Hope everyone is having a meaningful Memorial Day and weekend.
On the baseball side of things, it’s not looking great. Joel Sherman wrote a great article the other day, pointing out that MLB has become a league of players in the mold of Dave Kingman – walks, strikeouts, and home runs are the only thing players do these days. I might instead compare them to Steve Balboni, but the message is the same – baseball is in trouble of becoming all boring, all the time. Sherman goes on to offer a few ideas – including MLB cracking down on the ball doctoring I’ve been ranting about – which is good, and I hope SOMEONE at MLB HQ is paying attention. Your biggest fans are upset – do SOMETHING about it!
On to the K watch…
Red Sox @ Astros, 4:00 pm ET
The Astros’ Jose Urquidy is back from injury to take the mound today – and the books don’t know what to expect. This is not a strikeout pitcher and I imagine his innings will be capped since he’s returning from injury, so when I see an over/under of 5.5 I’m leaping to the under.
Cardinals @ Dodgers, 9:10 pm ET
My stud fantasy pitcher, the Dodger’s Trevor Bauer, is pitching – which means I have to pick him to temper my potential losses. With the rare exception, as in last outing against the Astros, Bauer has been excellent – usually getting between 9-11 K a game. Against these Cardinals I don’t expect anything different. BetMGM has the line set at 7.5 and I’ll take the over.
Mets @ Diamondbacks, 9:40 pm ET
Merrill Kelly is starting for the Diamondbacks, and the last time he faced the Mets in Queens he went 5.2 striking out 6. This being a home game, I’m going to spot him an extra K, which works out well since most books have the line set at 5.5. I’ll take the over 5.5 and +110 from DraftKings.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!