Welcome back, RotoBallers! I had an AMAZING start to my college football betting season, going 17-1-1. Unfortunately, baseball didn't follow suit, mostly due to the Pirates. I had been doing a pretty good job of avoiding the temptation to bet on Pittsburgh up until this point. It's safe to say I learned my lesson. I don't have a whole lot that looks mouthwatering in terms of MLB plays today, but let's see if I can win you all a few bucks back!
As I'm sure you already know know, Steve Janik and I will be sharing the duties of writing up an MLB Betting article every day of the week! 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 continue posting my picks there on my "Off Days" for this series.
- Saturday, September 12: 1-2
- 2020 Season Total: 100-86
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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Cleveland Indians at Minnesota Twins (-138)
O/U: 8
CLE: Triston McKenzie, MIN: Michael Pineda
I see both of these offenses as fairly equal. So, the value here lies with the fact that I see Triston McKenzie as a young pitcher trending upwards, who is in a good spot to make a splash with a great outing. Meanwhile, Michael Pineda has been very impressive since his return from suspension, but I think there's some regression coming at some point. Let's hope it's here, and I'll take a very live underdog to see if it happens.
Pick: Indians ML (+118) 1 Unit
Oakland Athletics (-148) at Texas Rangers
O/U: 8
OAK: Frankie Montas, TEX: Lance Lynn
A lot of my reasoning for siding with Cleveland above carries over here. The difference is I much prefer Oakland's offensive upside compared to Texas. As such, I'll take the young Frankie Montas who finally showed us the potential we were looking for against the Astros last time out. Yes, Lance Lynn continues to defy logic in terms of effectiveness on the mound, but he's still prone to a crooked number once in a while. I'll take the A's here, even without their star third baseman.
Pick: Athletics ML (-148) 1 Unit
New York Mets at Toronto Blue Jays (-163)
O/U: 9
NYM: David Peterson, TOR: Hyun Jin Ryu
I've had pretty good success backing Ryu in his first campaign as a Blue Jay this season, why stop now!? He goes up against a journeyman reliever in David Peterson who was just brought back to the rotation (in ugly fashion) a week ago. I think Ryu gets back to his ace-like ways after a hiccup against the Yankees last time out, and the young bats in the Toronto lineup should be able to tee off against Peterson and this bullpen. Give me the run line!
Pick: Blue Jays -1.5 (+116) 1 Unit
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