Cleveland @ CHICAGO
Cleveland +156 over CHICAGO

BEST LINES:  Pinnacle +156 BET365 +150 SportsInteraction +150 5DIMES +155

Posted at 11:15 AM EST

8:05 PM EST. Right-hander Adam Plutko (RHP) was called up to be the 26th man for Cleveland's doubleheader on May 5 and was scheduled to head back to Triple-A afterward. He also appeared briefly in two games for the Tribe back in 2016. Standing 6'3" and weighing 200 pounds, the former UCLA hurler has four pitches but none of them are truly plus. That he is even pitching so early in 2018 is impressive, as he had offseason hip surgery. The numbers he has put up in Columbus so far this year are quite good (2.25 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 2.1 BB’s/9, 7.3 K’s/9 in 44 IP) and better than his previous two stays at that level. He only throws in the low-90s on his fastball and gets by on pitch sequencing. He has a nice slider/change-up combo and he repeats his arm speed. When things go right and he is locating his fastball to both sides of the plate and sequencing his pitches, he has the ability to be an effective starter. We understand that Plutko could get whacked here but we’ll leave that to chance, as this is all about backing the heating up Indians against a very overvalued starter.

Jon Lester (LHP) struggled in a start against the Indians last month and current Cleveland batters own a .771 OPS against him. Cleveland can go way right-handed with its batting order, and that cuts into Lester’s best stuff. After an awful start to the season, the Indians have put together a robust .798 OPS over their last 36 games and must be bet in this price range when it is being offered against a starter they know well and have had success against too. Jon Lester is not as good as his 2.52 surface ERA says. His velocity is down to 90.1 MPH and his 39%/23%/38% groundball/line-drive/fly-ball profile is also trending wrong. The weather is warming up and now we’ll look to take full advantage of prices on these average pitchers that have been backed up early by a market that is largely unaware of just how fortunate they’ve been to cash tickets on some overpriced favorites. It’s time to get paid back with interest.

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Our Pick

Cleveland +156 (Risking 2 units - To Win: 3.12)

Baltimore -1½ +124 over L.A. Angels
San Francisco +100 over San Diego
Toronto +120 over Tampa Bay
Washington +135 over Cincinnati
San Diego under 83½ -105
Boston under 79½ -110