Saturday's Pitching Report **34-13 L47 MLB Picks

[Freddy Wills]

The Rays pending from yesterday's article and we continue to roll right now and on Saturday we look at the card of six hot starters and 5 cold starters. We will look to stay hot right with the weather on the East Coast as we hit record highs today. Hopefully our can continue to do the same as we went 3-0 on premium plays on Friday night and are


Cardinals -130 (2* FREE PLAY) Jaime Garcia makes his second appearance on this list as he's really started to get back to pitching well with a 1.05 WHIP and 1.89 ERA in his last 3 starts. His ERA however on the road is 5.16, but that's a little blown out of proportion due to his poor performance in Colorado where he gave up 11 ER. Take that start out and 9 out of his 11 road starts he's given up 3 earned runs or less so I'm confident with him going up against the Pirates who have only seen him once where he gave up 1 ER over 6 innings last year. Also he faces a Pirates line up that continues to struggle hitting at home and hitting lefties. Pirates have been playing well but it's been all due to their pitching and I'll tell you why that's going to change on Saturday with their starting pitcher Kevin Correia.

First of all Correia has been extremely lucky with the amount of wins he's gotten. He only K's 4.62 batters per 9 innings which is very low and the Cardinals have hit him hard. Pujols/Schumaker/Theriot have a combined .410 average. It appears Pujols is just starting to get hot too as he has back to back days with home runs. Cardinals are 14-3 in their last 17 vs. a winning team with Garcia on the mound and I like their chances considering Correia has a 5.94 ERA at home this year and the Cards are #4 in OPS vs. RHP #1 in the National League vs. RHP. In fact during night games they are #2 in OPS in the entire league while Pit is just 26th with a .658 OPS. Love the Cards and Jaime Garcia to keep doing what he's doing which is pitching well in July as he has a 2.78 ERA in starts from 2008-2010 in July and add in the success over his last 3 starts and it's no coincidence.

Other Hot Starters L3 Starts:
Scott Baker - (2-1, 19 IP, 1.21 WHIP, 1.89 ERA)
Jeff Niemann (2-1, 21.1 IP, 1.08 WHIP, 0.84 ERA)
Matt Harrisson (3-0, 21.1 IP, 1.12 WHIP, 1.27 ERA)
Josh Beckett (3-0, 21 IP, 0.71 WHIP, 1.71 ERA)
Ryan Vogelson (1-2, 20.1 IP, 1.38 WHIP, 1.77 ERA)


Cold starter with the best chance to win on Saturday has to be Randy Wells for the fact that he plays the worst team in the league. He also faces another cold starter in Wandy Rodriguez who has not pitched as well during day games and gave up 5 ER in his start earlier this year to the Cubs. Cubs actually hit lefties better than righties which is another reason I like the match up and give Wells the best chance to win. Astros are also ranked at the bottom of the league with just 3.77 runs per day gay and are 10-21 with an ERA over 4.

Other Cold Starters L3 Starts:
Wandy Rodriguez (0-3, 17 IP, 1.82 WHIP, 7.41 ERA)
Joel Piniero (2-1, 14.1 1.88 WHIP, 6.91 WERA)
Bradley Bergessen (0-3, 14 IP, 1.93 WHIP, 9.00 ERA)
Jason Hammel (1-2, 15 IP, 1.73 WHIP, 6.60 ERA)