Tuesday Night MLB

Hello all and it's great to be back and talking about the 2009 MLB season which started just last week. However there is a tinge of sadness as the tragic death of young Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart has casted a bit of a shadow over the early doors of the new season.

Seeing the performance put in by starting pitcher Jered Weaver of the Angels on Friday night despite all of the emotions involved was pretty amazing however and the way the Anaheim ball club showed great fight to win the contest over the Red Sox. The moment where Weaver etched Adenhart's initials in the dirt before he pitched was a very touching moment and I think all baseball fans worldwide offer all of their best wishes to the Nick's family and friends.
 
Tonight there is two games which interest me and my attention remains fixed on the East. The New York Yankees playing at Tampa Bay Rays in AL East and The Florida Marlins playing at the Atlanta Braves in NL East.
 
Florida Marlins 5-1 (Volstad 1-0, 1.80) @ Atlanta Braves (Vazquez 0-0, 4.50)



April 14th 00:00 BST
ESPN America (00:00-03:00)

This contest sees the two pacesetters of the division going at it. Chris Volstad has had a great start to this MLB career as a starter for the Marlins and has shown great consistency thus far and it was this consistency which led to him being considered the best rookie at the ball club last season. Great things will be expected of Volstad but remember he is still just 22 years of age and will still be considered to be developing his game and finding his way.

Volstad's foe for the evening will be the vastly experienced Javier Vazquez who recently joined the Braves in the off-season. Vazquez can still be considered a bit of enigma even at this stage of his career. If you look at his recent season stats, in 2008 he had a poor season with a 12-16 (4.67) record compared with his excellent 2007 season where he recorded 15-8 (3.74). With the Braves in flying form right now I expect Vazquez to show some of his better stuff as his opening performance against the Phillies was reasonably encouraging and the confidence within the ball club should help his mental state at the plate.

I make the two offensive line-ups pretty evenly matched with maybe the Marlins having a marginal advantage in terms of having more players capable of regularly hitting home runs. Hanley Ramirez, Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla are all going to be 25+ Home run hitters this season I would expect so always have respect for the hitting line-up of Florida.

There are no mugs in the Braves hitting unit and Chipper Jones and Brian McCann looking for .300 or better this season and outfielder Jordan Schafer looking to have a storming rookie year.

However I think the key factors in this game could be home field advantage as the Braves are formidable at Turner Field and were so even during last year’s poor showing and a better bullpen.

I made the Braves a favourite around the 1.6 mark so the 1.71 offered by Boylesports is too tempting.
 
Recommendation:  4 Points on Atlanta Braves @ 1.72 Boylesports

 
New York Yankees 3-4 (Burnett 1-0, 3.38) @ Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 (Garza 1-0, 1.29)



15th April 00:05 BST

Given the serious jitters in the Yankees camp on the opening day of the season I think the New York club will be as disappointed as you would imagine with a 3-4 start because they haven't played a single game yet at the new stadium. If the Yanks can notch up victory tonight 4-4 is not a bad start to 2009 given the pressures placed upon the club given the massive spend out on free agents in the summer.

Tonight sees two brilliant pitchers duel it out in what should be a great contest. AJ Burnett has proved himself to be a pretty consistent performer over the years and will probably have his eye on a 20 game winning season whereas his opposing starter for the Rays, Matt Garza, has proved that he is immensely talented on several occasions but we have seen him lose his head a few times too and show mental fragility.

It is this potential fragility that the Yankees will look to expose. Despite the lack of Alex Rodriguez, this Yankees hitting line up is still pretty good and big name free trade signing Mark Teixeira is the main big fly merchant amongst the ranks, he will expect big things of himself this season and he could well catch fire tonight.

The Rays are showing that last season was no fluke and have followed up being AL champion by making a solid 4-3 start to the new season. Last night the Rays latched on to some dreadful pitching from Chien Ming Wang and went on to win 15-5, during which there was a frankly bizarre scenario in which versatile fielding hitter Nick Swisher pitched a scoreless inning! I don't expect Burnett to crumble like Wang did and tonight should see a different scenario entirely.

If Burnett can pitch 6-7 good innings then the Yankees bullpen should not be stretched and the likes of Damaso Marte and legend Mariano Rivera should be able to do the rest.

Side with the value on the 2.11 Yankees.
 
Recommendation:  2.5 Points on NY Yankees @ 2.11 Canbet
 
Good luck to you all!

Crafty Stan