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Welcome back, RotoBallers! Early exits for Shohei Ohtani and Corey Kluber put us behind the eight ball to start, and we ended up negative again on Sunday. Tough! But that's the life of sports handicapping. I'm going to try and keep things rather short today, because there is serious concern that the season gets suspended at some point throughout the day. As of 10:00 am this morning, 14 Marlins players/coaches have tested positive for Covid 19, and their game tonight against Baltimore has already been cancelled. Let's cross our fingers and hope the league can find a way to play on despite this setback. Best wishes for good health to everyone involved.
Steve Janik already got us started with two great betting articles to start the year, so this is where I pick up! All season long we'll be supplying you MLB betting articles with a few of our favorite picks for the day in baseball. Along with the picks, we'll give a little write-up with some supporting evidence for the picks, and we'll keep track of our records throughout the course of the season. You can always find my updated picks for the day as well as my running tally @BellRoto on Twitter. I'll also do my best to post my picks there on my "Off Days" for this series.
- Saturday, July 25: 2-3
- 2020 Season Total: 7-9
Without further ado, let's get to the picks for today's slate. Please make sure to follow me on Twitter @BellRoto, as I'll post any updates and/or additions to these picks there throughout the day. I'll also field any questions or comments on Twitter as well as in our Premium RotoBaller Slack Chat under the Sports Betting channel. Here we go!
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Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Athletics (-120)
O/U: 9.5
LAA: Griffin Canning, OAK: Chris Bassitt
This is a pick mostly based off the inequality of starting pitching talent in this matchup. Canning is a promising prospect who looked stellar at the end of 2019. He overcame some elbow trouble in Spring Training, and has looked sharp as ever in Summer tune-ups. Meanwhile, Bassitt has been a utility pitcher for the Athletics in seasons past, bouncing back and forth from reliever to starter and back to reliever again. It's tough to know how many pitches he's ready to throw in this spot, and he doesn't have any one pitch that stands out as dangerous. I'll take the Angels behind Canning even if the A's have the slight advantage on the offensive side.
Pick: Angels ML (Even) 1 Unit
Toronto Blue Jays at Washington Nationals (-130)
O/U: 10.5
TOR: Trent Thornton, WAS: Anibal Sanchez
After an extra innings loss in Tampa Bay yesterday afternoon, the Blue Jays hopped on a plane to DC right away, and will look to get back on track behind *checks notes* Trent Thornton(?!). The 26-year old demonstrated strikeout upside last season in his first year as a starter in Toronto, but his efficiency needed work, as he often failed to pitch past the 5th inning due to deep counts and walks.
Anibal Sanchez rounded into form nicely at the end of last season, and while we all know he's prone to blow-up spots, I get the feeling that 6-7 innings allowing 3-4 runs will be enough for the Nationals offense to get the job done in this one. I'll take the Nats offense, especially considering they'll likely get 4-5 innings of relief pitchers to feast on.
Pick: WAS ML (-130) 1 Unit
Kansas City Royals at Detroit Tigers (-140)
O/U: 10
KC: Mike Montgomery, DET: Michael Fulmer
The southpaw who came to KC by way of Chicago will take the mound for the royals against a Detroit offense who is notoriously bad against lefty pitchers, despite the turnover on their roster. This line is inflated for Detroit because of the name recognition of Michael Fulmer, but he's not the same pitcher that he was prior to his 2018 injury. Fulmer is still working his way back to the starter role, and won't pitch more than three innings at a maximum. I like the pitching setup and the offensive production better for the Royals, so I'll gladly jump on a very live underdog here. (Update: The line has already moved to Detroit (-125))
Pick: Royals ML (+120) 1 Unit, Add on another Royals ML (+105)
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