Baseball Picks: Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox

Written May 20, 2009 by Jordan Haimowitz

twins-white-sox-preview-052009 What a nightmarish road trip it has been for this team. The Twins come off a four game set at Yankee Stadium in which they got swept. Three of the four games they were leading just to end up losing by way of a walk off hit. They then drop the first game of the series with the White Sox which sums up their current five game losing streak. At 18-22, Minnesota should stay positive. Joe Mauer, their all star catcher who is a two time batting champion is back and healthy. Justin Morneau who is already won an MVP award, is making a run at his second this year. He has 12 home runs and 33 RBIs while hitting .338 from the plate. Jason Kubel and Michel Cuddyer will be the other two guys that need to step up for this team along with speedster lead off man Denard Span. On the pitching side, Francisco Liriano takes the mound tonight. This is a guy in which people deemed a Cy young candidate when healthy. He is healthy right now, but has looked anything but that. With a 2-4 record and a 5.21 ERA, Liriano has not helped this team in any way. I sit here while analyzing this game and ask myself this question? Is he due for a break out game? I’d say it’s certainly possible. Expect Denard Span to get on base tonight and cause havoc. He will be the x-factor. Wednesday’s MLB odds show the White Sox -112 against the Twins with the total set for 8.5 runs.

The White Sox are 16-22 and to be honest, aren’t as good as their six games under .500 record. Jim Thome has seven home runs and 22 RBIs, with a .252 batting average. Jermaine Dye has nine home runs and 21 RBIs, with a .275 batting average and Paul Konerko is hitting .319, most of those hits come when runners are not in scoring position. They are hitting .245 as a team and the player who everyone thought was going to be an all star talent has been a bust, that is Alexei Ramirez. The pitching has been, not good. John Danks gets the nod tonight as he is 2-3 on the year with a 4.82 ERA. This is set up for him to fail tonight. Last season Danks was much better on the road then at home and in his five starts against the Twins (most out of any team he has faced) he had a 5.60 ERA as they hit .292 as a team off him. If Chicago wants to win this game tonight they will need it to be low scoring. Danks will not out pitch Liriano and the Twins offense is just much better.. I rarely do this but the x-factor for Chicago here is John Danks. He must keep this game at a fast pace and keep guys like Span and Gomez (if he plays) off the base paths.

Haimo’s Hot Notes: Simple as can be. The Twins are 1-9 in their last 10 meetings in Chicago. Surprisingly enough the UNDER is 20-7 in those games when the White Sox were the favorite. I think tonight we should do some massive trend busting. Liriano will pitch well while Minnesota’s speed and power combo will overwhelm Danks like it has several times in the past. This is set up for a 7-4 Twins victory and the bang for your buck here is beautiful. TWINS are my BEST BET, my only bet.

Jordan’s Pick: Minnesota Twins +102 (BEST BET)

Man, these 3-0 night just don’t get old. You’d think after a slue of them like we have accrued they might get a little bland. Not a bit. We hit our BEST BET with the Phillies last night after Lidge gave us a little scare and we hit our double play in the Pads/Giants game as the Pads won 2-1, that covers the UNDER and Pads. I did predict a 3-2 win, oh well, shoot me. So after another night where the cash piles in, we look to capitalize on a one game night. Lets make that money.

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