MLB Games of the Week: (5-12 through 5-18)

Written by Red Coffman on May, 15th 2008 | 0 Comments

Week 7 MLB Baseball Betting Odds

Interleague play draws up some intriguing match-ups later in the week. With some interesting story lines on display, I have two stellar match-ups that are sure to put up some headlines. Don’t sleep on the A’s and Braves, but the Mets/Yankees showdown in New York is always a good time.

Oakland Athletics @ Atlanta Braves:
7:10pm EST: 5-17-2008

Probably Starters: Rich Harden (R) vs. Tim Hudson (R)

Records/Recent Action: The Athletics have fallen a half game back of the Los Angeles Angels, and the Braves still rest at .500 3.5 games back of the Marlins in the NL East. But both of these teams are solid. Atlanta has gotten a great early return from their pitching staff considering the injuries to John Smoltz, Mike Hampton, and Tom Glavine. The Braves have finished under the total 26 times in 38 games, with two pushes. The Athletics have also put up great numbers at the pitching position, which is even more important because they traded their best pitcher (Dan Haren) in the off season, and Rich Harden has spent most of the year on the DL. The A’s are 23-17 while the Braves are 19-19 (prior to Wednesday’s action). The A’s are 5-5 in their last 10 but have lost 3 out of their last 4, getting shut out twice. Oakland has a great +770 money line, obviously surprising the public early. The Braves have won 6 of their last 10 contests, but also come into Tuesday’s games losing 3 of their last 4, and scoring 2 runs or less three times during that stretch. The Braves are -401 on the year.

Significance: I love this match-up because it was Tim Hudson’s move that started off the pitching staff removal in Oakland. Hudson was the first of the big 4 to move, and now everyone is gone except Rich Harden - and it’s obvious that injuries have hurt his stock. Barry Zito left, and Haren was dealt this summer - now the A’s have a bunch of young players that are overachieving this season. And it has really been the pitching that has impressed. Dana Eveland and Greg Smith are two great examples of Billy Bean’s solid prospect eye, both are helping the A’s win. Headed into Atlanta, Rich Harden is supposedly healthy, and that sets up a great match-up between himself and Hudson. Here’s to hoping Rich can stay healthy for Tim’s homecoming. Tim leads the team in wins (6) ERA (2.54) and WHIP (.99).

Hot Bats: Chipper Jones is playing out of his mind right now. His .415 batting average is absurd, and he’s shown no signs of slowing down. He has 10 HR on the season and an OPS of 1.158 - incredible. It’s amazing that the A’s have done as well as they have considering Emil Brown leads the team in HRs and Batting average with 4 and .277 respectively. His 33 RBI also lead the team.

New York Mets @ New York Yankees:
8:05pm EST: 5-18-2008 on ESPN

Probably Starters: Chien-Ming Wang (R) vs. John Maine (R)

Records/Recent Action: The Yankees have been playing without their prize possession, Alex Rodriguez, for more than two weeks, and that hasn’t helped their run production whatsoever. The Yanks are 19-21 on the season and 4.5 games back of Tampa Bay for the lead in the AL East. In fact, New York sits in 4th place in their division after a quarter of the season. At -861, New York has the 4th worst money line in baseball. Struggling to put up “New York-like” numbers for most of the season, the Yankees, at 10-28-1 O/U have the highest under-ratio in baseball. New York is 5-5 in their last 10 games, but have lost 5 of their last 7 overall. At 20-17, the Mets are just two games back of the Florida Marlins in the NL East. They are still in the negative on the season at -148 units. The Mets are 12-7 at home and 8-10 on the road. The Mets have won 4 of their last 6 but are just 5-5 over their last 10 games.

Significance: This is the Yankees and Mets here. Two of baseballs most renowned organizations, from the same place, go head to head a couple times a year if we’re lucky. This is one of those times. Not only that, but Wang has definitely been playing like the team’s ace and the same can be said for John Maine who leads the club in wins (5) ERA (2.81) and WHIP (1.25) despite the addition of Johan Santana. The Yankees have really struggled to put runs on the board, while the Mets sit at 5th in the league with just under 5 runs a game. But this is baseball, and this is Yankees/Mets, and I don’t need a better reason than that to get excited for a Sunday Night Baseball showdown on ESPN.

Hot Bats: Jason Giambi leads the Yankees in HRs, but his batting average hovering around .200 isn’t a good thing. Hideki Matsui leads the team in batting average a .319. Ryan Church is leading the Mets in most offensive categories. His .324 batting average is nearly 50 points higher than anybody else on the team. Church’s 8 HRs lead the club, and his 30 RBI are just 2 back of David Wright. All this after experts went crazy about the Mets trading Lasting Miledge for some guy named Church. Yhatzee!

Name:(required)

Email:

URL: