Get to the Point
By Jimmy Harris
Anyone who knows me knows that I like playing fantasy sports almost as much as I like laying down sports bets. Right now, I’ve got four fantasy baseball squads going, with two in first place and the other two stuck in the league basement. You can blame Ryan Howard, Troy Tulowitzki, Justin Verlander and Matt Cain for my cellar-dwelling teams.
My fascination with fantasy sports he recently got me into betting on a ton of MLB player props on my BodogLife account. So far my fantasy expertise has paid off, as I’m hitting nearly 80 per cent of my player prop picks to the tune of a hefty profit.
Just last night, for example, I hit these winners at BodogLife. I started out by making a half-dozen player matchup bets trying to pick who will have the most hits, runs and RBI between the following pairs:
• Josh Hamilton (+130) vs. Miguel Cabrera (-160)
• Ian Kinsler (+115) vs. Carlos Guillen (-145)
• Chone Figgins (+155) vs. Jacoby Ellsbury (-190)
• Vladimir Guerrero (+165) vs. Manny Ramirez (-205)
• Albert Pujols (-180) vs. Nate McClouth (+150)
• Vernon Wells (-140) vs. Carlos Pena (+110)
I took Cabrera and Guillen because they were both facing raggedy Texas hurler Luis Mendoza, and the Tigers’ sluggers both delivered in Detroit’s 19-6 rout of the Rangers. Cabrera came through with a 6-2 win over Hamilton, while Guillen ripped Kinsler 9-6.
In the Boston game I got screwed because I made my picks and then found out Daisuke Matsuzaka was out with the flu. I grabbed Ellsbury because he had such a huge game on Tuesday and lucked out as he beat Figgins 1-0.
I thought Ramirez was going to tee off on Angels starter Jon Garland, while Guerrero would have a quiet night versus Dice-K, but the reverse happened and Vladdy won 4-1.
Between Pujols and McClouth, I was thinking about grabbing McClouth for value because he’s been crushing the ball throughout April, but in the end I went with Pujols. That was the right decision as Pujols beat him 3-0.
Picking Wells over Pena as my last pick was an easy one with the Jays sending Halladay to the hill. The Jays ended up losing, but at least Wells topped Pena 3-1. All together I went five-for-six to end up well in the black for the night.