Poor Pitchers to Pound Before MLB Trade Deadline

Bartolo Colon a Poor Pitcher to Pound

Our pitchers to pound profiles and projections continues on Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline, and here’s a softball we can’t resist teeing up with Big Bertha. Bartolo Colon defies pitching logic. The 280 pound belly-filled buffet bowling ball is still tossing softballs to major league hitters at age 45. Colon tops out near 87 MPH on his fastball, and he throws it nearly 87 percent of the time. He’s a 2-pitch pin-point control pitcher with no stuff and no pure force and action of the baseball. His heavy fly-ball lean hinders him more at his home park, and will create a problem at Chase Field as well. Read more of our poor pitchers to pound profile here before the Rangers and Diamondbacks game July 31.

Yesterday we just missed our pitchers to pound first 5 inning totals play when Oakland led Toronto 4-0. We were fortunate when the runs finally piled up in the 8^th inning of the A’s 10-1 bombing of the Blue Jays. The A’s delivered a team total over winner and hit Estrada hard as our handicap projected. The A’s Jackson wiggled out some early spots including the first inning when he walked the first two batters of the game without allowing a run. The game total went over as projected, and now we’ll take a swing and pound another pitcher ripe to get rocked.

8 Questions for the Trade Deadline

Here was yesterday’s pitchers to pound baseball breakdown.

Blue Jays Dealing at Deadline and Estrada Likely Next

If you can figure out what happened to the Oakland A’s over the weekend, take a swing and fire me a message @FairwayJay. Baseball can be a tough game to figure out at times, as form can change quickly. The A’s have been a pleasant surprise, and still in the AL West and wild card chase at 61-46 despite losing three games at Colorado over the weekend and scoring just four runs. That debacle followed a MLB-best 27-7 stretch since June 16 in which the A’s scored 82 runs (6.3 runs per game) in 13 games prior to getting rolled by the Rockies.

The A’s offense has been solid this season, ranking top-5 in runs scored in the AL and home runs. Oakland has also produced lots of profit and green like the color of their jerseys, ranking #2 in the majors in profit produced only behind the best team in baseball Boston.

On Monday, July 30 we won’t be taking a risk on the A’s with erratic Edwin (Jackson) on the mound laying a pretty price. Instead, let’s attack a pair of poor pitchers who we project will both struggle to complete five innings.

At the leading online sports books, the A’s are a solid home favorite, and Oakland has gone 8-2 in their last 10 home games. At leading reduced juice sports book 5 Dimes, you can bet the dime line in baseball.

Toronto Blue Jays (+145)

Oakland A’s           (-155)

Total: 8.5

We have no interest in supporting either of these sub-par poor pitchers, so we’ll pound our driver long and straight with a first 5 inning play over the total and tack on more runs on the back side with a game total over as well.

A’s pitcher Edwin Jackson

Oakland starter Edwin Jackson has made six starts since the A’s picked him up from Washington and the minors, where he pitched 71 innings for two teams and struggled with past problems in recent seasons; too many free passes. Jackson has performed better than expected for the A’s including in two home starts, where the posted totals were 9 and 9.5 runs. The 34-year-old journeyman joined his MLB-record 13th team in Oakland last month, and Edwin has escaped pretty well so far in five of his starts posting a 3.86 ERA and .221 BAA. However, his last outing at Texas was his worst allowing nine baserunners and five runs in 4.1 innings. Don’t be fooled by erratic Edwin.

Jackson had an ERA of 5.71 last season over 71 innings with two MLB teams. He was getting roughed up in the minors this season, but the A’s were desperate for arms win an injury-ravaged rotation. He’s not a starting pitcher you can count on, and he makes our poor pitchers to pound list. The Blue Jays bats should take advantage having scored 7, 5, 10 and 6 runs in their last four games. The Jays are also among the league leaders in home runs with 140, and it will be of little surprise when Edwin’s neck and head rotate to the outfield, as he’s allowed four home runs at Oakland Coliseum in two starts covering 13 innings. The Blue Jays are bringing Big Bertha to bat.

Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada

But A’s hitters are bringing their driver to the batter’s box as Marco Estrada is Taylor Made for Oakland to snap out of their weekend hitting slump. Estrada makes his first start since July 3 after leaving that contest after three batters with a sore left hip (strained glute). He went on the disabled list and said the hip had been bothering him for weeks. Well, hopefully Estrada enjoyed his rehab and time in Toronto, because the Jays are looking to unload his $13 million/year salary and his declining skills.

Estrada has been pitching better than one could expect for a number of seasons now considering his sub-par skill set. His sub-90 MPH fastball is only effective when he’s locating it perfectly. He then has to fool hitters with his best change up pitch, because that’s about all he has in his repertoire. Despite posting some pretty good numbers in June, Estrada is still at the mercy of where hard hit balls land, as hitters make good and plenty of contact against him. Estrada has a sub-par ground ball rate and hitters adjust very well as he struggles deeper into games and batters hit him better each time through the lineup. Estrada is a sub-par poor pitcher to pound who belongs in the bullpen and long relief. Toronto is giving Estrada a start before the trade deadline in hopes teams will take notice and make a move. The Blue Jays are looking for a sucker, err suitor, but either way, they will be delighted to unload him after 3+ years of service. He was a dependable starter for his first two seasons in Toronto, but Marco’s good fortune and time is up, as a solid starter he is no longer. Take a shot one last time against Estrada in a Toronto uniform and swing it with confidence on the totals. Sell.

Article posted at osga.com.