MLB Betting Picks: Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals

Added on Apr 04, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

If you’re not interested in watching the NCAA basketball final you don’t have many alternatives on an otherwise short card of sports betting for Monday. One possible option is a nighttime baseball game in the National League between NL Central rivals Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The Pirates are 2-1 after the first weekend of the 2011 season while the Cards are 1-2.

Pittsburgh Pirates (Morton) at St. Louis Cardinals (Lohse)
April 4, 2011 5:15 PM Pacific

It’s not uncommon in any sport for good teams to get off to a slow start and baseball is no exception. While we’re just 3 games in, St. Louis has shown a tendency in the past to come out of the gate slowly so they may be a good ‘go against’ early on. This may hurt them in the long run and with a Cincinnati Reds team that could be a World Series contender also in their division they really can’t afford it, but it still won’t surprise us to see the Redbirds struggle until the weather warms up some more.

From a personnel standpoint, the Cards’ biggest concern is the impending free agency of Albert Pujols. He arrived at training camp without a long term deal and his longterm status is uncertain to say the least. Pujols has stated that he’d like to stay in St. Louis but at this point it looks like he’ll at least test the free agent market following the 2011 season. Assuming he approaches his impending free agency like so many other players in all sports during a ‘contract year’ he could put up big numbers this season. Other than the ongoing Pujols soap opera, the Cards upgraded the middle of the batting order with the free agent acquisition of Lance Burkman and the emergence of rookies Jon Jay and Allen Craig late last season.

The Pirates finished 57-105 in 2010 and haven’t had a winning season in 15 years but despite these daunting facts there’s a lot of optimism on and around the team. This enthusiasm isn’t delusional in the least–while the Pirates’ pitching is still a big question mark the team has a ton of brutally talented youngsters with four everyday starters 25 and younger who all have All Star potential. Second baseman Neil Walker, outfielder Jose Tabata, third baseman Pedro Alvarez and center fielder Andrew McCutchen have superstar potential and at very least could be solid players for years to come.

We expect the Cardinals to be in the thick of things late in the season, but at this point we’d much rather take the price with the exciting young Bucs. St. Louis will be without LF Matt Holliday who underwent an emergency appendectomy late last week and the team could be ‘looking ahead’ to their first road trip of the year which opens with a three game set against the World Champion San Francisco Giants.

Bet Pittsburgh Pirates (Morton) +145 over St. Louis Cardinals (Lohse)