What are you suppose to look for when handicapping baseball?

[frankb03]

Starting pitching to over-rated in baseball. As RJ noted about. Last night's Minny game with Santana is a good example.

[ChuckLazar]

I think having many years experience in hadicapping Baseball that doesn't have the hype that other sports have helps!
In football for example, the game is hyped all week any sometimes it's easy to get caught up in it!!

I look for the best situations on any given night!! Starting pitchers and their bullpens play an important part along with hot teams and cold teams and knowing certain Coaches tendencies!!

A perfect example of this was last night's game with Pgh and Fla!! Fla just lost 9 straight games to the Pirates. But their hottest pitcher was pitching in a must game to avoid a sweep!!
I looked into Pgh team batting averages vs Willis. They were 14-52, which surprised the hell out of me!! Willis was 0-2 in his career against Pgh!! But the fact of the matter was that those 2 loses were against better hitters that the Pirates traded last year!! Kendall the leadoff hitter and Allstar catcher was traded to Oak and Giles, their #3 hitter and Allstar outfielder went to SD. Also Ramirez their # 4 hitter went to the Cubs. So that only left Jackie Wilson and #2 and SS left in the heart of that lineup!!
Fla won of course!! That's just one of the many things to look for!! It takes some knowledge of teams and pitchers along with many years of experience in researching stats and Coaches!!

Everyone here can verify that I'm not even close to being a good Football Handicapper, which I played!! Because I have my favorite teams and that is the worst thing to have in any sport when hadicapping!!

I think everyone that posted has given great reasons!!!

[ats]

first thing i do is exactly what frank said and throw out favorites of 1.50 or more then i got teams and pitchers i regularly follow and they change but some dont for a month or two.....like my go against Cincys Milton has lasted all season long and this guy gives up mega HR's and still could be found at a good price, last time against the pirates with a lefty going against cincys big left handed bats....an easy 9-2 winner....and tonight in colorado...rockies only 1.35

looking for..... eras, whip, strikeouts to walks, bullpen availability and collective era of those pitchers, team avgs, team avg against left or right and dont forget home and road discrepencies......just look at Houston Colorado and Tampa and you'll know what i mean.....betting on these teams at home and then against on the road regardless puts you in the black.....once you got a handle on some numbers youll find teams and pitchers you like to ride for or against

catch a team starting to get hot........read mondays recap of the Oakland Tampa game to see what i mean, i've been on Oakland for 4 str8

dont expect a streak to end........look at yankees can they actually lose another to kc??!!?? yes ...but you could of only had kc anyway following the under 1.50 favorite rule

ill go with Vazquez and against Milton tonight.....look at the numbers you'll probably see the logic......

[frankb03]

I looked into Pgh team batting averages vs Willis. They were 14-52, which surprised the hell out of me!! Willis was 0-2 in his career against Pgh!!

That's very interesting since a member posted yesterday that Willis 'owns' the Pirates. Another example of the bad info that gets passed at this site and the web. It amazes me that we live in the info era but so much misinformation gets passed.

[frankb03]

Playing the hot team is a good system. IMO fading the cold team is more profitable. Vegas line catch the hot teams before fading the slumping teams.

[BigTicket]

frank today you are the king of making a 2nd post before I have finished reading the one posted right before it!!! hahhahahah