MLB Betting Free Picks: Colorado @ Arizona

Added on Jun 05, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

Busy weekend at sportsbooks with the NBA and NHL finals in full swing, the Belmont Stakes and a full card of baseball betting opportunities. We’ll take a look at a National League game between the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona is dead last in the NL West and tied for the worst record in the senior circuit. Colorado is just above them in 4th place, but they lead Arizona by 7.5 games and are just 4 back on division leading San Diego.

Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks
June 5, 5:10 PM Pacific

Arizona eked out a win on Friday night to end a 10 game losing streak, but the team is still a mess. The big problem has been the pitching staff–the Diamondbacks have the worst team ERA in baseball at 5.64, as well as the worst home ERA in the majors at 5.61. Colorado has never been a team known for pitching, but they check in with the 5th best team ERA in baseball at 3.64 and are #3 on the road with a 3.58 ERA. Obviously a good deal of this can be attributed to the phenomenal performance of staff ace Ubaldo Jimenez and his 0.78 ERA, but they’ve received solid work from others as well. Jhoulys Chacin gets the start today for the visitors and he’s got a solid 3.62 ERA overall and a very impressive 1.35 ERA in his 3 road assignments.

Dontrelle Willis makes his first start for Arizona since coming over in a trade from Detroit. It remains to be seen if he’ll ever regain the dominant form of his rookie year and at this point he’s got a long way to go. Overall, he’s got a 4.68 ERA but his last three starts have been far from impressive–he allowed 11 runs for a 7.08 ERA in his L3 starts along with a 14-12 walks to strikeout ratio. Arizona has been a huge money loser this year (-12.8 units) and have struggled against NL West opponents (8-19 -11 units). We’ll gladly back the better overall team with the better pitcher, and we’re getting a reasonable price.

Bet Colorado (Chacin) -120 over Arizona (Willis)