sunday night mlb ....

playing philadelphia (-120)
hard to pass this price up on hamels. linecum is the next big thing. but hamels has already proven he can get major league hitters out with consistency and is a phenom himself. the one thing i love about hamels is that he has outstanding control. nothing is worse than backing a pitcher who is constantly pitching behind 2-0 or 3-1 in the count. but hamels is always around the strikezone and he isnt afraid to throw his changeup in any count. frankly, its linecum that providing the value for backing philadelphia tonight. ive got this one at 5-3 philly. if i could have found an 8.5 on the total, i probably would have grabbed a piece of the under. but at under 8, ill pass and stick with philadelphia. theyre the better team with the more potent lineup and the proven commodity on the mound.

Bonds is SUPPOSED to sit this one out too...

Brock Landers said:

Bonds is SUPPOSED to sit this one out too...

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id actually be interesting in knowing what the giants record is without bonds over the last few years. in a weird way, id almost wish he was in the lineup because that ensures the opposing pitcher wont be having any mental lapses. obviously, the giants are a much better offensive team with bonds, but it wouldnt surprise to me to see the giants with a respectable record playing without him. its easy for teams to have a sort of false confidence knowing they wont have to face him. regardless, im very comfortable with hamels at this price. id play it up to -140 actually, which is the highest ill go with mlb chalk

Actually that's the first thing that went through my mind on tonight's game. I think the Giants are a better team defensively without Bonds (he's definitely a liability in the field). I'd love to see if anyone has that stat.

prodigy said:

id actually be interesting in knowing what the giants record is without bonds over the last few years. in a weird way, id almost wish he was in the lineup because that ensures the opposing pitcher wont be having any mental lapses. obviously, the giants are a much better offensive team with bonds, but it wouldnt surprise to me to see the giants with a respectable record playing without him. its easy for teams to have a sort of false confidence knowing they wont have to face him. regardless, im very comfortable with hamels at this price. id play it up to -140 actually, which is the highest ill go with mlb chalk

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pricey bet, but went with the 1st inning bet at olympic.
will a run be score in the 1st? (no / - 150)

this could be one of those games where nothing is on the board until the 3rd inning when the lineups turn over one time.

prodigy said:

id actually be interesting in knowing what the giants record is without bonds over the last few years. in a weird way, id almost wish he was in the lineup because that ensures the opposing pitcher wont be having any mental lapses. obviously, the giants are a much better offensive team with bonds, but it wouldnt surprise to me to see the giants with a respectable record playing without him. its easy for teams to have a sort of false confidence knowing they wont have to face him. regardless, im very comfortable with hamels at this price. id play it up to -140 actually, which is the highest ill go with mlb chalk

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I don't know exact numbers, but they were a poor team pretty much all season in 05 and he missed 5 months.

Cole Hamels is perhaps the best young pitcher in MLB. He is a lefty that has just been surperb and only one batter on the Ginats has ever faced him. Russ Ortiz batted against him and grounded out.



A pitcher, who is facing a team that has never physically faced him has a tremendous advantage. Players can watch scouting video and read scouting reports, but is never the same as facing that pitcher.



Hamels has one of the best changes in MLB and he also gets to work with veteran Jamie Moyer, who arguably has the best assortment of changeups in MLB history. At times Hamels is unhittable and I have seen him go through 4 batters with none of the even getting a foul tip.



What makes him so good and also may make him an ace later in his career is that he throw that devastating change when behind in the count. He throws that change 21% of the time when behind in the count.



He sports a 2.82 ERA in road starts and 1.93 in night starts. Philly bats coming alive in a big way over the past 2 weeks averaging 5.4 RPG.



PHILADELPHIA is 23-11 (+13.1 Units) against the money line vs. teams whose hitters strike out 6 or less times/game over the last 2 seasons.



SAN FRANCISCO is 33-41 (-13.3 Units) against the money line vs. NL teams allowing 4.8 or more runs/game on the season over the last 2 seasons.

why has that line gone down so much?