Although this is not a bad Wednesday card, there is just one match in which I would like to draw your attentions to, the Cleveland Indians playing at the Los Angeles Angels.

 

CLEVELAND INDIANS (Laffey 5-6, 3.61) @ LOS ANGELES ANGELS (Lackey 7-2, 2.58)
Wednesday 23rd July 2008 8:35pm UK Time, 3:35pm US Eastern Time

This contest is not one to be enjoyed by the Indians at all. John Lackey is one of the best pitchers in the majors (the best in my personal opinion) and the Angels have the best record in the majors.
Aaron Laffey has been pretty effective thus far in this season and this is vindicated by his low earned run average of 3.61, a mark which would usually produce a winning record were he getting runs support. This is a problem for the Indians, they seem to be so incredibly inconsistent and in the main it is from an offensive point of view because they have the ability to regularly put double figures on the board but struggle to string together such performances.
The Angels are the top team right now because they have a great pitching rotation, have good basehitters, good basestealers, home run hitters and are an excellent fielding unit. That all sounds an obvious thing to say and must come across as extremely simplistic but the fact is that baseball is essentially a very simple game, and the Angels treat every game as importantly as the last.
It is tough to find value on the outright market with the Angels a best priced 1.6 but you should turn to the handicap market and back the Angels on the -1.5 mark to show their superiority over the Tribe.

MEN TO WATCH
Grady Sizemore (.273, 24 HR. 55 RBI, 24 SB) Cleveland Indians
Casey Kotchman ( .279, 9 HR, 47 RBI, 2 SB) LA Angels

RECOMMENDATION - 3 Points stake - LA Angels -1.5 Handicap @ 2.21 (Coral)

MATCH STATS (from Bodog.com)

RECENT FORM TEAM RECORD MONEY vsLHP vsRHP CLE 44-55 -$2351 10-13 34-42 LAA 61-39 $1309 14-6 47-33 TEAM FAVE DOG OU RUN DIFF CLE 31-30 13-25 46-50-3 0.11 LAA 41-28 20-11 36-59-5 0.31

SMART CHART CLE   TEAM   LAA 4.55 RUNS   4.34 4.43   RUNS AGNST 4.03 0.11   DIFF 0.31 -$2,251   MONEY $1,209 4.25   TEAM ERA 3.77 8.43   OFF HITS 8.74 3.18 OFF WALKS   2.77 7.35 OFF Ks   6.18 9.28   DEF HITS 8.62 2.84 DEF WALKS   2.91 6.24 DEF Ks   6.58

PITCHER LAST 3 STARTS
AARON LAFFEY (L) ERA: 3.61 W/L: 5-6 DATE OPP W/L SCORE OU IP $ 07/18/2008 SEA L 2-8 O 3â…” -100 07/10/2008 TB W 13-2 O 6 100 07/05/2008 MIN L 6-9 O 5 -100	JOHN LACKEY (R) ERA: 2.58 W/L: 7-2 DATE OPP W/L SCORE OU IP $ 07/18/2008 BOS W 11-3 O 7 100 07/10/2008 TEX W 11-10 O 5â…” 100 07/05/2008 TOR L 5-7 O 6 -125

BULLPENS
Cleveland Indians's relievers have pitched 5â…” innings in the last 3 games.	Los Angeles Angels's relievers have pitched 10â…“ innings in the last 3 games.

INJURIES CLEVELAND INDIANS PLAYER POS DESCRIPTION Josh Barfield 2B 15-Day Disabled List Fausto Carmona P 15-Day Disabled List Scott Elarton P 15-Day Disabled List Travis Hafner DH 15-Day Disabled List Victor Martinez C 15-Day Disabled List Jake Westbrook P 60-Day Disabled List LOS ANGELES ANGELS PLAYER POS DESCRIPTION Kelvim Escobar P 60-Day Disabled List Torii Hunter OF Bereavement List Gary Matthews Jr. OF Day-to-Day (sore knee) Mike Napoli C 15-Day Disabled List Jered Weaver P Day-to-Day (sore back)

BETTING TRENDS CLEVELAND INDIANS Cleveland is 7-2 SU in its last 9 games Cleveland is 3-11 SU in its last 14 games on the road LOS ANGELES ANGELS LA Angels are 6-1 SU in their last 7 games LA Angels are 5-1 SU in their last 6 games at home TOP 3/BOTTOM 3 INDIANS Indians have the second worst hits stat in the league at 8.4 per game. Indians allow the third most hits in the league at 9.3 per game. Indians are second best in walks allowed in the league at 2.8 per game. ANGELS Angels are second worst in the league in free passes at 2.8 per game. Angels have the second stingiest defence in the league at 4.0 runs per game.

HEAD TO HEAD DETAIL DATE DAY AWAY RUNS HOME RUNS WINNER HOMELINE TOTAL OU AWAY STARTER HOME STARTER 07/22/2008 Tue CLE 2 LAA 3 LAA -170 9 U M Ginter Jered Weaver 07/21/2008 Mon CLE 5 LAA 2 CLE -220 8½ U P Byrd E Santana 04/09/2008 Wed CLE 5 LAA 9 LAA -128 9½ O P Byrd D Moseley 04/08/2008 Tue CLE 4 LAA 3 CLE -108 8½ U J Westbrook E Santana 04/07/2008 Mon CLE 4 LAA 6 LAA 105 8½ O F Carmona J Saunders 09/09/2007 Sun CLE 6 LAA 2 CLE -155 9 U A Laffey Jered Weaver 09/08/2007 Sat CLE 6 LAA 1 CLE 110 9 U C Sabathia E Santana 09/07/2007 Fri CLE 2 LAA 3 LAA -135 8½ U J Westbrook J Lackey 09/06/2007 Thu CLE 3 LAA 10 LAA -145 9 O P Byrd K Escobar 05/10/2007 Thu CLE 0 LAA 8 LAA -135 9 U J Sowers K Escobar

TEAM VS DIVISION OR CONFERENCE
CLEVELAND INDIANS	SU	HOME	AWAY	FAVE	DOG	OU	vsLHP	vsRHP
Overall	44-55	26-22	18-33	31-30	13-25	46-50-3	10-13	34-42
vs Div	13-24	6-7	7-17	11-12	2-12	21-16	4-4	9-20
Last 10	7-3	4-0	3-3	3-0	4-3	5-4-1	1-0	6-3
vs AL	38-43	22-17	16-26	26-25	12-18	38-40-3	9-9	29-34
vs NL	6-12	4-5	2-7	5-5	1-7	8-10	1-4	5-8
LOS ANGELES ANGELS	SU	HOME	AWAY	FAVE	DOG	OU	vsLHP	vsRHP
Overall	61-39	30-21	31-18	41-28	20-11	36-59-5	14-6	47-33
vs Div	19-12	7-6	12-6	15-9	4-3	17-12-2	5-3	14-9
Last 10	7-3	4-1	3-2	5-3	2-0	3-7	0-0	7-3
vs AL	51-31	26-16	25-15	34-21	17-10	31-48-3	12-4	39-27
vs NL	10-8	4-5	6-3	7-7	3-1	5-11-2	2-2	8-6

Happy Punting
Crafty Stan