Baseball Handicapping Articles

MLB Predictions: NL East Race Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/5/2010

The National League East race appeared to be a four-team race with everyone but the Nationals in contention for the division crown. Then the MLB Trade Deadline came and went and we quickly found out that only the division-leading Braves and surging Phillies are serious about contending.

MLB Predictions: Phillies vs. Marlins Baseball Betting Odds and Picks
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/5/2010

The Phillies latest surge has put the heat on Atlanta in the NL East and also has its opponent tonight looking more and more distant in the rearview mirror. The Marlins are facing a near must-win situation Thursday night at 7:10 p.m. ET in Florida when they entertain the second-place Phillies in the rubber match of the three-game series.

MLB Betting Odds: White Sox vs. Tigers Betting Picks and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/4/2010

The Chicago White Sox are doing their best to make the AL Central race a two-horse race. They have been locked in with Minnesota back and forth atop the division for the better part of the summer. Detroit is a distant third, currently sitting seven games back heading into the third game of this four-game series with the division-leading White Sox.

MLB Betting Odds: Giants vs. Rockies Picks and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 8/3/2010

The NL West race is starting to resemble a round-robin tournament with all four contenders, San Diego, San Francisco, Colorado and Los Angeles, seemingly all involved with series against one another. The Padres have had a stranglehold on the division for more than a month, but they have been slowly losing that grip.

MLB Betting: Handicapping Baseball’s Stretch Run
by Jason Sharpe - 8/2/2010

To continue to be successful at something one must always be looking for ways to improve his or her performance. Individuals must be constantly making adjustments and never be completely satisfied with their results, always believing that they can do better and accomplish even more. The same can be said about someone who is a winning sports bettor. They too must be working hard to maintain their winning edge while also striving to improve their results.

MLB Handicapping: NL West Betting Odds and Predictions
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/28/2010

The San Diego Padres continue to be the surprise team in baseball. They own the best record in the National League and have made first place in the NL West seem like home owning the top spot since June 19. Through July 26 the Padres held a 3.5-game lead over San Francisco, a six-game lead over Los Angeles and an eight-game lead over Colorado in the division.

MLB Betting Advice from a Professional Sports Bettor
by Jason Sharpe - 7/27/2010

Who says there isn't much of a home field advantage in baseball? Someone may want to tell the Colorado Rockies that. While playing in the thin air of Coors Field, the Rockies lead all of baseball with a .299 team batting average, but send them on the road and they go from first to worst in baseball, hitting just .228 as a team on the road. This may be one of the highest home/road batting average differentials for a single season in MLB history.

Odds and Predictions for Cubs New Manager
by Alan Matthews - 7/24/2010

Lou Piniella announced Tuesday that he was retiring as manager of the Chicago Cubs effective at the end of the season, and while on the surface his tenure on the North Side looks like a success as he led the Cubs to the NL Central title in 2007 (going from worst-to-first in Piniella’s first year) and 2008, in reality it probably qualifies as a disappointment overall because Chicago didn’t win a single playoff game.

MLB Betting: Worst Bullpens
by T.O. Whenham - 7/23/2010

Bullpens are very tough for bettors to get their heads around because you don’t know how much of a role they are going to play on a given night, and who is going to get the call to perform. Every team obviously has some bullpen pitchers who are better than others. That being said, there are definitely some bullpen groups that are significantly worse than others - so bad that betting on their teams is often a scary notion - especially if the starter isn’t likely to go deep. Here are three such teams:

MLB Betting: How Stolen Bases Coincide With Betting Success
by T.O. Whenham - 7/23/2010

Stolen bases aren’t nearly as significant and valued in baseball now as they were years ago. Back when I was a kid guys like Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman and Tim Raines were making headlines and piling up the stolen bases. They were superstars. Now small ball has been overrun by the power game, and stolen bases are mostly an afterthought. As we get further and further away from the glory days of thievery, I thought it would be interesting to look at how stolen base success for a team relates to betting success this year, and how that compares to what we saw a decade ago in 2000:

MLB Handicapping: Betting Low Baseball Totals
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/22/2010

For a number of different reasons this season of baseball has been the summer of the pitcher. After years of juiced up sluggers belting 60 and 70 home runs, numerous shattered offensive records, bandbox ballparks and steroid abuse – which, in turn, led to pitcher abuse, the pitchers are once again taking over the game.

MLB Handicapping: Teams With Second-Half Potential
by T.O. Whenham - 7/22/2010

The MLB All-Star Game is in the books, and the second half of the baseball season is underway. The break isn’t just a chance for players and bettors to catch their breath and for the stars to show off a bit. It also marks a change in tone and style of play. Teams with no hope will start selling any assets they might have, and strong teams will be looking to get stronger.

MLB Handiocapping Predictions: Now is a Great Time to Back Roy Halladay
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/21/2010

There are no ‘locks’ in sports betting, but perhaps one of the closest things to a guarantee is betting on an elite Cy Young-winning pitcher in baseball. Of course, the one drawback bettors face is the high odds these pitchers command.

MLB Trade Rumors and Predictions
by Vegas Sports Informer - 7/21/2010

Now that the NBA free agent frenzy is over, let’s now concentrate on the MLB Trade Deadline. We have buyers looking to make a splash to maybe grab a playoff spot and sellers looking to slash payroll and think about next season. All in all this should be an interesting 10 days as the baseball trade deadline is July 31. In the following article I will go over some MLB trade rumors I have been tracking.

MLB Playoffs Predictions for American and National League
by T.O. Whenham - 7/16/2010

As the all-star break ends and we head into the second half of the baseball season this is a good time to look at the standings as they exist now and try to figure out what they will look like in early October when the playoffs roll around and we will offer some MLB Playoffs predictions. To start with this let’s look at where we were at this same time last year:

MLB Predictions for Second Half Betting and World Series
by Vegas Sports Informer - 7/15/2010

Today the second half of baseball resumes, and we are planning to continue to cash some serious baseball tickets. But at the same time this is what I’m looking at from each division for possible moves to make teams better for a playoff run, or just to slash some payroll.

MLB Trade Deadline: Buyers and Sellers
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 7/14/2010

With the acquisition of Cliff Lee, the Texas Rangers got the ace they wanted and got the ball rolling on pre-deadline trades. The deal the Rangers put together to acquire Lee from Seattle may be the biggest trade this season, but it will not be the last.

Best MLB Betting Teams for Profit
by T.O. Whenham - 7/14/2010

Teams have played just over half of their games and we’re at the all-star break, so this is an ideal time to look at which teams have distinguished themselves so far from a betting perspective. Here are the four best teams in baseball so far in terms of the profit they have provided to bettors:

Worst MLB Betting Squads for First Half
by T.O. Whenham - 7/13/2010

We’re at the all-star break. While we still have no real idea of which teams are playoff bound and which ones may ultimately win it all we have a pretty good sense of which teams haven’t lived up to expectations. There have been some real disappointments in baseball this year from a betting perspective. Here are four:

MLB All-Star Game Betting Preview Odds and Predictions
by Robert Ferringo - 7/13/2010

Never bet against a streak. That is a cardinal rule in sports betting. And right now there are few better examples than the Major League All-Star Game. The American League has won 12 straight All Star contests, with their last defeat coming back in 1996 in Philadelphia. Since then the A.L. is 12-0-1 against the Senior Circuit and has simply dominated the opposition in both the Midsummer Classic and Interleague Play.