Major League Baseball

[Shibuya Sox]

Ello folks,

New to the site, and thought I'd share my musings on the major leagues this season. I've been following the sport casually since the 2003 post-season and this is my 3rd season as a hardcore fan having taken in some games in Philly, Boston and NYC a few years back. I am, perhaps predictably, a fan of one of the 'big two', the Boston Red Sox (and have been since watching the 2003 ALCS vs the New York Yankees) so you might find most of my tips centre around the Sox and the American League.

Just a quick background to baseball then, for those of you who are interested.

There are 2 leagues in MLB; the American and the National league. The key difference between the leagues is the Designated Hitter position (DH) whereby - in the AL - the pitcher does not take a turn at hitting and is replaced by a player whose only job is to hit, not to field. These guys are often the atypical fat players you might think of in baseball! Generally, the AL is considered the 'power league' with a greater emphasis on the long ball, compared to the NL where running plays, bunts etc are more commonplace. The AL League has not lost the All-Star game for about 10 years!

Betting on baseball is great because there are games everyday and if you lose one night you have an immediate chance to make amends the day after.

Its important to look at the starting pitchers stats as this is the key position in baseball. Each team has 5 starters in the rotation and the form of the starter usually has the greatest impact on the final result. For example, a starter will likely pitch around 6-7 innings (of 9) with relief pitchers making up the rest.

A pitcher's basic performance can be measured using ERA (Earned Run Avg) which is the avg no. of runs given up by a pitcher over 9 innings. A good pitcher will have an ERA of 3-4, whilst anything over 5 is a bit ropey. There's a whole other bunch of important stats, ERA+, WHIP, K's, Opp BA etc but we can get to these later in the season...

The season starts proper on Tuesday, with the Red Sox taking on the Oakland A's in the Tokyo Dome, Japan.

Tips to follow!

[Wet_Sail]

Good to see you here at last, Shibuya.

This man knows his baseball and he's made me a fair bit of cash in our time - so here's to plenty more winning tips for the Punt.

[Bigkegman]

Welcome aboard Shibuya

I like watching baseball and took a liking to Baltimore for some strange reason. It was years ago when I was on holiday - it was about the only channel you got on the tv in the room and watched it when the mrs was getting ready to go out or sleeping

[Shibuya Sox]

Thanks Keg man!

Looks like it could be a looong season for the Orioles as they traded away their ace pitcher, Erik Bedard, and their star short stop, Miguel Tejada this off-season. They are very much in a rebuilding phase and I wouldn't be surprised to see them finish below the Tampa Bay Rays this season. In fact, if the Rays get Scott Kazmir back from injury soon, they might even challenge the Toronto Blue Jays for 3rd spot...we'll see.

[kompressaur]

Heh heh heh Shibuya. Great to read a bit of Baseball. The more i learn about Poker the more im actually getting an interest in baseball. They seem to use baseball as an analogy a lot. Looking forward to some late night picks. Welcome to TDP Shibuya.

Is the baseball back on C5 in the UK folks?

[Shibuya Sox]

Hi komp!

Five baseball will be on Sundays and (usually) Tuesdays this year, I think. You can also watch on NASN (subscriber only), MLB.tv ($120 lets you watch every single game played this season) and probably on p2p channels.

I have the mlb.tv package and it is generally faultless, with the streams coming from local broadcasts; for example the New England Sports Network covers all Red Sox home games whilst YES and my9 covers all Yankees games.

[engineer]

Welcome aboard, S. Sox

Nice to have a baseball expert and tipster also.

My wife's brother used to practice it and was pretty good, but broke his nose several times and eventually gave up.
Hope we'll have a better luck here

Waiting for your analysis and opinions.

[Shibuya Sox]

First game starts tomorrow morning at 10am UK time and is live on NASN and Mlb.tv

Boston Red Sox (Daisuke Matsuzaka) @ Oakland Athletics (Joe Blanton) - Field type: astro-turf dome.

I am going to go safe on this one and tip the Red Sox to win a close game.

DiceK Matsuzaka is now in his second year with Boston following on from his 102 million dollar move from Japan's Seibu Lions last season. DiceK put up a respectable ERA of 4.40 in his first season as a major league player (american league avg was 4.74).

Matsuzaka went 10-6 in the first half of the season, posting an ERA of 3.84 and striking out 123 batters in 119.2 innings. DiceK blew up in the second half, due to fatigue, causing his ERA to rise to the 4.40 figure mentioned earlier.

Spring Training reports from Fort Myers suggest that DiceK is enjoying himself more this year and has worked to improve his changeup (a disguised, off speed pitch) in order to keep hitters off balance. On astroturf, Matsuzaka had an ERA of 3.38 over 5 games, with opponents batting .202 off his pitching. Essentially, this means that opponents got a hit 20.2% of the time against him. In contrast, Joe Blanton's batting average on astroturf came in at .309, with an ERA of 3.67, giving up 34 hits in 27 innings.

In Matsuzaka's only start against the A's in 2007, he went 7 innings and gave up 7 hits, 2 earned-runs, 2 walks and 8 K's (strike outs) but the Boston bats didn't provide any run support in a 2-0 loss for the Sox. It's worth noting that this game was in Oakland and the Red Sox are pretty bad on the West Coast.

Blanton's stats over the first half are actually better than DiceK's 2007, however the A's have begun a rebuilding process this season and have lost Dan Haren, Nick Swisher, Mike Piazza and Shannon Stewart, whilst Eric Chavez is injured for this game.

This is Matsuzaka's homecoming game and I dont see him losing in front of his native crowd. This game is supposed to be an A's home match, but the crowd will be backing the Sox all the way thanks to Matsuzaka and All-star reliever Hideki Okajima. I'm going for a Sox win, available at 4/6 with Hills.

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Welcome to TDP mate and good to see some MLB back on the go!

Really got into it the last 2 years due to working night shift and would always catch whatever game was on. Unfortunately i went back to day shifts and now i hardly catch any although with my NASN subscription i hope to catch a few at weekends

Used to be a good few posters of the MLB but they all went their seperate ways.

Good luck

[Wet_Sail]

Red Sox it is, Shibuya. Let's hope you can get us off to a winning start.

You certainly talk a good game.

[Shibuya Sox]

Its my specialty!

[all_funkt_up]

I got into baseball when Sosa & McGwire were going for it at the end of the last Milennium. I got Setanta in the summer and was chuffed to bits when I realised I got live/nearly live baseball every night of the week. Get in! Cant wait for the season to start!

[Shibuya Sox]

4-4 after 9.......extra innings folks.

[Shibuya Sox]

Sox win 6-4 after 10 innings. It was tight for a bit there, but a fantastic game.

I thank ye.

[engineer]

Well done, mate

Close affair, indeed.