already been struggling in the field. \u00a0I guess sometimes teams just make the move to be made.<\/p>\n All that won\u2019t make any difference Thursday if Justin Verlander continues the kind of run he was on last year. \u00a0He wasn\u2019t electric in the playoffs but Verlander pushed the Tigers there by winning 24 games, capturing MVP and Cy Young Awards. \u00a0On days when he is on the newly supercharged offense won\u2019t have to do much more than catch the ball. \u00a0When he is off they can certainly bail him out too. \u00a0I don\u2019t think he can match last year but he will still be a very good bet<\/p>\n (NOTE: \u00a0he lost the opener and 2 of his first 3 decision last year).<\/p>\n O\/U Pick: \u00a0Over Boston Red Sox (0-0) vs Detroit Tigers (0-0) I know it is early but I don\u2019t like the look of this Red Sox team. \u00a0\u00a0They had an epic collapse last year and I don\u2019t see where they are improved at all heading into this season. \u00a0A bunch of players had great years last season and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":22462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[108,3882,111,5961,1866,54473,1484,11519,502,14228,27450,3775,691,1028,1066,54472,1229],"class_list":["post-50180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-baseball-handicapping","tag-baseball-lines","tag-baseball-picks","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-boston-red-sox-vs-detroit-tigers","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-gambling-lines","tag-mlb-baseball-previews","tag-mlb-free-pick","tag-mlb-odds","tag-mlb-predictions","tag-predictions","tag-red-sox","tag-red-sox-tigers-gambling","tag-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50180","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\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50180"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107936,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50180\/revisions\/107936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nComerica Park
\n1:05PM
\nMoneyline: \u00a0Detroit -140, Boston +130
\nO\/U: 7<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nScore Prediction: \u00a0Detroit 6 – Boston 2<\/strong><\/p>\nView The MLB Cappers Leaderboard For 2011 \u00a0– Picks Packages for 2012 On Sale! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"