TC Martin:

All right man, we’re glad to have you back here. Matt joins us here once again today, Matt, how you doing my friend?

Matt Josephs:

Doing well. The Sunday night baseball travel fade continues to be prosperous, especially when you let yourself get shut out in course, field by Chad Kuhl that’s pretty bad.

TC Martin:

It was very, very bad for the Dodgers last night, looked like they were totally lifeless, and listless. And like you said, might be onto something with the travel thing there, and Tyler Anderson not good against his former team last night.

Jeff Nadu:

I’ll tell you something TC, I was mistakenly not on the show yesterday and I know you saw, I put the Rockies in as my play yesterday and I wasn’t able to come on the show and give it out, but what are you going to do. Rockies, that was some performance last night by Kuhl.

TC Martin:

Yeah. I don’t think any of us really… At least I didn’t see that thing coming last night, and we talked about it yesterday saying, yeah, it’s… Kuhl hasn’t been good, but yeah one of these freaky things, and it goes back to what we’ve talked about before with the Dodgers, just being very, very uneven. You just don’t know what you’re going to get with this team, and very crazy. They looked very lethargic last night. Again, they were shut out for eight innings against Atlanta on Sunday night, and then they rallied to force the game into extra innings and they ended up winning that game. But yeah, I believe they… What, they lost two out of three in that series as well, too. So yeah, again keep an eye on the Dodgers, I was kind of kicking myself yesterday.

TC Martin:

I know I talked about it on the show about Minnesota and Cleveland with that rematch of that game, that I felt it was a hard luck loser the week before. I’m sure enough, I didn’t pull the trigger. It was no contest. And you look at the Minnesota twins right now, guys, I mean they seem to be the class of the AL Central. I don’t know what happened to the Guardians. They were on fire last week, now they’ve lost five in a row and they can’t score. So, it’s just crazy, the crazy nature of baseball that we have here with teams that are hot one week and not the next. I don’t know if you… Go ahead Jeff.

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah, it seems like… You obviously have your teams that are kind of have separated themselves, teams like the Yankees, teams like that, but yeah this is what you get with backing teams like Cleveland, or Minnesota, or the Phillies, you’re going to get up and down play, it’s just kind of how it is. That’s why I think, when you look at how you handicap, for instance, you’re always playing certain teams. I don’t think it’s ever a bad thing, but… Yeah, I heard you guys get into a little tizzy yesterday here on the show, I’ll have to rewatch that. I heard someone was called a four year old, I don’t know what that was all about, but I got to see what’s up with that.

TC Martin:

I think it was a pair of four year olds. I wasn’t singling out to anybody here, but we have different opinions there, and there we go. Jeff-

Jeff Nadu:

Care to explain Matt?

Matt Josephs:

No, it just… I think TC made the Yankees Astros series out to be the world series in June, and the Astros I think have won the world series accorded to TC there, right? That was what we talked about yesterday.

TC Martin:

Well, that is what you were talking about. I was pointing out the fact that the Astros had dominated the Yankees during that series of basically winning 34, 36 innings, but yeah, they, they went with four split and, I think it was just more of the same of what we’ve seen, as I said yesterday of the past five years of that the Yankees just have problems with the Astros. So…

Jeff Nadu:

That being said…

TC Martin:

I’m really looking forward to these two teams and hopefully they can write it out the rest of the way, because that’ll be a heck of a ALCS

Jeff Nadu:

That… Yeah, that being said, I think you’re on to something there truly I mean, there’s one team in the AL it’s going to beat the Yankees, it’s Houston. Okay so, as you alluded to, they’ve had trouble with them over the years. This is the Yankee team with 54 wins and it’s June 28th, by the All-Star break, they’re going to be into the 60s. They may have a all time season on their hands. Seems like they never lose. In the end though, the games they’re losing to are to Houston, and if this season ends up being a failure I think it’s going to be to Houston.

TC Martin:

Yeah. And like I said, yesterday, let alone you see a team, especially a team like the Yankees, who go 0 for 52 on their home field, and, they get no hit for 16 in a third consecutive innings. It was just… It was a masterful pitching performance by the Astros. And again, the Yankees bats, they came up big when they needed to. And again, if it wasn’t for Aaron Judge, I mean, they get swept in that series. So I was just pointing out yesterday that I thought it was a great series. You’re on the edge of your seat. And it was just more of the same, the Yankees are just kind of, saying, wow, we’re having problems with this team. And we’ve had problems with this team for five years.

TC Martin:

So no, not that the greatest team, we’ll see how this whole thing works out, but just entertaining series. And I wish we’d have more of those type of series, as we look into the weekend here. So.. All right, guys, let’s take a look at our board here, we’ll update that, and then we’ll get into our games today a full slate of games here today, including a double header without a four mentioned guardians and twins series today, a rare five game series is going to play a double header today, but there is your latest record board on tap there. All right guys, five games, we are going to look at today and speak into those Houston Astros. Let’s start it off with the Astros and the Mets. Houston got a chance to stay in New York, had a off day yesterday as well did the Mets yesterday, and this is part of a string where the Astros are playing eight consecutive games against New York teams, the Yankees, the Mets, and then they will go back to Houston to play the Yankees in a one off on Thursday in Houston. So today’s game features the Astros, a slight favorite here, 116, the Mets plus 106 total in this game is eight minus 115 towards the over in this game. Jeff, welcome back my friend start us off and let’s talk Astros Mets.

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah, I like Houston here. I backed them actually in this same game last week against this same start in Carrasco last Wednesday. I was actually in New York and I saw the game middle of the day and I thought, wow, that’s… I’m not a big Carrasco guy, obviously if you look at his June numbers, he’s been a disaster in June. You look at his last couple starts, I mean last three starts he’s given up 13 runs over, 21 or so innings. He’s not been very effective. I’ll tell you another thing, this Houston offense, I think is better on the road, quite frankly, than it is at home, but they put up four in the first inning kind of cruise to a 5-3 win, it was never really in doubt. You throw in the fact that you’re going to have the better bullpen here.

Jeff Nadu:

I think they have the better starter, and I don’t think it’s closed. Mets are particularly great against lefthanded pitching either. We start to talk about whether it’s the Yankees or Tampa, whoever, this Houston team still has the best bullpen in the major leagues per the number. So, when I look at this spot, when I look at kind of what they were able to do last a week at home against the Mets, I think in this home, at home now in New York, I like this spot. You look at also Framber Valdez, he has been glistening on the road this year. You look at it in 50 innings on the road. Opponents are in 145 against him. He’s got a whip under one. Just been really effective only given up three runs or three home runs or a 50 innings. I like this Valdez. I like the bullpen. We’re basically getting a coin flip here on the Astros. I’m playing that any day of the week.

TC Martin:

Yeah. I’m with you in this game Jeff, and I talked about this six days ago where we saw the match up and I’m going to say the exact same thing that I said six days ago when we talked about this, I will go against Carrasco anytime that I can. I mean, the 35 year old aging starter lasted two and a third in that game, he gave up five runs, gave up three homers against the Astros. This guy’s given up 82 hits in his last 77 innings. And his last three have been downright awful, 13 runs in 13 innings, given up 21 hits. We mentioned the game against Houston and then the other two games that he looked awful against were light hitting teams in the Miami Marlins and the LA angels. So yeah, I agree with you. This is a go against Carrasco in this situation. I know that Dusty went back and forth, whether he was going to go with Luis Garcia, which I thought, okay, this is good, but if he wants to move Framber Valdez and go with him today, I think either one of these guys that ends up going today is going to be fine. So I’m with you on that. Matt thoughts on the Astros and the Mets?

Matt Josephs:

So I was just looking to see because it wasn’t up for a long time, it’s still not up on BetUS Framber Valdez has his K props four and a half. The Mets as you guys just talked about are pretty bad against lefties in terms of striking out a lot. You look at some of the guys like Trevor Rogers had a terrible season this year, he had seven and five strikeouts against the Mets this year. You look at some of the other ones, Sandoval had eight strikeouts, and we see Framber Valdez A, he goes deep in games, which is huge when you’re looking for, for strikeout type of things and B, 7, 7, 6, 5, 7, he’s gone over four and a half and five straight games here. So, when it starts to come out and if it’s in more books, I would look potentially at like an over for four and a half for Framber Valdez’s strikeouts tonight.

TC Martin:

All right. All right, Jeff and I will take the Astros, you can put us down for that here today, road favorites, but only minus 116, both take Houston in this game. Matt saying, keep an eye out on the K prop here for Framber Valdez. All right, next up guys. Let’s talk about Miami and St. Louis, Braxton Garrett gets the start for the Marlins today. Dakota Hudson, for the Cardinals, not a great pitchy matchup at all, two pretty hittable guys. Cardinals minus 140 and the Marlins plus 125 total in this game is eight and a half shaded kind of heavily towards the over here, minus 125, if you think runs are going to be scored, and that’s what the Cardinals definitely did yesterday, Paul Goldschmidt, was on a NL MVP run right now, been phenomenal. It’s kind of good to see the Cardinals snap out of their funk. They lost two out of three over the weekend against the Cubs here and well, the Marlins pretty much are the Marlins. Matt, take this game and break it Down.

Matt Josephs:

So, I didn’t know… First of all, I didn’t know if I wanted to do first five or full game because, I usually go first five for a lot of this stuff, but I don’t like the Marlins bullpen as much as I don’t like the Cardinals bullpen, it’s still better than the Marlins bullpen. You look at Braxton Garrett, he’s an interesting guy in that, he strikes out a lot of guys except for that Mets game, but he gives up a lot of hits. He’s given 25 hits in 17 and two thirds innings. And the teams that hit lefties well have hit him well, you look at the Rockies, they had nine hits in Miami against this guy. And you know Colorado’s not as good outside the Coors field. The Astros hit him up a little bit, the giants hit him up a little bit and the Cardinals are one of those teams that hit lefties really well this season.

Matt Josephs:

Now the problem was I hate Dakota Hudson, I think Dakota Hudson’s terrible, but, like I’ve seen you guys do a lot in this show and what I’m going to try and do here is I’m taking the better lineup, the better team, and I’m just going to hope they’re going to overcome the bad pitcher. The Marlins lineup stinks. I’m going to hope that Hudson goes, gives me six or seven strong, or at least six enough, good enough innings. And then just have that lineup beat up on Braxton Garrett, beat up on a bad bullpen and take the home team here at a reasonable price. I’ll take the Cardinals full game here and hope that Dakota Hudson doesn’t make me regret this next time.

TC Martin:

Hopefully that he can find the plate and not walk too many batters today. But like you said, you got the Cardinals offense on your side, which is always a good thing. Jeff, any thoughts on this game?

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah, I don’t quite understand this thought process by Matt, I mean, I always very much agree with Matt. He mentioned he doesn’t like Dakota Hudson, which neither do I, I don’t like Braxton Garrett, why don’t just take the team total for St. Louis. We know they’re a very good offense. We know they’re particularly good against lefthanded pitching. We know they can beat up on a bay of bullpen. We know that they’re scoring about 4.8 runs a game, they’re in the zone right now. I’m going to actually, myself, add this to my card over four and a half of BetUS with St. Louis’s team total. I have no interest in Dakota Hudson, and I’m not going to… Especially like 140 with him either. Matt, I’m surprised by you on this one.

Matt Josephs:

I’m surprised myself. And, it’s just one of those things, and you’re right, the Cardinal’s offense is in good form right now, I’m just worried about… I don’t even know what I’m worried about. You know what, I don’t know if I can do this, but maybe I will tell Jeff on this one and actually switch it to the four and a half, you’re right.

Jeff Nadu:

I think it’s a strong idea, Matt. You can’t lay 140 with this clown. I mean, they’re going to score five I think.

Matt Josephs:

Well, the problem is that the Marlin’s offense isn’t very good and Dakota Hudson has at least shown up against the weaker lineups that he’s faced, he held the Rays to one run in two hits, held the Padres at home, the one run in four hits. So it’s not like he’s been terrible every start, it’s just the majority of his starts it feels like.

TC Martin:

How has he been at home though? A little bit better at home, or still just as bad?

Matt Josephs:

Outside of the red start, where he get six runs and nine hits, he held the Padres to one run in four hits in seven innings. He held the Brewers scoreless over four and two thirds. He held the Giants scoreless over five innings, so he’s not bad at home. It’s just once again, can these guys cash in the runners they get on base. And the Marlins don’t scare me offensively, so that’s the only reason why I lean to the Cardinals here. And the Marlins bullpen doesn’t scare me, but Jeff’s right, if I think that the Cardinals are going to win, and I think that the Cardinals are going to beat up on Garrett and beat up on the bullpen. Why not just do what I usually do and play the team total instead of the side?

Jeff Nadu:

The problem with Hudson is, and this has been an issue his whole career, he really… You look at in 21 and 20, didn’t really pitch that much, but the other three seasons we’ve seen him in. You look at his whip every year, 1.35, 1.41, and then this year, 1.35, a lot of base runners, lot of traffic. Okay so, while occasionally he pitches well, he just allows too many base runners. You can’t back it. And it’s been a chronic problem for him and his career, so…

TC Martin:

What did they say? Sometimes go with your first thought here, so if tomorrow we get back here and the Cardinals, win four to three, I can hear Matt right now. See, I should have, I tell Jeff here, you’re letting Nadu get you off of what you originally said here.

Matt Josephs:

Well no, it’s just… He, I mean-

TC Martin:

No, it makes sense. [crosstalk] that time.

Matt Josephs:

It’s what I do. It’s what I do though, I kind of go and I’ve talked about trying to isolate variables and things like that, and he’s right. I mean, if I think that Cardinals are going to do a lot of work… And yes, you are right, if it’s four, three tomorrow, I am going to be still a little sour, but all right, well do it. Let’s [crosstalk].

Jeff Nadu:

But in the end, Matt, I mean the one knock you have on this game is, there are two things. Okay. Nobody wants to back to Dakota Hudson, no one. It’s just that simple, second, look, if you’re laying 110, 120, okay, but I mean you’re laying over one 40 with the Dakota Hudson. The one constant we know of is, this is a good offense. It gets a bad picture at a bad bullpen and they are suitable against lefty, so, I think if… Look, if they don’t end up scoring over four runs and they still win, it is what it is. You made the best decision. You can’t back to Dakota Hudson, you just can’t.

TC Martin:

All right.

Matt Josephs:

Correct.

TC Martin:

Let’s lock these guys in on this play here, and they’ll both go with the team total of the Cardinals today, scoring runs over four and a half runs, so that’ll be the play for both Matt and Jeff in this game. All right guys next up the Padres and the Diamondback, Sean Manaea going against Zach Gallen tonight, San Diego Padres and the Diamondbacks, basically a pick them here, 106, 104, each side, your land, like I said, it is a pick them. Seven and a half, very low total here with these two pitchers who are capable of keeping their teams in games, low scoring game expected here, and again, 110, so basically there’s the juice the same in the total and the side here in this game. Manaea and Gallen Padres, Jeff, any thoughts on this?

Jeff Nadu:

Not really, I mean obviously Gallen’s been very good for the most part, Arizona’s been a good under team in Chase Field. They don’t really hit lefties well. Manaea has been okay I guess, I don’t know, I didn’t have much on this one kind of a coin flippy game. I think you always probably go the thought process of, well, I mean, it’s the Padres at a coin flip game against the D backs. They are 45 and 30. Oh, quietly the Padres have been terrific this season, we haven’t really talked much about them, but they’ve still quietly been very good. I don’t have much in this game, not run that really wet my whistle.

TC Martin:

Yeah. Offensively again, Padres again, missing a couple bats in that lineup. I think once they get healthy and really the story for the Padres has been their pitching, and Manaea has been pretty good himself too. Matt, what do you think of the pitching match up here?

Matt Josephs:

I don’t love playing rematches, and obviously guys just faced off. The one thing I did notice, is that gall has been pretty good even on the second time. This year he’s faced the same team back to back, this will be the third time, I guess, the Cubs and the Mets, he faced them two times in a row and pitched just as good the second time after the first time, but, usually I don’t like playing anything with rematches because I mean, these are two good pitchers, these are two mediocre offenses, the only thing that’s changing is the scene, and there’s nothing really that distinguishes there. So it was an easy pass for me.

TC Martin:

Okay. All right. No action in this game here, but that is the game tonight, Manaea and Gallen, Padres and the Diamondbacks at a pick them. All right, let’s move on to some of the games that we do have some opinions on that’ll be involved in our best MLB bets here. And that is the Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants. Tonight, at I guess Oracle Park, that’s what we’re calling [inaudible] take some time to get used to that. Giants a $2 favorite in this one, the total in this one is seven minus 115, towards the under kind of a typical night game there in San Francisco, a lot of unders there. But the pitchy matchup today is Skubal against Rodón for the giants. Rodón has been solid his last three starts, as I like to coin the hard luck loser. The last time out, I was actually on Atlanta last week when he pitched this game and he pitched very, very well.

TC Martin:

Seven innings gave up one earned run, three hits, had 10 strikeouts in that game against the Braves, only one walk. And of course the Giants bullpen, they gave it up after he left. Then you go back to the game before Rodón had eight innings pitched against the Pirates, no runs, two hits, eight strikeouts there. And then his last home game against the Dodgers where he threw six shutout innings in that game, another eight strikeout game only gave up two hits in that game against the Dodgers. And when you look at Rodón, he’s very familiar with the Tigers coming, over from the White Sox and the AL central and last year he beat them twice, two fantastic performances in that game, we gave up one run in six innings, had 12 strikeouts in that game. The other game, he no hit him for seven innings, had nine strikeouts.

TC Martin:

And for me guys, Skubal, the shine has gone off of him. The last three, he hasn’t gone past the fifth inning. He got rocked for 15 runs and 21 hits in these outings. His strikeouts have gone down. To me, looking at this guy over those last three starts, he looks like a tired pitcher here, and we all already know about the Tiger’s offensive woes here. They’re either last, dead last, or near last in every offensive category. So for me, this is a pretty easy one Rodón, gets the win today. Giants win, especially against Skubal and the rest of that Tigers bullpen. So, Matt, some thoughts on the game.

Matt Josephs:

I mean we’ve gotten the good, I know in this show we’ve talked about in the past, the inconsistency of rode on, but since then, I mean the last three starts he’s been what they wanted him to be. He’s not walking guys. He’s going deep in games, allowing the bullpen to get rest. Giant’s offense scares me a little bit, but you’re right in terms of Tarik Skubal hasn’t been very good lately. And I could say, oh, well, it’s against all good opponents, but then there was that Ranger start there that got kind of mixed in there and the Pirates before they brought up O’Neil Cruz, so it’s not like I could just say, oh, it’s good opponents. So, yeah, I could see what you’re saying, I mean, we’ve talked about this, I’m not going to lay minus 200 with anybody, but I can certainly see the Giants winning tonight.

TC Martin:

Jeff?

Jeff Nadu:

You guys got me?

TC Martin:

Yeah, go ahead.

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah, I’m not… Look, I get laying 200 here, but I don’t really get laying 200 with this bullpen. I think you’re going to… If you’re going to lose, be it in the bullpens. I mean, Detroit’s got particular advantage there. Look, also, I mean… Look, San Francisco’s just average, aren’t they? I mean, they’re not a team I’m particularly run to lay this kind of price with, but again, I think if you’re just looking to who’s the better team, I don’t think it’s a question. I mean, they’re definitely the better team. I don’t really love their offense. I don’t really love them as a team. I don’t think they’re very good quite honestly, and I don’t think their bullpens very good. So, I’ll reach in on this one. I’m not playing it though.

TC Martin:

Yeah, for me it’s more of a play again against Skubal and the Tigers. I mean, again, you have to… The Tigers are almost a go against just about every time and especially the way Rodón is pitching, again, I know no one’s crazy about laying $2, but, again, just asking the giants to win the game. I don’t think it’s much of a problem, so, hey, we’ll see how this thing goes, but it is the Detroit Tigers. I think that is the varying factor here. So you can put me down for the Giants in this one at home tonight against the Tigers. All right, Baltimore and Seattle wraps up the night tonight, Dean Kremer going for the O’s. Sometimes the surprising O’s as we know, the Oriole’s kind of like the reds they’ll bust out and they’ll… They got bats going. And then tonight, Robbie Ray is going for Seattle. Seattle’s a heavy favorite, 165 in this game, total seven and a half in this one, 110 either side here. Let’s go to Matt, break this game down here, Kremer and Ray.

Matt Josephs:

Well, we know Robbie Ray’s good at home, and he certainly didn’t pitch well in Baltimore, and we’ve kind of discussed it like Robbie Ray’s a guy you want to back at home and you don’t want to back him on the road. And a lot of most of his starts at home he’s given up one or two earn runs, except for that raise one back on May 5th. And Dean Kremer is not bad right now. He hasn’t given up a run in his last two starts, it was in Chicago against the White Sox, and I don’t love that lineup. He pitched well in Kansas City against the Royals, only gave up two runs and the Seattle offense is terrible. Yesterday, one of the games I played was I took the under two and a half runs allowed by Tyler Wells. He went under that, he only gave up one, he was fantastic. And that one run was a Homer to Cal Raleigh, which didn’t make sense, because Cal Raleigh’s not very good but, this is a bad offense in Seattle and Baltimore struggles against lefties, so I’m going to take a shot in the first five under here. I’m going to take under four in the first five. Hope that Kremer success continue, Seattle struggles continue, and Robby Ray pitches like Robbie Ray does at home.

TC Martin:

All right, Jeff?

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah I don’t have much interest in this game, but I do think that’s a pretty good play, getting a full four, I don’t love Ray, but I don’t love Baltimore’s offense. Kremer’s been pretty good. The good thing though is for the full game under I mean getting the seven here, obviously that’s not ideal, but these are one really good bullpen. You have one okay bullpen, so, yeah I didn’t have much here, but I lean kind of where Matt’s going, I think that’s pretty solid. I’m no… I have no interest though on this side in the game at all.

TC Martin:

All right guys. So we’ll lock Matt in for this play, it’s a first five inning play here with the under the total in this game four minus 115. Baltimore and Seattle Matt’s banking on the bats being quiet in a pretty good pitching performance, especially from Robbie Ray in this one. And we’ve seen Ray be very uneven, but you’re right Matt, I mean, he is better at home. And then again, I guess you have to factor in the playing the Orioles as well here too. So hopefully he can get the job done, and we’ll go under four here in this one here. All right, question time. Love to get the questions here on our MLB show, if you got any questions regarding the games that we talked about, go a little bit further into those, or something that we did not cover, it is a complete full card today.

TC Martin:

Everybody here in action, like we mentioned, we have the double header and the Cleveland and Minnesota game. That first game will be going once we get off the air and then it’ll be the old day night double header. They’ll play a little bit later on here tonight. So, speaking of which, Guardians and Twins, they’re asking who we got guys specifically in this first game, I don’t think none of us have anybody in this game, but we will break it down for you. The pitching match up here for this morning’s game or early afternoon as Dean Smeltzer going against Zach Plesac. Jeff, any thoughts about the first game between the Twins and the Guardians if the Twins can keep it rolling or not?

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah. I lean Guardians in the first game, Plesac’s action been very good in the month of June. The problem that you have with the Guardians is they’re just not very good against lefthanded pitching, so there’s a knock there. I think the matchup makes sense for Plesac, and that’s generally… When you bet baseball, that’s what you want to look at, does the pitching matchup make sense? This one definitely does. Plesac just faced the Twins back in the 23rd, went six innings only gave up one run and had six strikeouts. I don’t know though, I mean, double headers are tough to gauge. I’ve always kind of avoided them when I bet on baseball, you just never really know what you’re going to get, but I do think plesac has a pretty good matchup here.

TC Martin:

Yeah, you’re right Jeff, you got to always look at the lineup. So, Buxton is not in the lineup and game number one, and again, he bounced back. He did come back after the injury and went three for three on Sunday, but not in the lineup today. You do have Correa and Kepler in there, but then, yeah, Garlick’s in today, you got to be very, very careful. When you’re betting double headers here about who’s going to rest and who’s not. Matt, any thoughts on the morning game?

Matt Josephs:

This was the easiest pass A, as I’ve said, I don’t play rematches and these two just faced each other last time out, and I don’t know what kind of adjustments they can make. They both pitch, well, I don’t know if they’re going to do it again, and as you also said, I don’t like double headers. Much like Jeff, I don’t play double headers. I certainly won’t make a game to play before game one happens, but there’s just so much uncertainty, and then the early start time, it’s going to be like six people in the stand. So it’s not going to be a great atmosphere. So yeah, it was a pretty easy pass on this one.

TC Martin:

All right. Okay. Let’s look at the Angels and the White Sox. Scott has a question on that. Thinking about a total in this game, Matt thoughts on Angels, White Sox over under?

Matt Josephs:

I mean, I’m not a big Johnny Cueto guy, but it’s funny because Johnny Cueto can either come in and he can give up no runs and look master fill, or do you remember why Johnny Cueto wasn’t in baseball for a couple years? And the Angels lineup is pretty solid for the, what, top four, five in the lineup. But the problem is Silseth hasn’t been very good either. He keeps going back and forth, AAA majors. So, in theory, the over would potentially come into play, but if Cueto shows up those few times, he actually does, then you’re going to need a bad White Sox lineup to carry the total, and I don’t think they can do that. So I don’t like either of these two pitchers, therefore I didn’t like the game.

TC Martin:

Right, Jeff?

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah. I mean, it’s rare when Cueto pitches that he’s not the best pitcher, he usually never is. But in this case he may be, I mean, Silseth sucks. He’s not been good in any game. You look at his last outing, gets the Phillies one or two thirds, give him a four and runs which wasn’t effective. It’s kind of one of those games where you’d have to expect, six, five, but yeah, no interest other than the over, no interest.

TC Martin:

Right, right. Slight shade there toward the other over because of the pitching matchup here today, you figure Silseth isn’t going to go many innings as well too. And it’d be rare if he went, past the fifth. [Rahrah] wants to know about the Phillies in the Braves here today guys. I looked at this game and I really wanted to make a case for playing the Braves. Charlie Morton, I usually don’t bet Charlie Morton, but he has been darn good the last three starts, and Charlie Morton’s strikeouts are up here. And then you look at Zach Wheeler today. Yeah, I mean, Wheeler, he’s, he’s been pretty solid, but the Bryce Harper injury, now that it’s official, he’s having surgery going to be out six weeks. If I was going to play this game, I wanted to play the Braves. I know both of you guys, really monitor the Phillies pretty closely some thoughts on that, start with you Jeff.

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah. I don’t know. I’m not interested in Morton, but you did say he’s pitched well and he has, he’s been effective. You have two guys that have been seen a lot by both these teams. You have to wonder though, where are the Phillies going to go now? I mean, you take the best player out of the lineup. You take the heart and soul out of the lineup, and just the way he was injured, it’s just a rough one to kind of swallow, hit by a pitch, just kind of brutal. Maybe over. I mean, it’s pretty humid and warm around this area. You know Martin’s going to give runs up, and I don’t really trust either bullpen for the most part, but a game that I didn’t really see much value in, maybe Wheeler, but you’re always going to have to lay a price when you bet Wheeler.

TC Martin:

Matt?

Matt Josephs:

The famous Phillies fan in me says this is a Braves game to win. I mean, coming off the long road trip, you usually want to be careful about a team that especially on the west coast now, granted look, they had the day off. So that is a help in terms of that, but that first day after the long road trip, Wheeler coming off a really rough outing against the Rangers, but Morton, as you said, has been really good as of late. I don’t trust the Phillies lineup completely, I actually was thinking like a first five under just to kind of isolate these pitchers. But if Morton gets back to what he used to be, he’s going to give up some runs. I think Wheeler pitch is better than his last start, so I would maybe look at like a first five under, but I didn’t really love anything either. It’ll be… I’ll tell you this, I think this’ll be a good live betting game. You’ll figure it out. I think either team becomes live if either team gets a lead. These are two really good offenses. The Phillies have a really questionable bullpen, so I think there’ll be some live betting opportunities for this one.

TC Martin:

Okay. Kenny [Woowoo] wants some thoughts on the Rockies and the Dodgers. I looked at this and I wanted to get back on the Dodgers, but it’s Clayton Kershaw again, when you get a guy who relies so much on a breaking ball, you’re playing in that altitude, I’m always leery about that. Yes, do I think that the Dodgers are going to bounce back, with this victory? Yes, but Freeland’s not bad. I mean, Freeland is their best pitcher, so I couldn’t make a play, on this game here. What about you guys start with you, Matt, Rocks and Dodgers?

Matt Josephs:

It’s not up on BetUS yet, but when it does, I like Kyle Freeland over three and a half strikeouts here. He’s gone over this number in six or seven of his nine home starts against the Dodgers in his career. It’s a really low number. The Dodgers, as I talked about yesterday, they’re striking out a ton. They went over against Chad Kuhl, the number was only three and a half, then it’s three and a half again tonight. The one worry is Freeland at times can get in these funks where he doesn’t strike out people at home, but three and a half against the Dodgers who are now 17 and four to the K prop over as of late, that’s the only thing I liked. And I would’ve made an official play, but it’s not up on BetUS yet.

TC Martin:

Jeff?

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah I like the over in this game. I mean, it’s 11, obviously Kershaw’s pitching but, I got to be honest, I mean, you look at Colorado, I mean, I liked them last night. They’re an auto bet for the most part, the score runs against lefties in Coors Field. You look at against lefthanded pitching this year, they’re hitting 296. You look at their numbers at home compared on the road, I mean away they’re hitting 238, at home they’re hitting 281. Their OPS is 802 compared to 635 on the road. This offense is nasty at home, and they’re even nastier against lefties. You also look at Freeland, I don’t know saying he is good as a stretch. I mean, at home he’s been a disaster. I mean, 45 innings opponents are in 304 against Kyle Freeland, has a whip of 1.5. He’s not really giving up a ton of home runs, but he’s given up a lot of contact, a lot of base runners, in the end, this is a great Dodger offense. You have to figure they’re going to probably put up five or six seven in this game. Colorado, I think is good for four or five. I think this number goes over the total. I think Kershaw for the first time this year maybe gets hit a little bit.

TC Martin:

All right. We’ll take a look at that tonight. Low scoring game last night, only four runs scored all by the Rockies. Zach wants to know Brewers or Rays today. Brandon Woodruff going for the Brewers Baz back on the mound for the Rays, Matt?

Matt Josephs:

So one of the things I like to do with fade pitchers coming off the IL, Brandon Woodruff coming off the IL, he had the injury and then he had this thing with like blood flow and something and it was a pretty serious thing that conditioned that he kind of got over. And I love Shane Baz. The weird thing about Shane Baz is it feels like they’re keeping him to 75 pitches no matter what, he pitched pretty well against the Yankees last time out and only lasted four and a third. So the only thing I would do if I was playing anything here is I’d take the Rays in the first five, mostly just because I don’t know what Woodruff’s going to give, and I think Baz will go five at the most, but I don’t trust the Ray’s offense, I don’t trust the Brewer’s offense. So my only play if I was to play anything was Tampa Bay’s first five money line because I love Shane Baz, and I don’t know if Woodruff’s going to be good out of the gate.

TC Martin:

Jeff?

Jeff Nadu:

Yeah. I mean, this is one of those toss ups, average guys, who do you like more, kind of a coin flippy game as I said. Off an IL stand, I lean Tampa myself, but it is a tough game, no interest.

TC Martin:

Okay. Appreciate the questions from everybody out there. Let’s wrap things up here and go to our best bets, and like I said, we handicapped five games here today, and when you look at the best bets, Jeff and I are on the Houston Astros today at city field lane 116 today. Jeff also has taken the St. Louis Cardinals team total over four and a half. Matt joined him on that one as well too, rooting for runs there with the Cardinals, see if they can keep those bats alive like they did last nine after scoring nine runs. Matt is also going to take the Baltimore Seattle game first five under four runs in this game. And then I will be on the giants tonight with Rodón against Skubal and the Tigers, so those are our best bets. All right. Appreciate everyone for joining us here. Remember to like, and subscribe to the show and all the great shows that are on BetUS TV, and also follow us individually on Twitter, as well as BetUS TV as well on Twitter, and again, each and every day, Monday through Friday, that is at 12 noon Eastern. We break down the Major League Baseball card for you and hopefully give you some winners. All right. Parting words today from you Philly boys, Jeff?

Jeff Nadu:

Well, we’ve got seven more Saturdays without college football, only seven, okay. It seemed like forever ago. We aren’t far away. I got to tell you. I mean, it is the end of June. July is a rough month. I mean, outside of baseball, there’s not a lot going on. So let’s just get us through July and football will be here. We got baseball winding down as we get into September and August, looking forward to it.

TC Martin:

All right, Matt.

Matt Josephs:

Yeah. What Jeff said, Jeff’s the more eloquent one than I am. Usually in these parting words, I usually just say goodbye and hope everybody has good luck tonight.

TC Martin:

And there’s nothing wrong with that man. Nothing wrong with that. All right, guys, look forward to doing this again tomorrow. Join us at 12 noon Eastern time here on BetUS TV, TC Martin for Jeff Nadu and Matt Josephs. We’ll see you tomorrow at noon right here, The MLB Show on BetUS TV.