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**Udog** · 07-15-2021, 08:53 AM

Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack

Major league leaders in RBI:
73— Vladimir Guerrero
72— Rafael Devers
70— Shohei Ohtani
66— Jose Abreu
65— Jared Walsh
62— Aguilar, Duvall, AGarcia, JD Martinez

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Armadillo: Thursday's Den: Doing some thinking out loud……

13) Few days ago, I talked about podcasts and how finding good ones can help make you smarter, but there are a lot of podcasts, so you have to shop wisely— they’re free, but if you are spending your time listening, you want to listen to good ones. Spend wisely.

Last few weeks, I’ve been listening to a fantasy baseball podcast— the main host is very good, but there are 2-3 other guys who chime in. One guy is talking about players who might not be as good in the 2nd half of the season, and he brings up Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins.

I just traded for Mullins in my fantasy league, so I’m listening and then it becomes obvious to me; this guy has no idea whether Mullins hits lefty or righty. Mullins used to switch-hit, but gave up the right side of the plate and has excelled as a lefty. This guy had no clue, so he’s giving me advice, but he’s never seen Mullins play, and the guy is a freakin’ All-Star.

Terrific.

12) Guy I know named Jim is a knowledgeable/loyal Orioles fan; if you admit to being an Oriole fan these days, your loyalty is unquestioned. He loves Mullins, a guy who is only 5-8 and never started on his high school team until he was a senior in high school, none of which matters now because he just started in the major league All-Star Game.

Jim also touts Grayson Rodriguez, a pitcher at AA Bowie, who is supposed to be big-time, once he gets to the majors. If you’re in a dynasty league, Rodriguez would be a good guy to add.

Unfortunately for me, someone in our league had already gobbled him up by the time I went to add him.

11) American League has won the last eight All-Star games; not really sure if there is any rhyme or reason to this, sometimes stuff just happens, without any real reason. Don’t think the AL is any better than the National League.

10) Several guys who played in Denver Tuesday night are rumored to be trade bait with the trade deadline two weeks away; Adam Frazier, Kris Bryant, Kyle Gibson, guys like that.

I suggested that some oddsmaker post a number on the number of All-Stars traded before the end of the month. Will the Cubs dump their guys? Minnesota? Royals?

9) If you like the NFL, study the NFL, bet on the NFL or play fantasy football, you should go find Warren Sharp’s football guide and buy it. This is a textbook of football knowledge; there is a ton of stuff in there, and it is useful. I get it very year now, and make myself smarter— I recommend it enthusiastically.

8) If you bet the Bengals under their season win total the last five years, you would’ve won all five years, the longest such streak in the NFL.

In two years under HC Zac Taylor, Cincinnati is 2-13-1 in one-score games, games decided by 8 or fewer points.

7) Since 2000, Dallas Cowboys have come in under their season win total 14 of 21 seasons; are the Cowboys’ totals posted too high, because they’re overhyped, being America’s Team?

Quick reminder that you probably don’t need, but the NFL season is now 17 games, something to remind yourself of when you start looking at season win totals.

6) Detroit Lions recovered only 33% of the fumbles in their games last year, the worst %age of any team since 2014.

Detroit will be fascinating to me because of Jared Goff; as an avid Rams’ fan, I have nothing bad to say about Goff. Obviously I don’t know what happened behind closed doors there last year, but Goff won lot of games, got to a Super Bowl. He did fine.

That said, this will be the first time in five years he won’t have Sean McVay’s voice in his helmet before every play. Detroit seems like they’re going to want to run the ball a lot; what they get out of Goff, especially late in the season in cold weather road games, will be interesting to see.

5) 66-year old Rick Barnes gets a 2-year contract extension from Tennessee; this probably is for the benefit of potential recruits. You see older coaches like Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski retiring and Barnes is 66, so this extension puts any retirement rumors to rest.

4) Australia 108, Nigeria 69— Watched some of this game, which was ugly; three of the better Australian guys didn’t even play. Then you think, Nigeria is down 40 here and they beat the Americans the other night, scoring 90 points. Yikes!!!!

Team USA’s roster earned $219M in the NBA last year; Nigeria’s roster earned $9M, Australia’s $44M. Losing to those two teams is staggering.

3) USA 108, Argentina 80— Can’t be lot of fun to be a writer covering a team coached by Gregg Popovich; kind of a surly guy who has won a lot, so he has clout and when his team plays like dirt, you look like a jackass if you ask him tough questions.

Whether they admit it or not, people had to breathe a sigh of relief after this game. Olympics start pretty soon; the American team needs to start playing better.

2) Australians have an 18-year old kid named Josh Giddey who won’t be in Tokyo for the Olympics, but is expected to be a fairly high draft pick by the NBA in two weeks. He looked really good in this game against Nigeria. Curious to see where he lands in the NBA.

1) Australia has never won a basketball medal at the Olympics; in 2016, they lost the bronze medal game 89-88 to Spain, which got me to thinking, there is a HUGE difference between finishing 3rd and 4th in the Olympics, maybe even a bigger difference between finishing 1st/2nd.

Those third place games have to be fiercely fought; you spend all this time prepping to play in the Olympics, you want to bring SOME MEDAL home, even a bronze one. Australians look like they have a legit shot to medal in Tokyo.

**Udog** · 07-15-2021, 09:01 AM

951BOSTON -952 NY YANKEES
BOSTON is 22-9 SU (13.8 Units) vs. a team with a very good bullpen whose WHIP is 1.250 or better in the current season.

MLB
Dunkel

Thursday, July 15

MLB
Armadillo's Write-Up

Thursday, July 15

Boston (55-36) @ Bronx (46-43)
— Rodriguez is 1-1, 5.97 in his last six starts.
— Red Sox are 11-6 in his starts.
— over 7-1-1 last nine
— allowed run in first inning: 7-17
— record in first 5 innings: 8-7-2
— He is 1-0, 3.97 in two starts vs New York this year.

— Boston is 1-4 in its last five games.
— Red Sox are 5-7 in last dozen road games.
— under 5-1-1 last seven road games
— scored run in first inning: 33-91
— record in first 5 innings: 42-35-14

— Montgomery is 0-3, 4.76 in his last three starts.
— New York is 10-6 in his starts.
— under 9-7
— allowed run in first inning: 7-16
— record in first 5 innings: 4-10-2
— He is 1-1, 4.19 in seven starts vs Boston.

— New York won five of its last seven games.
— New York is 4-5 in its last nine home games.
— over 6-2-1 last nine home games
— scored run in first inning: 24-89
— record in first 5 innings: 38-35-16

MLB

Thursday, July 15

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Trend Report
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Boston @ NY Yankees
Boston
Boston is 5-0 ATS in its last 5 games when playing NY Yankees
Boston is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games when playing NY Yankees
NY Yankees
The total has gone OVER in 4 of NY Yankees's last 5 games at home
NY Yankees is 15-4 ATS in its last 19 games when playing at home against Boston

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**Udog** · 07-15-2021, 11:48 AM

MLB
Weather Report

Thursday, July 15

Announcement

Thursday's MLB Trends and Indexes - 7/15

Thursday's MLB Trends and Indexes - 7/15

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