Baseball Handicapping Articles

MLB Betting: Handicapping Streaks
by Aaron Smith - 5/13/2010

Streaks are a part of sports in general, but in baseball streaks are often long and drawn out. Every sports bettor should be adept at tracking trends and finding important tendencies of each team. Simply put, you can’t win betting on baseball if you aren’t able to follow some of the streaks that occur throughout the season.

MLB Totals Betting: Wrigley Field
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 5/11/2010

In the old days anyone passing by Wrigley Field after a game could look up at the flag being flown outside the friendly confines to figure out if the Cubs won that day or not. Either a “W” or an “L” flag were flown to reflect the day’s results. Now before a game anyone looking at a flag around Wrigley Field can also tell a lot about what is about to happen.

MLB Handicapping: The Benefits of Betting on Team Totals
by Aaron Smith - 5/11/2010

The MLB season is a long grind, and the dynamics of it make it very different than most of the other major sports. Bettors must adjust to the differences in the sport, and try to find certain angles where they may be able to stay ahead of the oddsmakers and the sportsbooks. I tend to think that betting on totals is a solid way to profit over the long haul, but individual team totals betting has some big benefits in baseball. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons team totals may be something you should look at betting on.

Free MLB Picks: New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies at Colorado Rockies
by Alan Matthews - 5/11/2010

New York has dropped two in a row, including a 5-4 decision at Comerica Park on Monday night in Game 1 of this series. Johnny Damon homered for the Tigers in his first game against his former teammates. Detroit improved to 10-3 at home and has won six in a row there. The Yankees have yet to drop three straight this season.

MLB Handicapping: Nationals are MLB’s Best Bet
by Robert Ferringo - 5/11/2010

One of the most interesting stories early in this MLB betting season has been the success of the Washington Nationals. Yes, the same Washington Nationals that have posted a record slightly above that of the Washington Generals over the course of the last two years and the team that has been treating the legacy of the Montreal Expos like a necropheliac at a funeral parlor.

Going Against Big MLB Favorites
by Aaron Smith - 5/7/2010

If you have bet on baseball very often, you’ll probably notice that among veteran bettors and MLB handicappers the underdogs are quite popular. The primary reason for this is that baseball is a very different game than football or even basketball. The baseball regular season is 162 games, so it’s fair to say it is a steady and slow grind.

MLB Handicapping: Best Betting Teams
by T.O. Whenham - 5/6/2010

We are more than 25 games into the regular season in baseball, so teams have had a chance to work out some of the early kinks and settle into something resembling their real form. This is a good time, then, to look at the teams that have been particularly kind to bettors so far this season. By looking at how they have done it we can draw conclusions about whether they can keep doing it. Here are the five most profitable teams so far this season:

MLB Handicapping: Boston Will Be One of Worst Bets in Majors
by Robert Ferringo - 5/5/2010

There is an oft-quoted clichй in baseball that you can’t win a pennant in April but you sure as hell can lose one. The idea is that a slow start in this sport is not nearly the harbinger of ill tidings that it appears to be in certain other sports. And that because of the sheer overwhelming volume of innings, outs and appearances that construct a Major League Baseball season that a shaky first 25 games doesn’t add up to much when you consider what lies ahead.

Top MLB Teams Playing ‘Under’ the Total
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 5/5/2010

We are a month into the baseball season and it has become apparent that some teams are really good at consistently playing low scoring games and staying ‘under’ the total. This group of teams who always seem to be locked into pitching duels also have a pretty strong correlation.

Milwaukee Brewers at Los Angeles Dodgers Series Odds and Preview
by Matt Severance - 5/4/2010

Is Milwaukee at Los Angeles really the best baseball series going on early this week? It certainly is not, but both teams have a lot in common in that they have been very disappointing this year and are in danger of already falling too far behind in their respective divisions despite the fact it’s only early May. The Dodgers are -240 series favorites for this one at Bookmaker.

MLB Betting: Rain Delay Rules
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 4/27/2010

Leave it to the umpires and Mother Nature to throw a wrench into your Sunday evening betting plans. Sunday’s MLB game between the Braves and Mets in New York caused a big headache for bettors and bookmakers alike. This game was one of the most wagered on games of the week, and due to inclement weather the game was called final just one pitch into the sixth inning. This awkward result engulfed even some seasoned bettors in a wave of confusion as they wondered if they had won, lost or if their wager was graded ‘no action’.

MLB Betting: Padres at Marlins Series Odds and Predictions
by Matt Severance - 4/26/2010

I’ll be honest, the San Diego Padres-Florida Marlins matchup probably isn’t the best series of the early week in baseball, but it’s high time we write about the Padres here at Doc’s Sports as they are easily the biggest surprise in the majors so far. We offer some series predictions at the end of this article.

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Chicago White Sox Series Odds and Preview
by Matt Severance - 4/20/2010

It’s not good to have the word Sox attached to your Major League Baseball team these days. The Red version is 4-9 and off to its worst start since 1996. And the White guys are in the same boat, as Chicago enters this series with red-hot Tampa Bay with the same 4-9 mark for its worst start since 1997. Only Baltimore has a worse record in the American League than the Soxes.

Handicapping MLB Aces
by T.O. Whenham - 4/15/2010

One of the toughest things to handicap is baseball is an ace. Every time a team sends their ace to the mound they are setting a trap for us to fall into if we aren't careful. The problem is that the ace is the pitcher that the public knows best, so he is the one that draws the most public action. That makes it that much harder to find an edge, and in turn makes it deceptively simple to make a bet which gives you no edge. Here are six things to consider when you are handicapping a game with an ace starting to make sure that you aren't throwing your money away:

Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox MLB Series Preview
by Matt Severance - 4/15/2010

Are the Tampa Bay Rays really back to a playoff-type level or are the Baltimore Orioles just freaking terrible? The answer is probably ‘yes’ to both, as Tampa Bay enters Friday’s series with the Boston Red Sox at 6-3 (best start in franchise history) after an impressive series win over the Orioles. It’s only the third time in franchise history Tampa Bay has been above .500 after nine games and first time since 2004. Boston, however, is the -165 Game 1 favorite on BookMaker.

MLB Handicapping: Can Blue Jays Sustain Fast Start?
by T.O. Whenham - 4/15/2010

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise in baseball through the first 10 days of the season has been the Toronto Blue Jays. they were seen as the fourth best team in the American League East - at best - coming into the season, yet they are leading the way early on in the toughest division in baseball. It's all but certain not to last, but the fast start hasn't been a fluke. This is a team that has enjoyed some very good pitching, and has backed that with lively bats and some impressive hustle.

MLB Handicapping: ‘Homer’ Umpires
by Aaron Smith - 4/14/2010

In this case, we are looking at Major League Baseball and the home plate umpires who call the games. Are these umpires really favoring the home team or is this just a case of matchups and home field advantage proving the difference? That is an argument for another day, but the truth is a sports bettor needs to look at every single angle that might give them an edge. After seeing some of these amazing home-and-away splits, I think you will agree these statistics can help you gain the upper hand.

MLB Handicapping: Early Winners and Losers from the N.L.
by Robert Ferringo - 4/13/2010

Yesterday I laid out some random thoughts and general musings about what I learned about the American League through the first week of the season. Below are some observations I’ve had while watching the National League clubs at work through the first week or so of this Major League Baseball season:

MLB Handicapping: Early Winners and Losers from the A.L.
by Robert Ferringo - 4/13/2010

One week of the 26-week grind that is the Major League baseball regular season is in the books. And amidst the home openers, blown saves, exciting plays, beautiful weather and monster home runs there has been plenty of information for the discerning baseball handicapper to pick up. Some of our preseason hunches may have been confirmed or debunked and other wait-and-see situations may have started to unfold.

MLB Series Preview: Angels at Yankees
by Matt Severance - 4/13/2010

If you are a fan of the Boston Red Sox or the Tampa Bay Rays, it has to be a bit disconcerting already after seeing the New York Yankees win a road series against each of those two other AL East contenders in the season’s first week.