Pinnacle +151  BET365 +145 SportsInteraction +145 BetOnline +150

Posted at 11:30 AM EST. 

Baltimore +151 over BOSTON

2:10 PM EST. None of the offseason acquisitions made by Baltimore were very exciting, but to give the front office a little credit, they are, at the very least, interesting. Félix Hernández, who has been in the league since 2005, will certainly offer a veteran’s perspective, though perhaps from the Injured List. If not him, then Matt Harvey will do. Avant-garde second baseman Yolmer Sanchez will dump an entire cooler of Gatorade on himself when appropriate, for the sake of art. Whether any of these acquisitions will turn the tide of consecutive losing seasons, is doubtful.

The return of Trey Mancini will be a welcome respite to Orioles fans, as he is arguably the “face” of the organization after piledriving stage three colon cancer into a wooden table, from off the top of a metaphorical steel cage. Now cancer-free, Mancini is liberated to revisit and embellish his 2019 season, where he posted an .899 OPS and favored a 120 DRC+. Mancini may be the last relic, alongside Chris Davis, left from a “good-hitting” Orioles team of the distant past, similar to how birds are descended from dinosaurs. And when games are won, it appears as if there is greater meaning applicable; the absurdity of tanking is shortly forgotten. Games are still being lost, but just maybe, a winning organization is within reach. Until then, the great Orioles teams of the past are fossilized, left for us to buff, polish, and speculate upon a brighter future.

Rays-ification. What that means is copying the Tampa Bay Rays sort of successful model in developing talent within and letting potentially massive contracts walk. In no time at all, Chaim Bloom will have gutted the Red Sox of any sign of inefficiency in order to build a veritable army of Role 5 hitters who play four positions (poorly) and No. 4 starters who won’t be quite good enough to get expensive in arbitration. Bloom still has some contracts to shed, some beloved players to exile, and a farm system to build. But make no mistake about it: the Rays-ification of the Red Sox is well underway. Someday soon, it may even be complete. But for now, this organization’s radical heel turn leaves the major league squad in baseball purgatory for at least one more season: too good to tank, but nowhere near good enough to genuinely compete. As such, the Red Sox are not yet rising or declining, or even really all that interesting.

Nathan Eovaldi (RHP - BOS) posted solid results last year, which were sandwiched between a two-week IL stint for calf issues and notably, not oft-injured elbow. The sub-metrics back it up: career-best K%, BB%, swing and miss rate and superb groundball/fly-ball ratio. Indications are he ended the year healthy; three post-IL starts yielded 19K, 1 BB, and 99 mph average fastball. Still, the price on him is a bit steep here, as he and the Red Sox are simply not worthy of it.

Even with lucky a lucky hit% rate, John Means’ ERA jumped by nearly a full run in his 10 starts last season but he left us with some things to get excited about, notably big jumps in his velocity and K%. An excellent BB% led to strong WHIP/xWHIP. His last four starts featured a 30/3 K/BB, 15.9% swing and miss rate and four earned runs. He's far from a sure thing, but just may be on verge of a breakout and is very worthy of taking back a price like this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A cheaper and better alternative to CABLE

TV Programming

A GREAT OFFER FOR SPORTSWAGERS READERS:

We’re offering a better and cheaper alternative to cable TV. You will literally save thousands of dollars. If you’re sick of paying a fortune for programming that you don’t even want or need, this is for you. All pro sports -- EVERY GAME, tons of college football and basketball games and tons of regular programming (non-sports). Over 2500 channels all in HD for a mere $20 per month. You have to be nuts not to get it.