Baseball Betting Picks: Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs

Added on May 18, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

Interleague baseball play starts today and we’ve got a great opportunity to go against the public’s ill fated love affair with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubbies will host their crosstown rivals the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley Field and for some reason they’re favored.

Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs
March 18, 2012 11:20 AM Pacific

We knew it was too good to be true. The Chicago Cubs flirted with the ‘Mendoza line’ at home earlier this week but have now lost two straight and are solidly in the red again. Chicago has lost -2.6 units at Wrigley Field this year to add to their financial bloodbath of recent years. Since 2010 the Cubs are -30.6 units at Wrigley Field and since 1997 they’re a whopping -147.6 units at home. It looks like the same dynamic all over again–the public loves to back the Cubs at home despite the fact that they’ve lost a ton of money doing so. And those of us who love to go against them at Wrigley Field keep padding our bankroll.

Making matters worse is that the Cubs have been awful in Interleague play in recent seasons. They were 5-10 against the AL last year and 13-20 since 2010. The White Sox, meanwhile, have been solid in Interleague play going 26-10 +15.4 units against the National League since 2010. They’ve won 8 of the last 12 meetings against the Cubs and 4 of the last 6 at Wrigley Field.

To the Cubs’ credit, righthander Jeff Samardzija has looked very sharp in his recent outings while the White Sox Philip Humber has struggled since his perfect game. The White Sox have underachieved this season but have made a small profit on the road. With all due respect to the solid play of Samardzija this looks like a series where the White Sox can get back on track and back in contention in a wide open AL Central where they’re 1/2 game out of second place and just 4.5 out of first.

Ultimately, if you can find a good price going against the Cubs at home it’ll pay off in the long haul. And that’s exactly what we have here. We’ll look to back the White Sox throughout this weekend.

Bet Chicago White Sox (Humber) +118 over Chicago Cubs (Samardzija)