With Chargers QB sitting and RB Melvin Gordon holding out Los Angeles will look to give their reserves the lion’s share of the minutes on Thursday night in Arizona. The Cards are going to give rookie QB Kyler Murray some playing time, but we don’t expect him to run anything but a vanilla offense in his first pro action. Predictem handicapper Zank weighs out the lineups and the motivational factors to arrive at his preseason pick.
The Giants and the Jets take to the field of the MetLife Stadium on Thursday night for each club’s first preseason game of the 2019 season. The Jets are a small -2 favorite for this game with the total offered up at 33 points. Our handicapper looks at the roster changes and more importantly the projected line-ups and playing time for the key players o each team. Read on to get Zank’s against the spread prediction.
In Monday interleague action the Athletics travel to the Windy City to take on the Cubs. This will be the first meeting between these clubs since 2016 and the first time back in Chicago to face the Cubbies since 2010! Two sharp pitchers will get the starting call with Bassitt starting for the A’s and Hendricks for the Cubs. MLB handicapper Zank breaks down the key metrics and gives out his pick to win.
The last game on the MLB betting board has the Padres opening a three-game set in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. Last series at Dodger Stadium in early July the Padres took three of four games including a Kershaw/Lauer match-up. This time around it will be Lauer for SD and rookie May making his first career start for LAD. Will Zank look to capitalize on the big road dog or is there better value on the board?
If this were the regular season the Falcons would most likely be the favorite in this spot even if the game was played in Denver. However, this is the preseason and based on the players likely to get the most playing time favors the Broncos. Read on to get our first NFL pick of the 2019 preseason.
The electric armed Danny Salazar sees his first MLB action since October of 2017. He’ll be thrown directly into the fire vs. a Houston Astros team that is 16-8 since the all star break and features red-hot starting pitcher Gerrit Cole, who has allowed a minuscule 3 earned runs in his last 21 innings, while fanning 29 over that span.
The Brewers and Athletics open a three-game set in Oakland tonight. Adrian Houser is back in a starter roll for Milwaukee and he’ll be looking for his first win after going 0-4 with two no decisions over his first six career starts. Chris Bassitt gets the ball for the Oakland and while he hasn’t been dominating, he does give his team a chance to win allowing three or fewer runs in his 14 of his 17 starts. Our MLB prognosticator digs into the data and gives out his free pick.
The Nats and the Braves will meet for the 10th time this season when they open a three-game set tonight in Washington. Atlanta starter Dallas Keuchel has just four career starts against Washington over his career with his team losing all four. The Nationals starter Patrick Corbin has had excellent numbers against the Braves and comes into this game ultra-sharp allowing three or fewer runs in seven consecutive starts. Zank digs into the pitching stats and a slew of other statistics to come up his MLB pick for today.
The Red Sox took the first three and will be getting the brooms ready for a sweep with a win tonight. They’re the hotter club winners of five of six and on paper have the edge in starting pitching tonight with Chris Sale on the mound. The line does reflect this (Boston -180) so the question is, do they warrant the risk or is there a better way to play this game. Get Zank’s take and prediction.
The Cubs lost for the fourth time in their last five games with the series opening loss last night to the Brew Crew. They hope to reverse their form tonight when they send out lefty Jon Lester who pitched well earlier against Milwaukee. Chase Anderson gets the starting duties for the Brewers to make his first start this season against the Cubs, but his resume versus Chicago is solid. Is the under the smart play here? Read on to get Zank’s game prediction.