VERY VERY STRONG Play Inside! (4-2 YTD)

VERY VERY STRONG Play Inside! (4-2 YTD) w/ Analysis

5*****

Braves/Marlins OVER 8.5

I'm not going to call this a Play of the Year and all that crap because it's so early in the season and anything can happen, but this is a very, VERY strong play.

Atlanta was shut out last game and you better bet that they won't be shut out again. That's pretty obvious. In baseball when you get shut out the day before, you come out and work pitch counts the next day and find ways to get on base. They are going to make an aged Al Leiter work, and they are going to make him throw strikes. That's going to be a perfect strategy for the Braves today with Leiter having a history of walking hitters and that's not getting any better with age. He struggled with control in the Spring and admitted he's having control problems but that he's "always" had them. Last time Leiter pitched in a Marlins uniform, it was Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. He's a lot older now and he's going to come out and try to do too much with the "damned if you do and damned if you don't" cloud hanging over him. Marlins shut the Braves out yesterday, so any less of a performance by him won't be as good as yesterday.
Leiter has bounced from Marlins to Mets to Marlins and the NL East has seen plenty of Al Leiter. Leiter's stuff is flattening out with age, and the Braves hitters have seen him plenty of times.
I've said this for a long time, I feel Hampton might be one of the most overrated pitchers in baseball still riding his one good season about 4 or 5 years ago. His stuff isn't that good, and he gets people out simply because he is an average lefty. He doesn't pitch as well on the road, and the Marlins hitters will come out extremely confident today after hanging 9 yesterday. Hitting is all about confidence and it is contagious. There's no way this game stays Under 8.5 and if it does, it's just one of those very rare instances. Mike Hampton is also a very good hitter for being a pitcher so there is no hole in the Braves lineup today. Both pitchers will not pitch deep into the game being both of their first starts of the season and it will be another bullpen fest and all it takes is for one of those guys in the pen to be having a bad day like we saw yesterday with the guy coming in after Kazmir hanging a 5 spot in the 6th. Final should be somewhere around 8-5.
This game is at 8.5 because of the name's Al Leiter and Mike Hampton, and because it's a NL game where pitchers hit.

love the play hope this doent make u hedge units lol

Hampton is pitching out of trouble all game. Marlins have 6 hits and 2 BBs through 4 innings and only 1 run to show for it. All 4 innings for the Marlins have had inning ending double plays. One on a tag from a catch in left and a tag from 3rd, one on a skip off of Hampton's glove which slowed it down enough for Furcal to go unassisted with it, one bases loaded 0 outs double play.

The theory is working, the base runners are there, the hits are there, the walks are there, no clutch hitting, no cashing in of runners. Hope it turns around soon.

I think 2 decent pitchers...I liked the under on this one...Leiter is always pretty solid....hampton has been good as of late (last year)

Leiter surprised me and pitched pretty solid, but he fell behind in a lot of counts. He was 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 a lot. Usually when that happens, pitchers get rocked. But he made some good pitches to get back into counts, and he was effectively wild and he gave up a few lasers that were hit right at people.

But Hampton has been nothing special. He's been scattering a lot of hits, he's walking people, he's been pitching out of trouble all day and getting very fortunate with a double play every single inning. He's had bases loaded no outs, he had a sac fly double play at the plate, and he's had 1st and 2nd no outs. Marlins havn't gotten any clucth hitting and every time they load them up, they have Leiter come to the dish.