Sexy Saturday! WE have two mediocre "worm killers" in Baltimore! Livan Hernandez floats 30% of his pitches right at the gopher's forehead, and Mister Bergeson of Balto NEVER gets into the upper strike zone, so we have two fellas that don't strike out many batters but, when they get their groundballs in the upper teens, these cats can hurt an OVER. What we need is an umpire that limits or eliminates the low... Read more

I've done the math. I've seen the reports and graphs. And it's very clear that the teams that hit too many grounders score the fewest runs. AND, as you know, line drives and fly balls are important factors in generating runs, and walks actually have a bigger impact on scoring runs than fly balls. High strikeout rates and many ground balls lead to victory (Ubaldo Jimenez, Roy Halladay, Timmy Lincecum). It seems like... Read more

THE CRAPPY PITCHER INDEX (CPI) The King Maker's Plays for Tonight: Play #1: The Boston Red Sox -1.5 (EVEN) at BetUS for 5-Stars Play #2: The Philadelphia Phillies -1/2 -135 at BetUS (strong) Play #3: The Minnesota Twins -125 at BetUS for 5-Stars My new "source" is adding this play: The Boston Red Sox -150 at BetUS (We already have the Boston RL so I'm just giving you and FYI, she's rarely... Read more

My original use of the term "King Maker" comes from a baseball handicapping system that I developed a few years ago. The King Maker System was an extremely popular subject at Pregame and it exploded with the help of my partner (The Game/JD). With his help, we gathered as many as 2,200-3,000 page views during a period when Pregame had a much smaller membership base. In the end, I can thank the King Maker System for my... Read more

Charity is good, as long as you get to the stripe! Charity Hodges This is a real quick article in honor of a pal. He always gets nervous when we take an OVER if a lousy free-throw shooting team is in the mix. In many cases, it's a series of lousy foul shots that kill an OVER or, at least, that's what people think killed the total. In reality, all totals are decided by the confluence of hundreds of variables... Read more

You can CRUSH a 3-4 with two Tight Ends This is a quick Blog to my Pregame buddies. I want you to take this Blog and apply it to every game that resembles this formula. The hard work is in the secondary and tertiary capping, but the opening screening method goes as follows: Formula :Two Tight End Sets Occupy 3-4 Defenses to the point of neutrality. I told you guys to take the Chicago Bears Team Total OVER... Read more

I can't tell you if the Utah game will surpass the posted total. (not yet) I can't tell you, with any sort of certainty, that Utah can cover 21 points tonight. (not yet) And I'm not an expert on allignment strategy when facing a spread offense. But neither is Michigan, Alabama, Oklahoma, or BYU, right? I do know this: Traditional 4-man defensive fronts are completely susceptible to the spread option. I'll... Read more

Just A Little Heads Up. At the end of the 2007 season 25 out of the top 30 individual leaders in TOTAL TACKLES were linebackers . Five of the top 30 were defensive backs ( including #4 Will Dunbar of UAB ). UAB was #114 in Total Defense. The other 4 Defensive backs in the Top 30 in total tackles? *Jordan Lake of Baylor (# 110 in Total Team Defense) *C.J. Spillman of Marshall (# 107 in Total Team Defense... Read more

The defensive line is the lynchpin of every defense. A strong defensive line will force a weaker offense to utilize their tight ends for blocking assignments. A weak defensive line will allow the TE to run his seam routes. When the TE runs free, then the middle linebacker has to chase him, and this opens up the vulnerable heart of the standard 4-3 defensive allignments. A strong defensive line forces a fullback... Read more

Vulnerable Teams for Monday Toronto Tallet imploded against KC in his last outing, and the key here is that he has not gotten past the 6th inning against anyone this year. Word on the street is that teams are dialing in on him, and that doesn't bode well for a guy that tends to exhaust 93 pitches by the 5th. Fourteen of 26 Royal batters reached base, THAT'S A SIGN THAT YOU MUST NOT TAKE THE JAYS. But we can... Read more