{"id":4297,"date":"2009-04-23T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/04\/baseball-betting-thursday-mlb-picks\/"},"modified":"2009-04-23T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T15:41:00","slug":"baseball-betting-thursday-mlb-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/04\/baseball-betting-thursday-mlb-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball Betting &#8211; Thursday MLB Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=Section1>\n<p class=MsoBodyText><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Like horses powering through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/sports-betting\/kentucky-derby-odds-884.aspx\" title=\"Kentucky Derby odds\">Kentucky Derby odds<\/a>, MLB betting rages onwards with few teams backing down early in the season. The NL Central is suddenly looking like one of the top divisions in baseball betting, and some of its combatants are showcased at the sportsbook today.<\/p>\n<p> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Reds <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> Cubs odds: Aaron <span class=SpellE>Harang<\/span> (1-2, 2.70) <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> Carlos Zambrano (1-0, 5.21), today at <\/span><\/b><\/span><\/font><st1:time Hour=\"14\" Minute=\"20\"><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>2:20 p.m. ET<\/span><\/b><\/st1:time><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><br \/> <\/span><\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/sportsbook\/mlb-lines.aspx\" title=\"MLB lines\">MLB lines<\/a>: Reds +145, Cubs -165<\/p>\n<p> The Reds <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> Cubs line presents a nice sportsbook value opportunity today. On paper, the matchup seems to favor the Cubs, as <span class=SpellE>Harang<\/span> has been lit up at Wrigley Field many a time while Carlos Zambrano typically dominates the Reds. Looking closer, though, online betting fans should realize that this isn&#8217;t a typical matchup between these hulking aces. After a nightmarish 2008, <span class=SpellE>Harang<\/span> looks reborn in 2009 thanks to losing a bunch of weight in the offseason. He&#8217;s walked just four batters in 20 innings and has a complete-game shutout on his resume already. Zambrano, meanwhile, has walked nine guys in 19 innings and, while that&#8217;s not a surprise given his poor control, his usually <span class=SpellE>unhittable<\/span> stuff is getting knocked around. Big Z hasn&#8217;t found his groove yet, so baseball betting players should take advantage and make the Reds their sportsbook pick today.<\/p>\n<p> Online betting pick: Reds +145<\/p>\n<p> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Dodgers <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> Astros odds: <\/span><\/b><st1:country-region><st1:place><b><span style='font-weight:   bold'>Chad<\/span><\/b><\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region><b><span style='font-weight:bold'> Billingsley (3-0, 2.84) <span class=SpellE>vs<\/span> <span class=SpellE>Wandy<\/span> Rodriguez (1-1, 1.89), today at <\/span><\/b><st1:time Hour=\"20\" Minute=\"5\"><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>8:05 p.m. ET<\/span><\/b><\/st1:time><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><br \/> <\/span><\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/sportsbook\/mlb-lines.aspx\" title=\"MLB lines\">MLB lines<\/a>: Dodgers -131, Astros +111<\/p>\n<p> <st1:country-region><st1:place>Chad<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> and <span class=SpellE>Wandy<\/span> should miss a boatload of bats in this MLB betting matchup. It looks frightening at first for the Astros, as the Dodgers&#8217; offense has been rolling. While it wouldn&#8217;t be surprising to see Manny Ramirez launch another ball over the train set in left field, don&#8217;t expect much else for the Dodgers odds tonight. Rodriguez is sensational at Minute Maid; he had a sub-3.00 ERA and struck out over a batter per inning there last year and looks just as dominant at home so far this season.<\/p>\n<p> Chad Billingsley is a true <a href=\"http:\/\/www.betonline.com\/sports-betting\/baseball\" title=\"MLB betting\">MLB betting<\/a> ace and has pitched very well at Minute Maid in his career, but his control has been a bit spotty to start the year. He&#8217;s not in midseason form yet, whereas Rodriguez seems to be, so the Astros, who have won the first two games of this series, are a solid upset sportsbook pick.<\/p>\n<p> Online betting pick: Astros +111<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.offshoreinsiders.com\/\"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>OffshoreInsiders.com<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like horses powering through the Kentucky Derby odds, MLB betting rages onwards with few teams backing down early in the season. The NL Central is suddenly looking like one of the top divisions in baseball betting, and some of its combatants are showcased at the sportsbook today. Reds vs Cubs odds: Aaron Harang (1-2, 2.70) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/04\/baseball-betting-thursday-mlb-picks\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Baseball Betting &#8211; Thursday MLB Picks<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}