MLB Baseball Picks: The Best Over and Under MLB Teams: July 12th 2010

Handicappers PicksJul 12, 2010

The All-Star Break is here, and with just over half the season complete, BetUS Sportsbook looks at the hottest teams on the diamond. Check out who’s hot for your MLB picks on ‘over’ bets, including the scorching D’Backs!
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Season Standings
1: Arizona Diamondbacks (53-34-2) – Going into the break, Arizona’s leading hitter is only batting .276 (Kelly Johnson), but the team’s woeful 5.27 ERA still isn’t helping matters any. The surprising stat? The Diamondbacks closed out the first half of the year with three straight ‘under’ games against the Fish. Is the tide finally turning on all of these ‘overs’? We think not.

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2: Milwaukee Brewers (46-37-6) – The Brew Crew finally woke up from their offensive slumber that started on the Fourth of July, but a lot of teams do great work against the Pirates. Milwaukee plated 15 runs in three days against the Buccos over the weekend, which is seven more runs than it scored in its previous five games. The great equalizer has been allowing 6.07 runs per game since June 28th.

3: Los Angeles Dodgers (48-39-1) – Los Angeles still has plenty of problems with its pitching staff right now. The unit allowed 14 runs over its L/3 games before the break against the Cubbies, but that was after a shutout on Sunday. A 4.09 team ERA is something that Dodgertown isn’t used to seeing. However, the offense continues to pick this team up, as RF Andre Ethier leads the charge with his .324 batting average over the first half of the season.

Who’s Hot?
1: Minnesota Twins (4-0-2) – The Twins are freefalling in the AL Central, and it’s not just a mistake that it’s happening. After losing out on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, they still have plenty of work to do, particularly on a pitching staff that has conceded 6.5 runs per game in its L/8. In those eight games, Minnesota is 6-0-2 for ‘over’ bettors. Until the pitching staff gets its act together, the Twinkies are going to find it difficult to keep up with the surging Tigers and White Sox within the division.

2: San Diego Padres (5-1) – It’s not often that you see the Padres on the list of top ‘over’ teams this season, but that was the case after getting raked for 21 runs in three days in Colorado and 14 runs in three days in Washington. Still, there’s no shame in having a 3.27 team ERA going into the All-Star Break, and that’s why San Diego is still hanging on to the lead in the NL West at 51-37.

3: Washington Nationals (5-1) – We already discussed the three game set between the Nats and Padres early last week, but Washington played a heck of an offense series at home against San Fran as well over the weekend. The 10.7 combined runs per game in that series was nothing new for Washington. Sunday’s 6-2 defeat was the first time that this squad had played an ‘under’ affair since July 2nd. In that stretch, they combined to score an average of 11.1 runs per game.

The summer is just starting to heat up for the boys on the diamond. Today, BetUS looks at the best ‘under’ squads that are beating the MLB odds, including the ‘over’ killing Cardinals.
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Season Standings
1: St. Louis Cardinals (52-34-2) – A rare four game ‘over’ streak for the Redbirds was promptly stopped on Thursday, as they went 3-1 for ‘under’ bettors over the course of the weekend. The pitching staff was great, allowing just ten runs in those four games, but one must remember that the final three games in that set were in Houston. The Cards are getting closer towards having the best staff in baseball, as they have a 3.39 team ERA going into the All-Star Break.

2: Chicago Cubs (46-35-8) – Getting shutout on Sunday at the hands of the Dodgers was just a microcosm of the miserable offensive campaign that the Cubs have had all season long. In spite of the fact that guys like 1B Derrek Lee, OF Alfonso Soriano, OF Kosuke Fukudome, and 3B Aramis Ramirez all have huge contracts, the offense is only averaging 4.03 runs per game over the first half of the season. No wonder why manager Lou Piniella’s squad is 11 games under .500 and 9.5 games out in the NL Central race…

3: Washington Nationals (48-38-3) – The Nats just barely held on to their spot on the ‘under’ list for the season after playing seven straight ‘overs’ just before the All-Star Break. Things aren’t even going well for the chosen boy, RHP Stephen Strasburg, who has now watched his L/2 starts fly past the posted ‘total’ of 6.5.

Who’s Hot?
1: New York Mets (5-1) – A woeful offensive effort has left the Mets four games out of first place in the NL East race going into the All-Star Break. They picked an atrocious time to score just nine runs in five games at home against Cincinnati and Atlanta, and the end result was a wasted effort from their pitchers in that stretch as well. New York only conceded 11 runs over those five games to boot. Needless to say, all five stayed ‘under’ the number.

2: New York Yankees (5-2) – We stay in a New York state of mind, as the Bronx Bombers have now held seven straight foes to four runs or less and six of the seven to two runs or less. Imagine if LHP Cliff Lee was actually traded to the Yankees on Friday night before the Texas Rangers swooped in and snared him! A 3.81 team ERA would look a heck of a lot better without RHP Javier Vazquez in the fold.

3: Cincinnati Reds (5-2) – The Reds had a great chance to make a move in the NL Central right before the All-Star Break, but dropping four straight to the Phils really hurt that cause. Cincinnati was shutout twice in that series and was held to three runs or less six times in its ten game roadie to close out the first half of the season.

Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com