MLB Daily Plays: September 17, 2012
By: db730
The weekend football sweats are pretty much Clover and it’s back the baseball grind for Monday. The schedule is unusually light today with one early matchup and a half dozen during the night cap. It’s a pretty good mix up studs and scrubs in the pitching department, so here is the rundown of who we like on Monday.
Pitchers
Madison Bumgarner – I will be very curious to see Bumgarners salary today because based on his last four starts it probably shouldn’t be as high as you may think. He has given up 4 earned runs or more in each of his last four starts and has not gotten past the 6th inning in any of those games. On the other hand Colorado has mailed it in losing 9 out of their past 11 games. The Rockies do have some decent splits against him, but with an ERA almost two runs lower at home I think he is a must start tonight.
Cliff Lee – This should be an interesting matchup because the Phillies have battled themselves back into the Wild Card race, but really don’t have too much room for error the rest of the way. On the other hand RA Dickey is well on his way to wrapping up the NL Cy Young award (boy don’t I wish I made that futures bet 6 months ago) and has been of the best pitchers in the National League. Lee comes into this start red hot though going 3-0 over his past 4 starts with and ERA under 1.00. He has also gone into the 7th inning for 11 straight starts, so I think he is probably the safer bet of the two.
Hitters
Jason Heyward – He has really redeemed himself as one of the elite young hitters after a down year in 2011. He walks into this matchup with Wade LeBlac with history on his side (4 for 7 w/ HR & Double) and recent hot bat with a couple of home runs over the past couple games.
Pablo Sandoval – This is a clearly a batter vs. pitcher play as Sandoval is 7 for 16 with 2 home runs off Chacin. He has not been seeing the ball all that well recently, but that means that this salary might be manageable.
Starlin Castro – I think he looks like the best bet at shorstop on Monday as he continues to be focused even though he already got a huge new contract and the Cubs are not really playing for anything. Castro has 5 hits over the past three games and his .412 batting average against Correia makes him look like and easy pick.
Anthony Rizzo – Here is another Cub that is staying focused even though the end of the season is on the horizon. Rizzo is coming of back to back multi hit games and has 9 RBI in the last 3. He also has a pretty solid track record against Correia with 2 hits in 2 at bats and one of those left the yard.
Jose Reyes – Here is another option at shortstop that really has picked up his production the last couple games. Reyes has 8 hits over the past three games and faces Tim Hudson on Monday. He has faced him a good bit and been decent enough to pay the price today.
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