00:00All right, welcome back to Newswire here on SportsCrid.
00:02We have one afternoon baseball game today, 4-10 Eastern, Houston and Seattle.
00:07I guess they're playing a wraparound series, but Seattle has won the first three games of that series.
00:11They'll finish off today at 4-10 Eastern, rest of the games under the lights.
00:14Let's bring in Jared Hockman for the games under the lights tonight to get a preview, courtesy of Covers.
00:19He joins us now here, and certainly the Yankees, Jared, as we start off with them,
00:24they're thrilled to get the Los Angeles Angels in town, but how thrilled should they be?
00:28They're not scoring runs. It just got swept by the Rays, and somehow this total is 9.5 tonight
00:35in a game where the Yankees can't score, and the Angels are actually pitching well.
00:38It's Kikuchi and Warren. Those are the two starters tonight, and I suppose, look,
00:42this is the Yankees' back-end starter, so I certainly get that.
00:45But man, for a team that's struggling to score outside a judge coming through in the end,
00:50what is to look forward tonight to the Yankees?
00:53Not much, Craig. As the Yankees say, too, that minus 196 also seems a little bit high.
00:57Because, like you said, they cannot hit, and anyone is a threat to go right now.
01:01I wouldn't be very confident for the team in pin trips.
01:03That's why, actually, my favorite play is for Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi to go over his strikeout total of 5
01:09.5.
01:09He can get it at plus money at some outlets, which to me seems a little bit crazy.
01:13He's kind of increased his total each game, and, you know, he's got 8 in his last one against the
01:18Braves.
01:18But it's, for me, Craig, it's about the Yankees.
01:21You know, they've lost 5-6, and the opposing starting pitcher has gotten 6-plus strikeouts five times in that
01:25span.
01:27Judge is hitting a little bit, a little bit from Bellinger, maybe.
01:30But, you know, the bottom of the order is contributing next to nothing.
01:32The top half is only slightly better.
01:34And the reality is the Yankees, they're going to have the fifth-high strikeout rate against left-handed pitchers tonight.
01:39You know, they might be excited to face the Angels, but I don't think Kikuchi is going to make it
01:43that fun for them,
01:44at least to kick off the series.
01:45Yeah, it hasn't looked good offensively.
01:48It feels like the Yankees season is the same every year.
01:50It's just this offensive slump at some point.
01:52They wake up, they make the playoffs.
01:53So let's go to Red Sox twins here because the Red Sox, man, they needed a win yesterday.
01:59They got one against the Cardinals, and the twins have been surprisingly good to start this season.
02:03But the odds are telling us that Boston could potentially win tonight.
02:07They're minus 168, total of 7.5.
02:11Twins have been one of the nice surprises in baseball.
02:15No one pegged them for even sniffing 500, but they've done much better than that.
02:19Does Boston continue to get on the right track here, Jared,
02:23or do you think that it's just a little fool's gold from what we saw yesterday?
02:27I like Boston tonight.
02:28You've got a great pitching matchup for them, an advantage with Garrett Crochet against Bailey over.
02:32So I do like kind of the Red Sox there.
02:34I'm, again, targeting more of a player prop here.
02:37I'm looking at Boston's Wilson Contreras.
02:40Two-plus hits, plus runs, plus RBIs.
02:42Right around minus 105, even money.
02:44He's red hot.
02:45He's cashed this prop in eight of his last 10 games.
02:47He's hitting 389 with 11 RBIs and seven runs in that span.
02:51So he's doing it all across the board.
02:52And the thing is, you know, you might be worried because Bailey over the facing is a righty.
02:56Same side thing.
02:57Not an issue.
02:58Contreras hitting 379 off righties in that span.
03:00And you look at over, this is the big difference.
03:02He's off to a rough start.
03:03He's got a 5-270 ERA.
03:04But he also has reverse platoon splits, right?
03:07He's hitting 310 off him.
03:08So it's not like he's getting the same-sided guys out.
03:10One of my colleagues, Josh Ingles, actually loves the over here.
03:13So he thinks Boston does the heavy lifting.
03:14So kind of keeping with that same idea, I think, again, see Contreras play a big part tonight.
03:19And the Red Sox putting another win on the board.
03:22Speaking of rare, I don't think I've seen the Dodgers less than minus 200 in any game this season.
03:26Maybe this is the very first one.
03:28And they're taking on a Mets team that just can't score as well.
03:31I mean, this is really going around the league.
03:33No one can score.
03:34It's just the early part of the season.
03:35The Mets got swept by the A's tonight.
03:37They got to take on the Dodgers, where David Peterson will start for New York.
03:43Justin Robleski will start for L.A.
03:45Total of 8.5.
03:47Of course, as long as Otani and this lineup is still going for L.A., I don't see how they
03:51don't score runs.
03:52But this, I guess, leaves the door open slightly for a team to win.
03:56And how can you back the Mets, though, after losing to the A's like that three games in a row?
04:00I would say, Craig, you can't back the Mets.
04:02I'm not going to back the Mets.
04:03You said no one can score.
04:05Well, it's no one except for the Dodgers.
04:06The Dodgers can score because they are who we thought they were.
04:08They're averaging just over six runs a game.
04:10They're hitting 290 as a team.
04:12And that is crazy because the second-best average in the league is 15 points behind them.
04:16Like I said, that lineup is slugging.
04:17They're crushing everything.
04:18I would be backing the Dodgers on the run line here, actually.
04:21But my favorite play is the Dodgers' team total over 4.5 at minus 125.
04:25I think this is a little low considering they're facing David Peterson.
04:28And Peterson had a decent start in his opening day.
04:31Struggled the last two.
04:32He's given up 11 runs on 15 hits, just nine in the third inning.
04:35You talk about the L.A. lineup, you know, from Otani and, you know, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith is
04:41back.
04:41And they've got Kyle Tucker and all these things.
04:43They just keep slugging everyone.
04:45I don't see the Mets putting up any runs to keep up with them either.
04:47So if you want to take the run line, the money line too.
04:50Another one I kind of like, if you want to juice this up a little bit more, get the Dodgers
04:53and be the first team to score five runs.
04:56Same idea as the team total, because they'll score five before the Mets.
04:58So you can get that around plus 15, 115.
05:01So you get, you know, kind of 30, 40 cents of extra value here.
05:03But I'd be all over the Dodgers here tonight, because also this number seems a little low.
05:07And I'm not sure why the Mets are getting this much respect.
05:10Wind's blowing out to right field in L.A. too.
05:12So the offense should be definitely in play.
05:14Yeah, Freeman and Tucker left-handed also as well.
05:17Also, as Jared mentioned, he likes Wilson.
05:19Contreras has been really hot for Boston.
05:21Over one and a half hits and runs and RBIs.
05:23That's minus 105.
05:25Contreras has done a fantastic job for Boston thus far.
05:30All right.
05:30So, Jared, before you go, let's talk a little baseball here for you.
05:34And again, you're following the odds and the lines very closely.
05:37What's been the biggest surprise for you so far?
05:40I mean, outside of, you know, what I mentioned is, I mean, I look at these pitching matchups every day.
05:44Jared, and I see this guy's ERA is 1.7, and he's taking on a guy whose ERA is 2
05:49.5.
05:49Like, the league has just not hit yet, as you said, outside of L.A.
05:53And well, also, I think one of the big things, people aren't hitting that many home runs.
05:57That's the kind of thing.
05:58I don't have the official stat, but I know home runs per game are very much down over the past
06:02few years.
06:03And as you've seen the way baseball has gone, everything is about launch angles, and everything is about hitting home
06:07runs.
06:07You don't have as many people looking to hit, you know, for contact and get on base,
06:11other than, you know, Chandler Simpson, who's having a great throwback to start the year.
06:14But when you have a bunch of batters that don't really try to get hits, they try to get home
06:18runs,
06:18and people aren't hitting home runs, well, then you're going to see a lot of the lower kind of score.
06:22So I think right now, as long as the power outage kind of exists a little bit around baseball,
06:27I continue to look at a lot of kind of team unders, or really kind of isolate chances to bet
06:32overs
06:32when you've got bad pitchers pitching.
06:34Like, pitchers that are struggling is kind of where I'm at with this.
06:37But, yeah, it's really surprising that you're not getting a lot of offense right now,
06:41and I think it's because we're not getting those big long flies that should come as the weather heats up
06:45a bit more.
06:46Yeah, I mean, Chase DeLauder started off with five home runs, and that's, like, kind of a number at this
06:50point.
06:50A lot of guys just aren't hitting home runs to start the season.
06:53Jared, in terms of disappointments, I mean, we can go in a number of different directions.
06:57I'll share mine, and then, you know, certainly I'd love yours.
07:01But for me, and again, I guess it's disappointment because I think it can continue.
07:05My disappointment would be Houston.
07:07I'm very concerned with the Astros already losing Hunter Brown and losing Amai,
07:12and then with an older sort of offensive lineup, Correa, Altuve.
07:15I think maybe the ship has finally sailed on the Astros after, what, 10 years of really being incredible.
07:22How about you? Biggest disappointment?
07:24Yeah, I mean, the Astros are a great one there.
07:26But for me, it's actually, you know, last time I was on here, I was really touting how much I
07:29love the potential for the Blue Jays to get a hot start.
07:32They really, really fell on their face and disappointed me.
07:35I mean, they lost, what, five of six to the Rockies and the White Sox.
07:38They are another team that cannot hit right now.
07:41They're struggling.
07:42Springer just got hurt.
07:43The pitching staff and the bullpen has been a little issue.
07:45Again, plenty of time.
07:47And we remember the Blue Jays last year.
07:48They were, what, in last place in May?
07:50I think something like that.
07:51And they kind of turned it around.
07:52So there is time.
07:53And thankfully, the AL East hasn't been great.
07:55But, I mean, I really expected them to come out of the gates hot with really, really good matchups and
08:00opportunities.
08:00And they just have not really done it on any facet of baseball right now.
08:04Yeah, definitely.
08:05So, I mean, the thing is, Jared, is that it's highly unusual to see this amount of sweeps going into
08:10a weekend.
08:10But the other part of it, too, is the amount of losing streaks that we've seen to start the season.
08:16I mentioned Houston.
08:17We mentioned New York.
08:18And, of course, the Blue Jays did not get off to a good start as well.
08:21But I would guess that those things sort of normalized because every team is going to lose four or five
08:25games in a row over the course of the season.
08:27Just magnified now.
08:29Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the nature of baseball, right?
08:31You know, players, teams.
08:33But it looks a lot worse, you know, when you start 0 for 13 or you start 2 for 15,
08:37right?
08:37You don't have any other numbers.
08:382 for 15, when you've had, you know, 150 at-bats already, the numbers don't kind of stand out as
08:43much right now.
08:44And, again, we're really paying attention to everything so closely.
08:47So there's a lot of overreaction potential.
08:50Blue Jays do concern me.
08:50The injuries are starting to pile up.
08:52I mean, the Yankees concern me because it's the same team as last year.
08:55So I don't know if we're going to magically see a lot come around.
08:58Mets, you know, they've lost one soda right now.
09:00But, like you said, the Astros, a lot of injuries.
09:03Not sure where they're going to get that back from.
09:04Jordan Average has been great, too.
09:06So not sure where that extra oomph comes from in these teams.
09:09Yeah, me and the Mets looks like they're bringing in Tommy Pham.
09:11That could be their answer.
09:12I see a report there today.
09:14All right.
09:15Thanks again, Jared.
09:16Really appreciate it.
09:17We'll catch up again soon.
09:18No problem.
Comments