The St. Louis Cardinals have become the latest MLB club to face a coronavirus outbreak amongst the team’s traveling party. With their weekend series against the Brewers already postponed and the team expecting more positive tests, the Cardinals players have been quarantining in their Milwaukee hotel rooms.
But, apparently, that hasn’t stopped Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty from looking to stay sharp in between starts.
Flaherty took to Twitter on Sunday and shared a photo from his hotel room, and we could see that the Cardinals pitcher placed his mattress up against the hotel wall. It was all set up for an impromptu bullpen session. He even joked about Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly’s poor aim during quarantine.
Flaherty posted a video to his Instagram Story about having some baseballs ready for the bullpen session.
“Let’s see what happens,” he said.
But we never saw what actually happened.
And sure, throwing a baseball against a hotel mattress is probably poor hotel etiquette, but it’s been over a week since his last start. He can’t leave his hotel room.
Desperate times call for desperate measures — just don’t break anything.
Previewing Friday’s Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals matchup, with MLB betting predictions, picks and best bets.
The Pittsburgh Pirates travel to take on the division rival St. Louis Cardinals Friday at Busch Stadium for an 8:15 p.m. ET first pitch. We analyze the Pirates-Cardinals MLB betting odds and lines, with betting advice and tips around the matchup.
Pirates at Cardinals: Projected starting pitchers
RHP Joe Musgrove vs. RHP Jack Flaherty
Musgrove ended up 11-12 with a 4.44 ERA and 157 strikeouts with a 1.22 WHIP across 31 starts and one relief appearance in 2019.
Musgrove was bombed against the Cardinals last season, going 0-4 with a 10.00 ERA, 24 hits allowed and 12 walks yielded in 18 innings over four starts, while St. Louis hit a combined .324 against him.
The righty was actually better on the road last season, going 6-6 with a 3.73 ERA across 82 innings, while posting a 5-6 mark and a 5.09 ERA in 88 1/3 innings at home.
Flaherty was good for an 11-8 record, a 2.75 ERA, a fantastic 0.98 WHIP and 231 strikeouts in 33 starts in 2019.
Flaherty was hard on the Bucs last season, going 1-0 with a 0.60 ERA and .163 opponent batting average (OBA) across 15 innings.
The California right-hander was dominant at Busch in ’19, going 7-4 with a sparkling 2.37 ERA and .168 OBA over 98 2/3 innings.
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The Pirates (+170) lost their last six road games in 2019, and things do not appear any brighter to kick off the new season. The Cardinals (-189) are heavy favorites at home, but laying this kind of chalk early is dangerous. AVOID.
New to sports betting? A $10 bet on the Cardinals (-189) to win straight up nets a return of just $5.29 if they prevail.
The CARDINALS (-1.5, +110) are a much better value in their home park on the run line, especially against Musgrove, who couldn’t do anything right against the Redbirds in 2019. Overall the Bucs are 7-20 in their past 27 tries against the Cards, and a dismal 20-45 in their past 65 at Busch.
OVER 8 (-110) is a risky play based on Flaherty’s numbers from a year ago, and how tough he was on the Buccos. However, Musgrove was awful against the Cardinals, and the St. Louis batters could be doing an early conga line on the base paths against the shaky righty. It won’t be a beer-league softball score, but the Cards should scratch out enough offensively to make up for the lack of runs by the Pirates batters.
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Previewing the National League Cy Young Award odds, with MLB betting odds, picks and best bets
Can anyone prevent Jacob deGrom from winning the 2020 National League Cy Young Award — which would be his third straight? The gang at BetMGM isn’t making it easy on bettors who think not, installing the Mets ace as the clear favorite at +280.
As of 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday, March 8, BetMGM has 10 other pitchers with a line of less than +3000:
Max Scherzer (+450)
Walker Buehler (+1000)
Jack Flaherty; Stephen Strasburg (+1100)
Clayton Kershaw (+1200)
Luis Castillo (+2000)
Patrick Corbin; Aaron Nola; Yu Darvish; Trevor Bauer (+2500)
National League Cy Young: Breaking down the field
When it comes to projecting a Cy Young winner, you try to go through a process of elimination.
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You don’t get enough return from deGrom. Strasburg is coming the best season of his career, but he has too long an injury history to ignore. The same goes for Kershaw. Opponents have a .208 career batting average against him and he has a career 2.44 ERA, but he hasn’t thrown 180 innings in any of his last four seasons, which limits your opportunities to get wins consistently.
Flaherty has talent and could be primed for a breakout season, but in 66 career starts he has a record of 19-19, which makes winning the Cy Young a spring training stretch — despite him going 7-2 with a 0.91 ERA after the All-Star Break last year. Castillo showed great improvement in 2019, but walks too many players, which leads to too many cheap runs being scored.
When it comes down to placing a wager, I would split the money between two of the top candidates that have solid return rates — Scherzer and Buehler. Scherzer is 35 so there is a concern about age, but in an era dominated by strikeouts, few are better than him. In five seasons in Washington, he has posted a sub-3.00 ERA of each of them and has an astounding 1,371 strikeouts in 1,050 2/3 innings. Last year, despite battling through back problems, he posted 243 strikeouts in 172 1/3 innings and a WHIP of 1.03 (his highest total in five years). He has all the tools.
Dodgers starting pitcher and budding ace Walker Buehler. (Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez – USA TODAY Sports)
Put the other half of your bankroll on Buehler. At +1000, there are a lot of things to like about him. The Dodgers have dominated the National League West, winning the last seven division titles and leaving no reason to expect they won’t again in 2020. With concerns over Kershaw’s availability for a full season, Buehler will likely be asked to take on the role of the innings-eating ace. At 25, he is hitting his prime and, with that potent Dodger lineup behind him, 20 wins is a possibility.
THE BET: Scherzer if you’re only betting on one player; Scherzer and Buehler if you’re willing to split your bet.
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