MLB Betting Preview: St. Louis Cardinals at Arizona Diamondbacks

Added on Apr 11, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

More National League action on tap for Monday as the St. Louis Cardinals head to the southwest to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cards have stumbled out of the gate in 2011 going just 3-6 in their first 9 games. Arizona is 4-4 at this point.

St. Louis Cardinals (McLellan) at Arizona Diamondbacks (Enright)
April 11, 2011 6:40 PM Pacific

We’re sort of disappointing that the public has caught on to the Cards’ struggles as quickly as they have–instead of St. Louis being short priced road favorites this game is close to a ‘pick em’ at the moment which is probably where it should be priced. Arizona may be a better team than their record suggests–they played their first 5 games on the road but took 2 of 3 from the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend. St. Louis had a schedule that set up perfectly for a strong start to the year with their first 6 games at home against ‘beatable’ opponents in San Diego and Pittsburgh. Instead, they went 2-4 against the Padres and Pirates and lost 2 of 3 at San Francisco over the weekend.

Kyle McClellan did pitch very well in his first start of the season, pitching 6 innings allowing 2 hits and 2 ER while striking out 7. He’s still not a pitcher who can dominate opponents and particularly on the road. It’s also important to keep in mind that St. Louis was one of the worst ‘investments’ in baseball a year ago and nowhere did they lose more money for their ‘financial backers’ than on the road. Cards lost a whopping -22.55 units away from Busch Stadium and their dismal form to start the season doesn’t give us much of a reason to think that will change in the near term.

Arizona didn’t show a profit in many situational categories last year but one in which they did finish ‘in the black’ was in night games at home where they earned their financial backers +4.85 units. We look for the Diamondbacks to be a much improved team this season and there’s every reason to expect that they could take 2 of 3 from the Cards at Chase Field in this series. Cards will be a ‘go against’ in most situations until further notice.

Bet Arizona Diamondbacks (Enright) +100 over St. Louis Cardinals (McClellan)