Baseball Betting Preview: New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays

Added on Apr 19, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

The Yankees are off to a decent start and currently lead the AL East with a 9-5 record though no one else has really stepped forward to provide any competition. Among the current crop of also rans is the Toronto Blue Jays who are tied for second place with the Tampa Bay Rays at 7-9.

New York Yankees (Burnett) at Toronto Blue Jays (Drabek)
April 19, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

Jays in bad form at the moment having lost 7 of their last 9 and coming off a 9-1 blowout loss to the Boston Red Sox on Monday. The Yankees have won 5 of 7 and had Monday off. New York is only 1-2 on the road this season while Toronto is 4-2 at the Rogers Center. A.J. Burnett gets his first road assignment of the year for New York–he’s been mediocre at best this season with a 4.37 ERA though the Yankees have won all three of his starts. He’ll be countered by Toronto’s Kyle Drabek who has been very sharp–the Jays have won all three of his starts and Drabek has an exceptional 1.93 ERA.

We expect New York to be overvalued in most situations this season–they are one of the big ‘public’ teams in all of sports after all–and this game is no exception. Toronto gave the Yankees a lot of trouble last season winning 10 of the 18 meetings between the teams for +5.35 units of profit. Since 2009, the teams have split 18 games on Toronto’s home field. The Blue Jays were a great investment at home against right handed pitching in 2010 posting 16.20 units of profit. At a ‘pick’em’ price we’re getting a great value with the Blue Jays based on their situational profits last season and with the Yankees struggling on the road so far. Factor in the solid performance of Drabek so far in 2011 and it looks even better. We’ll look for other opportunities to play on Toronto as the series progresses but we’ll definitely use them here and most likely again on Wednesday when veteran righthander Bartolo Colon toes the rubber for the ‘Bronx Bombers’. The Yankees were a decent road investment in 2010 but until they start to show better form away from the Bronx we’ll look for as many opportunities as possible to go against them.

Bet Toronto Blue Jays (Drabek) -105 over New York Yankees (Burnett)