Now that everyone who watches baseball is onto the ball-doctoring issues we’re starting to see more attention paid to the motions every pitcher makes on the mound. Was X just adjusting his belt and then his glove? Was that discoloration dirt or something else?
We are days (hours?) away from MLB’s self-imposed deadline to start cracking down on pitchers with spot inspections on the mound and in the dugout and I, for one, can’t wait to see if the strikeout-rate and league batting average is affected – my money is on the K-rate going down and the BA going up.
Yankees @ Phillies, 1:05 pm ET
The Phillies deposed ace, Aaron Nola, faces the Yankees lineup today without having to face Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton. I call Nola deposed because no one can dispute Zack Wheeler is the king of the Phillies staff right now – but you can’t forget how good Nola can be. With the Yankees beaten up and still striking out at a torrid pace, I’m going to take the over 7.5K line and +100 at Barstool Sportsbook.
Mariners @ Indians, 1:10 pm ET
It’s a glorious Shane Bieber Sunday matchup today – pretty much every time he takes the mound for the Indians it is – but this should be an easy matchup for him on the strikeout side of things. FanDuel has the over/under on strikeouts set at 8.5 and I’m taking the over at -110.
Royals @ Athletics, 4:07 pm ET
Chris Bassitt of the A’s is the one I want to bet on in this matchup. He’s been a very reliable 1K/inning type of pitcher all year – striking out 86 over his 81 innings. Against this Kansas City team, I expect 7+ innings and 7 strikeouts. I’m putting my money on the over 5.5 at -125 from the folks at BetMGM.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!