MIDWEEK MAJORS

From a betting perspective, Baseball is the sport I love the most of all; This is credited almost exclusively to the fact that a bad result can only ever really leave you sulking for a day (unless of course you have the misfortune of having lost a bet on the World Series decider!) because with daily match-ups, there is almost certainly another good punting opportunity around the corner.

It is the time of my writing my first article for Priceform and therefore I am hopeful to get off to a good start to create the right impression for the reader. A winning start would be, of course, the ideal scenario but most important is to let people see that I know what I am talking about and be rest assured that there will be a significant long term profit returned by acting upon my recommendations.

One match catches my eye in terms of the Wednesday night card - Tampa Bay Rays (Edwin Jackson) @ Boston Red Sox (Josh Beckett). Last night Boston opened up the series with a 7-4 win in a very competitive match up.

PREVIEW
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If we take a look at the pitching duel, you could be forgiven for believing that this is a foregone conclusion. Beckett having had a great career record to date (82-56 WINS-LOSSES 3.77 EARNED RUN AVERAGE) and Jackson having had a patchy start to his career as a converted pitcher (14-23 5.27), however, this is the present day and this season to date there has been little to choose between two men.

2008 Season to date stats:

JACKSON (3-4 3.70)
Tampa Bay Rays (35-23)
BECKETT (5-4 4.30)
Boston Red Sox (36-25)

Having taken that on board, it is all fine and well having a great pitching line up but lets face it, if you don't score, you don't win ball games.
From a hitting perspective, even without David Ortiz,the Red Sox have a pretty scary line up and with Manny Ramirez just starting to hit some form after an extended slump, fresh from having got the 500 home runs proverbial monkey off of his back, there are few teams that would relish taking them on.
This Rays outfit (formerly the Devil Rays, and I still sometimes struggle to adapt to this!), are one of only a handful of teams that relish this challenge. They have made a scintillating start to this season and have three men in All-Star reckoning (Carlos Pena, BJ Upton and Carl Crawford), which is testament to how well this hard working unit has performed this season.

RECOMMENDATION - 3PTS on Tampa Bay Rays @ 161/100 Bet365

Take this price and take on the often overrated Red Sox, this is a very close match up in reality and I think the overall form of this Rays outfit will provide the deciding factor.
CRAFTY STAN 4th June 2008