Happy Opening Day Everyone!
It’s that time of the year where we get baseball every day. We will be back in full force and this article will touch on some team expectations and predictions while breaking down today’s slate!
Milwaukee vs. Yankees:
Milwaukee is a team that goes under the radar every year in a division that is pretty weak. They are a spot play each week and a team I don’t usually invest too much time or effort into preseason. The N.L. Central should continue to be weak this year. The Yankees on the other hand will be without Gerrit Cole all year after hving to undergo Tommy John surgery. Cole is a good pitcher but I fucking hate him. He’s a whiny bitch but the Yankees will unfortunately miss him. I don’t believe the Yankees will finish the year as the division winners, but if they do it should revive one of the best rivalries in baseball. I really like the Paul Goldschmidt signing for the Yankees and think we see a big production year from him. Judge needs some protection with Soto gone and I think Goldschmidt will thrive from it. The rest of the lineup is a bit weak. What I do like about this Yankees team is I believe for them to thrive they will need to transition more to small ball baseball again with Judge and Goldschmidt bringing the power.
For this game specifically we may lay the juice for a total over 7. The wind is blowing out 10-15 MPH with decent 50 degree temperatures for the teams to play in and a 3-3 game to push on seems a bit too low. Both lineups have star power so that’s where we will be going first.
Baltimore vs Toronto:
I am a full sell on both of these teams this year except for interdivisional games. These two should finish in two of the bottom three spots in the division. All those fake Orioles fans will be looking for a new bandwagon to jump on this year and it’ll be the Red Sox. We will be ahead of the game. The Orioles have no pitching. Absolutely no pitching and they will need to rely on high scoring games from a young, underdeveloped lineup that no longer has Anthony Santander, who ironically will be in the opposite lineup tonight. We will have our first huge unit play here and it’s a ballsy flex to go this big on Opening Day but opening week is usually the most profitable here until the second half. I’m going to play two sides of this hopefully as a mini hedge, because I believe the Jays have the bigger edge with Berrios on the mound.
Boston vs. Texas:
I’m not ready to make a ruling on Texas this year yet. They won the World Series two seasons ago and we smashed that future. We rode them through the playoffs against everyone else and we looked like Gods. Last year was a bad year. Injuries played a part of it and the lineup struggled. Wyatt Langford was a disappointment but we’re not ready to sell on a rookie yet so he should have a better year. Adolis Garcia had a down year as well. I like the addition of Jake Burger to this lineup. Burger established himself in Chicago and Miami putting up an over 30 homers on average in his past two seasons. He will be in a much better lineup this year with more protection and should be a huge boost to the bottom half of their lineup. Boston’s addition of Alex Bregman is huge. The Red Sox were on the up last year and if you read the preseason breakdowns I predicted they would be a playoff team this year. Ceddanne Rafaela had a great rookie year for a bottom of the lineup player, with 75 RBIs and 70 runs. Trevor Story should be hurt soon and be out of the lineup, but Bregman and Devers back to back in the lineup is going to be very dangerous. The Red Sox should be among the leads in the league in runs scored per game and they also added Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler to their rotation. Boston should have a legitimate chance to win the division this year and a +2500 World Series future could pay dividends if and once they get to the playoffs.
Official Plays:
- 3:05 pm Milwaukee/Yankees over 7 -170: 2u
- 3:07 pm Baltimore/Toronto over 7.5 -160: 10u
- 3:07 pm Toronto ML -115: 3u
- 4:05 pm Boston Red Sox over 3.5 -140: 5u
