Baseball Picks: Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins

Written April 16, 2009 by Jordan Haimowitz

blue-jays-twins-preview-041609 The Blue Jays are coming off a 12-2 victory over Minnesota last night. In a start where their young pitcher Scott Richmond went 6.1 innings allowing only one run on four hits, the offense exploded giving him a ton of run support. Vernon Wells has opened the 2009 season looking like an all star while Adam Lind and Travis Snider have exploded onto the scene as big time players. The Jays are 7-3 and on an absolute high, tonight they send in my mind the best pitcher in baseball to the mound, that man is Roy “Doc” Halladay. Roy has started the season 2-0 looking very sharp. In his first start he went 7 innings allowing 5 runs on 6 hits, however one of those hits was a 3 homer which made his stat line look worse then it really was. In his last start he went 7 innings allowing only one run on 5 hits. Halladay last season went 1-0 against the Twins. Toronto has a lot to be excited about. As stated above Vernon Wells has come out looking sharp and their young hitters have impressed everybody. Alex Rios is a top outfielder in this league and Aaron Hill is one of the top second baseman when he is healthy. The Jays also have one of the deeper bullpens in baseball with closer BJ Ryan, Scott Downs (one of baseballs best relief pitchers), Jesse Carlson and Brandon League. This team is no fluke, they take the field today with all signs pointing they they’ll add to their win total. Thursday’s MLB odds show Toronto at -134 versus the Twins and the total set for 7 runs.

The Minnesota Twins will look to bounce back tonight after that 12-2 bashing the Jays gave them last night. The Twins have started out 4-6 and have looked worse then even their record shows. The Twins are hitting only .240 as a team and the only two players that have made any sort of an impact so far is lead off man Denard Span and clean up hitter Justin Morneau. The list of disappointments on this team are a mile long, they start with outfielder Carlos Gomez who is now hitting around .100 and cant seem to do anything right, Michael Cuddyer is hitting a bit over .200 with no home runs and 4 RBIs, second baseman Alexi Casilla who ended last season with tons of hope for a break out year, is having a tough time getting on base. The list goes on, but those are some examples to give you an idea of their struggles. The Twins send their “ace” to the mound tonight, Francisco Liriano. In his first two starts Liriano has struggled massively. he is 0-2 with a 6.94 ERA in two starts against the White Sox and the Mariners. Liriano started 10 games last season and none of them were against Toronto. This is a big game for the Twins. This is the final game of the four game series between these two teams, the Blue Jays have won two of the first three, tonight, although the Twins need it, may not be any different.

Haimo’s Hot Notes: Toronto is 8-3 in their last 11 games following a victory. The Twins are 3-9 in their last 12 games as an underdog. The Twins have an excellent home record, they are 37-16 in their last 53 home games. However, The Blue Jays are 20-7 in the last 27 meetings between these two teams. The Jays send if not the best pitcher in baseball, one of the top three to the mound tonight. He will be dominating and so will the Jays lineup as I expect Wells, Rios and Snider to have nice games. Don’t be scared of the home team here as usually it is not wise to go against the home team in a game where they can earn a split. In this case, we’ll make an exception.

We went 3-1 with out baseball bounce back yesterday (lost both NBA, non registered small picks). The Tigers owned the Chi Sox as expected and the UNDER 9.5 runs kept cool. Our BEST BET strong play the Red Sox came through as Wakefield almost pitched a no hitter. The Halos imploded as Weaver surprisingly got rocked by the Mariners who continue this run in which I can not explain. Tonight, this is out BEST BET and ONLY game. Read Carefully.

Jordans Picks: Blue Jays -134 & OVER 7 Runs

(BEST BET IS BLUE JAYS -134)

Documented MLB Record

14-7 OVERALL

4-3 BEST BET

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4 Comments

Comments

4 Responses to “Baseball Picks: Toronto Blue Jays at Minnesota Twins”

Gary S. on April 16th, 2009 2:53 pm

I am with you on the Jays ML and RL, but I think Liriano pitches much better. Unless one of the , Unless one of the bullpens implode I think its gonna stay under the 7.

Good LUck

PS I love this game Doc is 6-0 vs Minny.

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Jordan Haimowitz on April 16th, 2009 3:05 pm

Gary,

Liriano is a power pitcher who has struggled with command. Wells, Rios, Overbay and Hill all are patient hitters with the eye for the fastball. We went 3-1 in MLB yesterday, lets add to that total in the win column tonight

Jordan

Reply
Gary S. on April 16th, 2009 9:30 pm

I was right and so were you. Nice call on the BJs and the Over as the Liriano pitched very well surrendering just 2 runs before the bullpen came in and implodedg, Gardenhire had to use 4 different relievers to get through the 7th which served up 2 HRs and one a slam.
Gary

Reply
Jordan Haimowitz on April 16th, 2009 9:55 pm

Gary,

The Jays have tons of balance. when you have two aces on the mound and the game continues with both starters deep, the odds are the pen will be in for a rude awakening as they come in very tight with the game still in hand. We are hot right now, the wins keep coming, I am focused, lets cash in nicely tomorrow my friend. If there are any games you’d like me to pick for tomorrow let me know if you see this by 7am eastern time

Jordan
(Betfirms)

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