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You can practically see a tumbleweed rolling through the sports landscape right now as it is pretty quiet out there except for golf and tonight’s CFL game. Baseball doesn’t start up again until tomorrow and the NFL is still weeks away. Despite the lack of sporting options out there right now, we still have plenty to bet on and good games to make money on. We have our golf tips from yesterday going and as I write this Dustin Johnson our pick at 11/1 is currently leading the field. It’s only round one, but he’s off to a great start.
We also have a CFL tip for tonight as the Hamilton Tigercats head to Montreal to take on the Alouettes. It could be a good game as the line is currently set at just -3 for the Tigercats who are coming off of a bye. Today we’ll also take a look at some MLB second half futures and find some value before the games start up again tomorrow. Let’s take a look at what we have today.
CFL Betting Tips:
Honestly, this line should be higher as the TiCats are one of the very best team’s in all of Canadian football. They played in the final last year and could very well make it back again this year. They are 1-1 on the season, but that one loss came from a field goal that was kicked as time expired. In their other game they easily won 52-26 and then had the bye last week. That rest plus the way they have played should be enough for the TiCats to cover -3.
MLB Betting Tips:
With the first half officially coming to an end it’s time to start looking towards the playoffs and who is looking to win the divisions. It would be a huge surprise if the Dodgers (-500), Cardinals (-400), Royals (-350) and Nationals (-700) didn’t win their respective divisions. (Although the Pirates will threaten the Cardinals as we saw in their three game sweep before the break.) The two wide open divisions thus far seem to be the AL West and the AL East. We’ll focus on those here.
The AL West is definitely a two team race between the upstart Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels stormed back to take the division lead just before the break and are now the favorite to win the division. This makes the Astros at +150 a nice little value play. The Angels have rode the rejuvenation of Albert Pujols to get into this slot, but I am not sure they can continue that. Their run differential of +33 is actually lower than the Astros +50. The Astros have had some bad injury luck of late, but with guys coming back, potential additions and their stacked minor league system they should still be the favorite in this division.
Despite a seemingly comfortable 3 1/2 game lead in their division the Yankees currently sit at +140 to win the division. Based on pure run differential the pick would seem to be the Blue Jays who are +82 in 91 games compared to the Yankees +26 in 88 games. Even the Orioles at +39 in 88 games have fared better than the division leader thus explaining why the oddsmakers are bullish on New York.
For value, I think Toronto +400 is the best play here. Their Pythagorean record would see them at 53-38 meaning they’ve underplayed the projection by 8 games. While their pitching has been terrible, their offense has been the very best in the league and it’s not really close. Josh Donaldson has been a beast and could be the MVP this year. Even a slight improvement, like Drew Hutchison getting his away ERA (8.81) to look more like his home ERA (2.12) or a more balanced record in one run games (they are 10-18 on the season) could send them to the playoffs. A trade for another starter would help too. The Yankees have been lucky, the Blue Jays have been good. The rest of the season, especially the 13 games these two have against each other, will tell us a lot about which one of those things really matters.
