Tampa Bay Rays vs. New York Yankees
Pick: Tampa Bay Rays +100 MLB odds
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Tampa Bay is playing some great baseball once again as it has won six straight games following a four-game sweep of the Tigers to start the week. The Rays continue to keep pace in the American League East as they trail the Yankees by only two games which makes this series a big one for both sides. The Rays are now 10-1 in their last 11 home games.

New York won three of four on Cleveland as the bats came alive over the final two games after scoring just two runs in the first two games of the set. That moved the Yankees 11 games over .500 on the road but this is the first true road test in nearly a month.

Philip Hughes is 12-3 on the season which is a façade in my opinion and has been most of the season. He started the season by barely making the rotation but began very strong by allowing two runs or fewer in his first six starts while also tossing seven quality outings in his first 10 starts. It has been a struggle since as he has a 6.26 ERA over his last seven starts.

The reason he is 12-3 is that he has the best run support in baseball as he is getting 7.3 rpg.

Wade Davis gets the call for the Rays and while it has been a tough season for him, he has been pitching much better of late. He has allowed three runs or fewer in seven of his last eight starts and has posted a 3.83 ERA over that span. Most importantly, the Rays have won his last four start.

Tampa Bay is 14-1 at home over the last three seasons when hosting a team with a winning percentage of .620 or better. 3* Tampa Bay Rays

Atlanta Braves vs. Cincinnati Reds
Prediction: Cincinnati Reds -133 MLB line
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The Cincinnati Reds host the Atlanta Braves for a three-game weekend set beginning on Friday July 30 with the first pitch at 7:10PM EST. The Reds are 40-28 in night games this season, 14-5 after 4 straight games where they committed no errors, 23-9 after allowing 4 runs or less in 3 straight games and 18-5 with a bullpen whose WHIP is under 1.000 the last 5 games this season. Atlanta is 11-22 in road games versus a bullpen whose WHIP is 1.350 to 1.450 this season. The Reds will send Johnny Cueto to the bump with a 5-1 record at home, ERA of 3.63 and a WHIP of 0.769. Cincinnati is 12-6 in Cueto’s last sixteen starts, 6-1 when he takes the hill at home and 11-1 following a quality start in his last outing. Overall, the Reds have had the edge when playing in the Queen City posting a record of 6-3 versus the Braves the last three seasons. Lay the chalk with the Reds as they get a game one victory on Friday night.

Chicago Cubs vs. Colorado Rockies
MLB Prediction: Colorado Rockies -116 odds
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I really like the Rockies in this game as they look to get on a winning streak after ending their dreadful losing streak last night with a victory over Pittsburgh. The Rockies are a very streaky team, and I look for them to turn it on from here on out now that they are finally getting healthy. Starter Jeff Francis is 1-0 with a 2.65 ERA over his last 3 starts. Chicago’s Ryan Dempster sports a 4.34 ERA and 1.821 WHIP in his last 3 outings.

Dempster owns a woeful 7.42 ERA and 1.648 WHIP in 9 lifetime starts against Colorado. The Cubs are 9-20 in Dempster’s last 29 road starts. The Rockies are 74-36 in their last 110 home games. The Rockies are 24-11 in Francis’ last 35 starts vs. a team with a losing record. COlorado is 57-26 in their last 83 home games vs. a team with a losing road record. Bet the Rockies Friday.

New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays
MLB Pick: Tampa Bay Rays +100 odds
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A big series between the top two teams in the A.L. East starts on Friday night in Tampa Bay as the Rays host the Yankees. New York is sending the struggling Phil Hughes to the mound. He’s 2-1 with a 5.19 ERA in his last three starts. The righty is sporting a 6.26 ERA over his last seven starts and he is struggling due to the increased innings he’s pitched. Hughes has given up at least six hits in five straight starts and in eight of his last nine starts overall. He hasn’t started against the Rays since 2007 when he went 1-1 in two outings. B.J. Upton (2-6), Carl Crawford (2-5), Carlos Pena (2-3), Jason Bartlett (1-1), and Reid Brignac (1-1) all hit Hughes well. Tampa has won six straight games and seven of their last eight games overall. They are 25-13 against the A.L. East whom they score an average of 5.8 runs per game against.

After a slow start, Wade Davis has bounced back big time for Tampa Bay. The righty is 3-0 with a 2.11 ERA giving up just five runs over his last 21.3 innings of work. Davis is 1-1 against the Yankees defeating them the last time they met. He held New York to two runs and seven hits in 5.7 innings of work. Mark Teixeira (1-7), Nick Swisher (0-4), and Juan Miranda (0-2) have poor numbers against Davis. The Yankees are hitting just .256 on the road, and since we expect Tampa Bay to hit Hughes well, we’ll recommend a play on the Rays in this game tonight.

Below are MLB baseball picks for July 29th 2010 from Touthouse.com handicappers. If you are looking for free MLB baseball predictions on a daily basis or premium picks from our MLB baseball betting experts visit Touthouse.com each day.

Pick: Kansas City Royals -129 (Jimmy Boyd)
The Royals are worthy of a small play with Davies on the hill. KC has won each of his last 4 starts, including a win against the Yankees his last time out. Plus, the Royals are 4-0 in Davies’ last 4 series opening starts, 6-0 in his last 6 starts as a home favorite of -110 to -150 and 5-0 in his last 5 starts versus the American League East. The Orioles are just 14-47 in their last 61 road games, and they don’t appear to be in good hands with Matusz on the mound this evening. In fact, the Orioles are 3-14 in Matusz’s last 17 starts, 1-7 in his last 8 starts as an underdog of +110 to +150 and 1-4 in his last 5 starts versus the American League Central. Take the Royals.

Pick: Washington Nationals +130 (John Ryan)
5* graded play on Washington as they host Atlanta set to start at 7:05 EST. Our proprietary sports handicapping model and simulator shows a significant probability that Washington will win this game. Supporting this graded play is a system that has produced a record of 37-15 making 21.2 units since 2004. Play on home teams batting .240 or worse over their last 10 games and with a tired bullpen after 3 straight games throwing 4+ innings. Contrarian system indeed, but this what occurs in baseball so often. Washington is a solid 17-5 (+14.1 Units) against the money line in home games versus poor power teams averaging 0.9 or less HR’s/game in the second half of the season over the last 3 seasons; 14-8 (+8.2 Units) against the money line in home games vs. teams whose hitters strike out 7 or more times/game this season. Washington starter Olsen is a strong 28-18 (+14.4 Units) against the money line versus poor base running teams averaging 0.5 or less SB’s/game since 1997. Braves bullpen is doig a nice job, but that alone does not win games. They are 2-11 (-9.6 Units) against the money line in road games after 2 straight games where the bullpen gave up no runs this season. Plus, Washington is 11-3 (+8.7 Units) against the money line in home games with a hot bullpen whose WHIP is under 1.250 the last 15 games over the last 2 seasons. Take the Nationals.

Pick: Chicago White Sox -1.5 +126 (Craig Trapp)
Will make this short and sweet the CHW have won 10 in a row at home and are 8-1 overall on the season head to head with the lowly Mariners. Pauley goes for SEA who faced the CHW on 7/19 and gave up 5 runs as CHW cruised to 6-1 win. Garcia goes for CHW and even with a rough last outing we think he is sitting on really good start. Will help that SEA is only 2-9 in last 11 road games hitting under .250 in those games. Easy winner here as the CHW take advantage of a team that is just really bad.

Pick: San Francisco Giants -138 (Ross Benjamin)
The San Francisco rookie starter Bumgarner looks to be the real deal. He’s 4-0 in his last 4 starts with a 1.49 ERA. The Giants are a red-hot 18-5 in their last 23 overall, 10-1 in the last 11 versus a starter with a greater than 1.30 WHIP, and 10-1 in the last 11 in Game 4 of a series. The Florida starter Annibal Sanchez enters today in bad form off of his last 4-starts posting a lofty 5.32 ERA and 1.73 WHIP. Sanchez is 8-18 in his last 26 team-starts on the road. Play on the San Francisco Giants as my free selection of the day.

Pick: Colorado Rockies -1.5 -130 (Info Plays)
Ubaldo Jimenez. Coming off his worst start of 2010, we expect a solid bounce-back effort from Jimenez. That can be expected considering the Rockies are 11-1 in Jimenez’s last 12 starts following a team loss in their previous game. The Pirates are 13-59 in their last 72 games as an underdog of +201 or greater, while the Rockies are 8-1 in Jimenez’s last 9 starts as a favorite of -201 or greater. It’s basically a no-brainer that they will win, and chances are high that they prove victorious by 2 runs or more today. Bet Colorado on the Run Line at home.

Florida Marlins vs. San Francisco Giants
Pick: San Francisco Giants -138 MLB line
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On Thursday the free play is on the SG Giants. Game 908 at 3:45 eastern. The Gaints qualify in a nice system that plays on certain home favorites off a win where they used 5 or more pitchers. SF has been killing it all month, winning 18 of 25 games thus far. Thye have a solid home bullpen that has a 2.23 era. Their rookie starter Bumgarner has a 2.66 era on the season spanning 6 starts and 40+ innings. Florida has trouble with left handers as they average 3.9 runs per game. Look for the Giants to hook the fish again here today. On the Thursday card I have a Diamond cutter system that wins by an average 7-3 score + an NL Dominator system that has cashed 18 of 20 times and has a Big pitching edge. Wednesday Top play cashes again. For the free play take the San Francisco Giants. RV

Oakland Athletics vs. Texas Rangers
Pick: Oakland Athletics +175 MLB odds
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The Oakland A’s are a very feisty team. They don’t have many big names, but they simply continue getting the job done. Oakland currently sits at 51-49 on the season after last night’s 3-1 victory over the Rangers, and they continue playing hungry baseball tonight knowing they must win this series with Texas to gain some ground on them in the AL West. Starter Vin Mazzaro has gone under the radar this season, and as a starter he is 5-2 with a 3.30 ERA and 1.200 WHIP. In 5 road starts, Mazzaro is 3-1 with a 2.81 ERA this year as well.

Mazzaro’s numbers are very comparable to C.J. Wilson’s to this point, making this value on Oakland through the roof in this game. Oakland is a very profitable 23-26 against the money line as an underdog of +150 or more over the last 2 seasons. The A’s are 10-3 in their last 13 games overall, including 5-1 as an underdog during that stretch. They have also won 4 of Mazzaro’s last 5 starts overall, and 7 of his last 10 road starts. Texas is 0-4 in their last 4 during Game 3 of a series. Bet the A’s Thursday.

Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals
MLB Prediction: Over 8.5 Runs -110 odds
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Washington’s Scott Olsen makes his return from the DL on Thursday when the Nationals host the Braves. Olsen is 2-2 with a 3.77 ERA in eight starts this season. At home, he has struggled giving up 12 runs and 21 hits in four starts there. Olsen is a mixed bag against Atlanta. Earlier this season, he held them to two hits in 7.3 innings pitched in Washington. But his career numbers show him at 3-5 with a 5.73 ERA in 13 career starts against the Braves. Chipper Jones (13-28), Matt Diaz (11-28), Brian McCann (6-23), Martin Prado (5-12), and Omar Infante (3-11) all have good numbers against the lefties. As a team, Atlanta has gone Over the total in 17 of their 33 games against southpaws and Over the total in 19 of their 33 daytime games; they are hitting .277 in the daytime scoring 5.6 runs per game. They’ve also gone Over in 8 of their last 11 games.

Atlanta’s Derek Lowe has struggled from time to time this season. On the road, the righty is 3-5 with a 4.78 ERA in 11 starts this season. He lost to Washington in Atlanta already this season giving up four runs and eight hits in 5.7 innings of work. That’s his second straight loss to the Nationals as Ryan Zimmerman (10-36), Cristian Guzman (12-32), Adam Kennedy (13-32), Nyjer Morgan (9-16), Alberto Gonzalez (5-11), Ian Desmond (2-4), and Michael Morse (1-3) all smack Lowe around. The Nationals hit over .275 as a team at home this season, and with their previous success against Lowe, we expect the Nationals to score plenty of runs here making this a high-scoring game.

New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians
MLB Pick: New York Yankees -149 odds
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At 7:05 pm, our complimentary selection is on the New York Yankees over the Cleveland Indians. The Yankees were originally going to hand the ball to Sergio Mitre for this start, but after Mitre’s last start on July 24, they have decided to turn to 28-year-old righthander and former L.A. Angel Dustin Moseley tonight instead. Moseley only has four relief appearances covering less than 11 innings this season for New York, and although he doesn’t show a compelling reason that he should be considered as a fifth starter based on that, at least – unlike Mitre – he doesn’t show a compelling reason NOT to be considered either. Getting the ball for the Tribe will be righthander Mitch Talbot, and after a very promising start which saw the 26-year-old go 5-2 with a 3.23 ERA midway through May and then 7-4; 3.54 after his first start in June, Talbot has come back to earth considerably since the middle of June, having gone 1-5 in his last seven starts. Talbot looks very much like a young pitcher who is simply wearing down in his first full season as a Major League starter as his ERA has risen to 4.08 and his WHIP is up to almost 1.4. He’s probably got the talent to be a successful starter, either for his current team or somewhere else, but he simply may not be ready to go out and throw 100-110 pitches every five days for an entire season. Let’s hope for his sake that the Indians, who have no chance to make the postseason, realize this and preserve this youngster’s arm at some point. Take the Yankees. As always, good luck…Al McMordie.

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Spokane Shock vs. Jacksonville Sharks (Week 18 Preview from Mike Rose)
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The regular season of the AFL betting campaign will wrap up this weekend with a full slate of games. The biggest duel of the bunch comes on Friday night, as the Spokane Shock and Jacksonville Sharks meet each other in the “Shark Tank” in the Sunshine State in a potential ArenaBowl preview.

The Sharks know that a win or a Tampa Bay loss this week will lock up the South Division and give them home field advantage through the conference portion of the playoffs. Should one of those two scenarios play out, Jacksonville will be hosting the Orlando Predators in the first round of the playoffs next week. If not, it will travel to the Tulsa Talons instead as the #3 seed.

QB Aaron Garcia led the Sharks to a number of their wins this year, but he won’t be available for action most likely for the rest of the season. Instead, this team belongs to QB Bernard Morris. The former member of the Marshall Thundering Herd has surprised this year both with his accuracy (61.4% completions) and his lack of mistakes (8 TDs vs. 0 INTs this season). He went 19-of-25 for 228 yards and three scores in a victory against the Bossier City Battle Wings last week to help put the Sharks in prime position to win it all.

The Shock have rolled off 11 straight wins, but with home field advantage wrapped up for the rest of the season, including the ArenaBowl, there is a question about how hard HC Rob Keefe is going to push his players to win this game.

One would expect QB Kyle Rowley to be allowed to try to throw for 100+ touchdown passes on the season. He currently sits at 97 scores against nine picks on the year. Backup QB Erik Meyer hasn’t gotten much in the way of reps this year, but going 18-of-28 for 274 yards with five TDs and a pick are numbers not to be ashamed of.

Expect to see plenty of defense in this game. Spokane ranks #1 in the National Conference, allowing an average of 51.9 points per game. Jacksonville is just in front of the Shock but is second in the American Conference with 50.5 points per game allowed.

With 61 points scored on Friday night, Spokane will become one of the rare teams in AFL history to score 1,000 points for a season. The Shock are currently averaging 62.6 points per game.

The Sharks opened up as 5.5-point favorites in this AFL betting battle, but the betting public has sided with the Shock early lowering the spread to (-4’).

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