Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Game Picks - Thursday: March 29, 2012

The Game Picks season started with a win and though it took three cups of coffee and a couple of aspirin, that 6:10 in the morning game start was worth the early wake up time. For a first game of the season, that was pretty exciting, was it not? Ichiro got all down with his home self. Dustin Ackley was the run producer. Yoenis Cespedes got his first major league hit and Felix Hernandez and Brandon McCarthy did themselves proud. 

The second game of this unusual series starts at five o'clock in the morning eastern time. There's no way that's going to happen no matter how much coffee is available. Which is too bad because then we are back to only exhibition baseball until next Friday. Mr. Selig, this is a bit stupid. Whatever, there is still a game to pick. And it won't be easy.

The pick:

  • The Mariners over the Athletics: How can you pick this game? Bartolo Colon pitches for the A's and yes, he had a surprising season last year as he went to Dr. Frankenstein and somehow had his arm rebuilt. But the guy has only pitched six innings all spring. Six. What will he last? Four innings? Five? He will throw strikes and probably all fastballs. And that may be a bad thing against a young hitting team like Seattle. But what about Seattle's starter? Jason Vargas has been creamed this spring. How bad has he been? How about 1.85 WHIP bad. The final breakdown works like this: You can't trust Colon and you can't trust Vargas. But, believe it or not, the Mariners have one or two weapons more on offense than the A's have. After Weeks and Cespedes, what is there? This is Ichiro's series. He is the rock star here. So that is the pick.

Yesterday: 1-0
Season: 1-0

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