Chip Hale has done a solid job in his first year as a major league manager. But the Diamondbacks skipper wasn’t at his best on Thursday and I thought a couple of poor decisions really hurt his team en route to the 6-4 loss at Colorado. Bounce back time with the Friday free play.
DODGERS (Anderson) @ MARLINS (Nicolino)
Take: MARLINS +120
The Miami Marlins have become regular members of the flop fraternity in recent years. This season is no different as the team was expected by many to be improved this year and that sure hasn’t happened, Mike Redmond was pink slipped as the manager, the GM moved to the dugout from the front office, and the team is lousy once again.
But none of this is the fault of one Giancarlo Stanton. What this guy is doing to baseballs thrown his way when he’s at the plate is just plain insane. Stanton hits the longest homers in the game, and some his stats are starting to get just plain silly.
Stanton now owns a .498 wOBA against lefties, and he’s facing one of those tonight. His home wOBA against southpaws is an outrageous .579. For the month of June against all pitchers, the Stanton wOBA is .529. In other words, and particularly if it’s a lefty, the best idea is to simply throw Stanton four balls if the situation allows for it and try to get the rest of the Marlins out.
Brett Anderson will toe the rubber for the Dodgers tonight. He hasn’t been bad at all for the most part, but Anderson has been considerably more effective at home than on the road, and his overall numbers have declined some in the current month. Don’t get me wrong, Anderson is still pitching reasonably well and his ground ball rate is enviable. He’s just not as sharp now as he was earlier.
The Marlins should have a chance to get some good licks in tonight. There’s the presence of Stanton against a lefty, and as a team Miami has put up some really good offensive stats at home against southpaws. I don’t expect them to blow up Anderson, but if they can make him exhaust the pitch count and get into that Dodgers pen reasonably early, then it’s mission accomplished.
Justin Nicolino gets his second big league start tonight. He’s going to have to fit that crafty southpaw label if he wants to succeed in The Show. Nicolino won’t get many K’s and I really don’t see him as more than a back on the rotation starting pitcher. But as is so often the case, Nicolino will have an advantage of sorts tonight, as the Dodgers have never seen him. I lost count long ago of the number of middling lefties who enjoy quite a bit of early success until the hitters get a book on them, and I’m hoping Nicolino fits into that category again tonight. The formula certainly worked in his debut and with the Dodgers anemic offense against southpaws, albeit better on the road than at home, Nicolino has a decent shot at success here.
My number on this game is Dodgers -105. So it’s basically pick ’em for me, and if I’m able to get the right price, the Marlins are clearly a good enough value to be worthy of a play tonight.
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TWO 2* MLB BEST BETS loaded.