It was Dickens who penned the line \u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times,\u201d and for our purposes I\u2019ll use that as a way of leading into this week\u2019s Trend Report, one which focuses on teammates that are trending in opposite directions. <\/p>\n
Here are two pairs of teammates that are enduring differing levels of success on the mound.<\/p>\n
Cliff Lee\u2019s 2012 season was painful to watch as strong outings by the veteran lefty were consistently spoiled by an inept Philadelphia offense. Lee carried an 0-5 record through the first three months of the season despite seven quality starts, including an outing in which he threw 10 shutout innings against the Giants.<\/p>\n
Things are back on track for Lee this season. Through 17 starts he is 9-2 with a 2.59 ERA and 0.97 WHIP.\u00a0 Lee has enjoyed even more success away from hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park, going 6-1 with a 2.09 ERA and 0.88 WHIP in a league-high 11 road starts.<\/p>\n
A year ago it was Lee who drew the short straw and was forced to tolerate poor run support, but this season that burden has fallen on Cole Hamels. After notching a career-high 17 wins in 2012, Hamels is 2-11 with a 4.58 ERA in 2013. The Phillies are 3-14 in Hamels\u2019s 17 starts this season.<\/p>\n
Those numbers haven\u2019t dissuaded bettors. The Phillies have been favored in five of Hamels\u2019s last six outings. Bettors that have ridden with Hamels this season are down a whopping 15.92 units.<\/p>\n
Back in 2009 when John Lackey signed with Boston there were many observers claiming the deal was a steal for the Red Sox at only $16.5 million per season in a time when aces were receiving contracts worth upwards of $20 million annually. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n
If Lackey\u2019s 5.26 ERA and growing reputation as a bad teammate through the first two years of the deal weren\u2019t bad enough, he sat out the entire 2012 campaign as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n
Expectations for the former ace were non-existent entering this season as Red Sox fans had grown tired of him. Against all odds, Lackey has responded with his best season in Beantown to date, posting a 2.99 ERA and 1.20 WHIP through 13 starts.<\/p>\n
Lackey has found another gear at Fenway this year where he is 3-1 with a 1.36 ERA and 0.97 WHIP through five starts.<\/p>\n
While Lackey is enjoying a renaissance season, teammate Jon Lester\u2019s 2013 campaign is falling apart. Lester entered this season with low expectations after looking lost at times during the 2012 season, going 9-14 with a 4.82 ERA. It appeared Lester had figured things out as he was 6-0 with a 2.72 ERA through his first nine starts of the 2013 season, but his recent outings tell a different story.<\/p>\n
Over his last eight starts Lester has posted a 6.99 ERA and 1.78 WHIP. Lester\u2019s season has come completely off the rails in the month of June as he has posted a 7.62 ERA and 1.91 WHIP while allowing opposing batters to hit at a .328 clip in five June outings.<\/p>\n
Lester has taken to the road five times over that stretch of eight starts, posting an 8.46 ERA and 2.02 WHIP with Boston losing four of those five games.<\/p>\n
Lester\u2019s base numbers remain respectable as he is 8-4 with a 4.61 ERA on the year. Those misleading numbers could lead to value in fading the lefty going forward.<\/p>\n
MLB Handicapping It was Dickens who penned the line \u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times,\u201d and for our purposes I\u2019ll use that as a way of leading into this week\u2019s Trend Report, one which focuses on teammates that are trending in opposite directions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":976,"featured_media":62843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[2723,107,66497,13138,678,3775,59225,698,2799,1260,1288],"class_list":["post-63436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-baseball-gambling","tag-baseball-handicappers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball-handicapping","tag-mlb-betting","tag-mlb-odds","tag-mlb-tips","tag-mlb-trends","tag-starting-pitchers","tag-trends","tag-vegas-experts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63436","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\/976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63436"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108071,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63436\/revisions\/108071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}