Free MLB Baseball Betting Picks: August 11th 2009: ATS Consultants

Below are Free MLB Picks for August 11th from ATS Consultants. Do you want to receive more free expert MLB predictions on a daily basis, be sure to sign-up for the ATS Consultants Newsletter.

OVER 8.5 Washington Nationals/Atlanta Braves:
Solid pitching matchup between two young and upcoming starters in the National League. The Nats are red hot, and playing great Baseball under interim manager Jim Riggleman. Putting up a ton of runs, which has come by surprise.

John Lannan (8-8, 3.39) will pitch tonight for Washington. Lannan has been the Nats best pitcher all year, and will more than likely lead the young rotation into the next decade. Washington has some very good young arms in their system, and this guy will be a great anchor for the staff, hopefully for years to come. He’s 2-2 with a 2.45 ERA in his last 5 starts.

Likely rookie of the Year Tommy Hanson (6-2, 3.22) goes for the Braves tonight. Hanson has taken the league by storm and is another in a long line of great pitchers developed by the Braves. Hanson is 2-2 with a 4.35 ERA in his last 5 starts. The Nats are hot of late, and have been scoring a lot of runs, so Hanson will have to be on his game.

OVER 9 Kansas City Royals/Minnesota Twins:
A battle of two pitchers who are trying to find themselves right now tonight at the Metrodome. Nick Blackburn has been struggling after a great start to the season for the Twins, while Kyle Davies has pretty much been awful all year for Kansas City.

Davies (3-8, 6.37) showed some promise in spring training but it just hasn’t materialized during the season thus far. He even spent some time in the minors to try to figure it out, but was pounded for 8 runs on 8 hits in 3 2/3 innings last week in his first start back. He’s 1-4 with a 9.36 ERA in his last 5 starts and it doesn’t look to improve tonight against the Twins.

Blackburn (8-6, 3.79) has really hit the wall of late after a terrific start. Obviously his record for the entire 2009 season is very good, but his recent record is not so good. He’s 1-2 with a 7.22 ERA in his last 5 starts. What’s far more of a concern is the 47 hits allowed in just 28 innings in that span. He’ll have to turn this around ASAP if the Twins want to contend in the AL Central. They’re currently 5 games behind the Tigers with about 50 to play.

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