Arizona Diamondbacks at Atlanta Braves Odds

Written May 16, 2009 by Jordan Haimowitz

Diamondbacks Braves Odds A team in disarray is what the D-Backs are. They have lost four games in a row and are 2-12 in their last fourteen games. This leaves them with a 13-23 record which basically has them out of the race completely since the Dodgers are miles ahead of them. Their hitting is a flat out joke. As a team they hit .232 from the plate which is embarrassing while producing 36 home runs and 123 RBIs. Stephen Drew has been hurt for the majority of the year which is a monster loss as he is their best player. Conor Jackson has been a disaster hitting .182 with one homer and 14 RBIs while Chris Young is a tad ahead of him hitting .185 with two homers and eight RBIs. The sole bright spot for this lineup is that Justin Upton has been locked in as of late (I expect him to have a nice game tonight). The pitching has been a different story. Haren and Doug Davis have been tremendous. Tonight’s starter is one of the better young guns in the game. His numbers show him at 0-3 for the year with a 3.98 ERA. That is only because he gets no run support, literally. That man is Max Scherzer. Expect his coming out party to be tonight in Atlanta. This is a lineup that is young and loves to chase pitches. He will set the tone early and Arizona will have all the chances in the world to come away with a rare win. As stated above expect Justin Upton to be the x-factor,

The Braves are playing well currently. They are coming off a series win at Citi Field against the Mets and more importantly are getting healthy. Brian McCann is back and looking good while Chipper is playing well. At his age though he will always have a nagging injury that will keep him out of a game at any moment. Casey Kotchman and Yunel Escobar are both swinging hot bats. Kotchman has his average at .314 while Escobar has his at .306. More noticeable though are the key hits they come up with in crucial situations. Atlanta is not a great hitting team overall. This will be very interesting to see tonight how they approach the young pitcher for Arizona. Atlanta tends to struggle off power pitchers as they don’t allow themselves to see many pitches. It will be up to free agent acquisition Kenshin Kawakami from Japan. He has struggled with his control this year having walked 18 batters in 32.2 innings of work. His record is 2-4 with a 5.79 ERA. The hitting will need to show up tonight. Atlanta will need a MINIMUM of five runs to win this game. A key hitter for them will be Jeff Francour. Someone besides McCann and Chipper will need to provide some power. We shall see how this plays out.

Haimo’s Hot Notes: Arizona is 7-21 in their last 28 road games. The Braces have won four of their last five games overall. In the last 12 meetings in Atlanta between these two teams, The Diamondbacks are 8-4. As stated above, The Braves are a young team overall. They tend to struggle against power arms due their lack of patience. The odds makers are on the same page as me clearly as the line is very close to even. A team that is ten games under .500 on the road versus a team with a winning record and neither ace starting should be a lopsided line with no injury to state. The Diamondbacks are a great play here. Scherzer will dominate. A BEST BET this is.

Jordans Pick: Diamondbacks +110 (BEST BET & UNDERDOG SPECIAL)

Wow, a stinger that loss was. Maholm dominated all night long as our Pirates BEST BET was looking good as we seemed to have that 1-0 lead in hand. That was until closer Matt Capps comes in and with the blink of an eye we are down 3-1 and that is all she wrote. But, we have been on A LOT more of the good side of those then bad this year. Everybody knows this is a long season and that stuff just happens. The profit margin remains sky high as we have a slue of games tonight that are dynamite. Let’s get to work.