Saturday MLB Baseball Picks: Tigers vs A’s
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MLB Betting – Tigers vs Athletics Preview & Pick
Date: Saturday April 16, 2011
Venue: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, CA
Broadcast: FSD, CSCA
Detroit Tigers at Oakland Athletics Betting Lines from Betus.com
Money Line: Oakland -109
Over/Under: 6.5
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Detroit Tigers (5-7 through April 13)
Justin Verlander (1-1, 3.13)
It’s early in 2011 but, so far, the long-term concerns about the Detroit Tigers are shining through. They have a handful of outstanding players, such as ace Justin Verlander, but a severe lack of depth. Verlander has a 3.13 ERA but The Tigers sit at 5.28 as a team through Wednesday, 27th in baseball. No other Tigers starter has an ERA below 4.00. Predictably, Miguel Cabrera is doing most of the heavy lifting on offense. The superstar is batting .349 with four homers. Victor Martinez was supposed to give him extra lineup protection. V-Mart’s power numbers are up to snuff (2 HR, 8 RBI) but he’s hitting just .222.
At least Verlander may not need huge run support on Saturday. He’s 4-4 against Oakland in his career but with a .285 ERA, holding the Athletics to a .225 average.
Oakland Athletics (6-6 through April 13)
Dallas Braden (0-1, 4.15)
The Oakland Athletics were a popular American League Wild Card sleeper entering 2011 because of their solid young pitching staff. The 2.90 team ERA, third-best in baseball, shows that the arms are living up to the hype. But Oakland’s offense is dragging its record down to .500. The A’s are hitting just .236 as a team. 
Hideki Matsui and Josh Willingham are contributing good power numbers and Daric Barton is getting on base prolifically but the good news ends there. Four Oakland regulars – Mark Ellis, David DeJesus, Kurt Suzuki and Kevin Kouzmanoff – are hitting .209 or worse through Wednesday.
Dallas Braden may never live up to the hype of his perfect game from 2010 but he was pretty darned good his last time out, striking out seven White Sox and allowing one run over six innings on April 11.
MLB Trends:
DET are 18-39 in their last 57 road games.
DET are 6-13 in their last 19 overall.
DET are 6-13 in their last 19 games on grass.
Under is 6-2 in OAK last 8 overall.
Under is 7-1 in the last 8 meetings in Oakland.
Under is 9-2-1 in the last 12 meetings.
The pick:
Another thing you need to know about Dallas Braden: the Tigers have crushed him historically. As a team, they bat .316 with seven homers and 32 runs scored in just 42.2 innings against him. Brandon Inge in particular has Braden’s number, batting .333 with a pair of homers over 15 at-bats. I’ll trust the historical data for this matchup and pick the Tigers to win on the road.
Tigers vs Athletics prediction: Tigers 6, Athletics 3
