MLB Betting Insider - Best Home Umps to Bet on
by Mike Rose
Beyond finding the best pitchers to back or to fade and figuring out which lineups are set to click or flop, another very important aspect to baseball betting is the umpire. BetUS Sportsbook presents this week’s list of the umpires that you should be paying attention to when you’re looking to back a home side this year, or looking to stay away from when planning to back a visitor…
Ted Barrett (16-6, +$875) Since May 17th, Barrett has been tearing it home for MLB betting fanatics backing home teams. He is 10-2 in his L/12 games behind the dish for the hosts, and in that stretch, he has dealt losses to the Mets with Johan Santana on the mound and the Red Sox with Tim Wakefield on the mound. Road teams aren’t having any luck putting runs across the plate when Barrett is calling balls and strikes. The visitors are only averaging putting up 3.41 runs per game this season, one of the lowest tallies of any ump in the bigs. Home dogs have absolutely thrived with Barrett behind the plate, as they are 6-2 in eight games, including 2-0 as +131 to +150 pups.
Gary Cederstrom (15-5, +$850) Cederstrom was a fair pitcher for both home teams and away teams until the end of the month of June. Before his June 25th game between the Rays and Phillies, Cederstrom was 7-4 for the hosts, and fairly close to the break-even point either way. Since then, he has umpped eight wins against one loss for the hosts. Perhaps the reason for this success has been the fact that he really hasn’t had many of the big pitchers in baseball as the away pitcher. Only Florida’s Josh Johnson has been beaten in that stretch as a road favorite. The hosts have only been underdogs four other times in Cederstrom’s 20 total games as the head man in blue. They’re 2-2 in those four games. The biggest winners have been short home favorites. From -101 to -140, home teams are a perfect 7-0 this season.
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CB Bucknor (17-7, +$795) Bucknor’s success for home teams can be directly correlated to the number of runs that they score in his outings. The hosts are averaging scoring a whopping 5.92 runs per game in Bucknor’s 24 games behind the dish in ’09. That’s a far cry from his 4.59 runs per game that home teams averaged in ’08. We’re pointing the blame on some real lousy road pitchers though, especially of late. It’s hard to keep home teams from scoring when the L/3 away starters were Jeremy Sowers, Chris Tillman, and Russ Ortiz. Also in fairness to the visitors, Bucknor has seen a whole mess load of solid starters for home teams in his games, including Mark Buehrle, Justin Verlander, Yovani Gallardo, Jon Lester, Jair Jurrjens, Erik Bedard, Adam Wainwright, Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, James Shields, and Vicente Padilla. Not a bad list of 11 hurlers considering he’s only umpped 24 games behind the dish.
