Major League Baseball Handicapping
Sports Betting
Jun 5, 2001, 16:53
By Marc Lawrence http://www.gamblingonlinemagazine.com
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Ah. The smell is in the air. Hot Dogs, peanuts, and ice-cold beer are once again being offered up at Ballparks across the country, as the 2001 Major League Baseball season is suddenly underway.
It seems like only yesteday the New York Yankees limped into the MLB playoffs, only to emerge victorious, enroute to winning the World Series for the third year in a row. The question now is - can the 2001 Yankees become only the third team in MLB history to win four consecutive World Series titles?
The off-season acquisition of former Baltimore ace pitcher Mike Mussina will certainly go a long way in making that a reality as the Bronx Bombers possess a starting four (Clemens, Mussina, Hernandez, Petite) reminiscent of some of baseball's deepest starting staffs in decades past, such as the '54 Indians (Feller, Lemon, Garcia, Wynn), the '66 Dodgers (Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton, Osteen, the '71 Orioles (Palmer, Cuellar, McNally, Dobson), the'85 Dodgers (Hershiser, Valenzuela, Ruess, Welch) and the '98 Ravens (Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Neagle). Will the '01 Yankees staff make their mark in the '00s? Only time will tell.
There's no doubt that the key to successful baseball handicapping is keeping a pulse on the starting pitchers. And because they are human, pitchers develop a tendency to perform at optimum best, or minimum worst, capacities at various stages of the season. Recognizing their 'good month' and 'bad month' tendencies goes a long way in becoming a winning handicapper. Thanks to my friend Tom Freese, handicapper par excellence from the vegasexperts.com staff, I present a list of the BEST and WORST pitcher performance records over the past three years. Note that the Win-Loss figures are team-start records, or the team's record in games started by the denoted pitcher. To qualify, pitchers must have started a minimum of 10 games within their designated month.
Keep this valuable list handy this 2001 baseball season, as throughout the hot summer months ahead, you'll soon be beefing up on a diet of lip-smacking baseball delicacies and winning plays. Hey, beer man, pour me anothe cold one, would ya?...
APRIL PITCHERS
American League Good Month: Pedro Martinez 13-3, Chuck Finley 12-3, Aaron Sele 12-3, David Cone 11-3, David Wells 13-4, Eric Milton 12-4, Orlando Hernandez 8-3.
American League Bad Month: Steve Woodard 2-9, Livan Hernandez 3-12, Dave Mlicki 3-10, Darren Oliver 4-10, Jaime Navarro 4-10, Scott Erickson 3-8, Jeff Suppan 5-11.
National League Good Month: Randy Johnson 13-4, Andy Ashby 12-4, Mike Hampton 12-4, Al Leitner 11-4, Kirk Reuter 10-4, Pat Hentgan 10-5, Denny Neagle 8-4.
National League Bad Month: Sterling Hitchcock 2-10, Pete Harnisch 4-10, Omar Daal 3-7.
MAY PITCHERS
American League Good Month: Ramon Martinez 8-2, Pedro Martinez 13-4, Darren Oliver 13-5, Jeff Fassero 12-5, Rick Helling 12-5, David Wells 12-5, Kevin Appier 7-3, Dave Burba 11-5, Bartolo Colon 10-5, Sidney Ponson 8-4, Tim Wakefield 8-4.
American League League Bad Month: Ken Hill 3-10, Cris Carpenter 4-11, Dwight Gooden 4-9, Jim Parque 4-9, Bobby Witt 4-9, Orlando Hernendez 3-7, Scott Erickson 6-12.
National League Good Month: Todd Stottlemyre 11-3, andy Johnson 14-5, Mike Hampton 13-5, Terry Mulholland 8-3, Rick Reed 11-5, Scott Karl 11-5, Pedro Astacio 12-6, John Burkett 8-4.
National League Bad Month: Glendon Rusch 1-9, Andy Benes 5-12, Ismail Valdez 5-11, Chris Holt 3-7, Mark Gardner 4-9.
JUNE PITCHERS
American League Good Month:</b>Jim Parque 13-2, David Wells 12-3, Tim Hudson 8-2, Cris Carpenter 9-4.
American League Bad Month: Jeff Fassero 1-15, Gil Heredia 2-8, James Baldwin 3-9, Brad Radke
4-12, Pat Rapp 5-11, Steve Trachsel 5-11.
National League Good Month: Al Leiter 13-2, Sterling Hitchcock 9-2, Curt Reuter 11-4, Mike Hampton 10-4, Kevin Brown 12-5, Randy Wolf 7-3.
National League Bad Month: Jesus Sanchez 2-8, Carlos Perez 4-10, Scott Karl 3-7.
JULY PITCHERS
American League Good Month: Pedro Martinez 10-2, Gil Heredia 9-2, Joey Hamilton 8-2, Rick Helling 13-4, Roger Clemens 12-4, David Wells 11-4, Orlando Hernandez 9-4, Kent Bottenfield 11-5, Jamie Moyer 11-5, Mike Mussina 11-5, Andy Pettitte 11-5, Tim Wakefield 7-3.
American League Bad Month: Omar Olivares 2-9, Blake Stein 2-9, Jeff Weaver 2-8, Rolando Arrojo 3-11.
National League Good Month: Joe Leiber 14-2, Tom Glavine 15-3, Andy Ashby 11-3, Hidecki Irabu 10-3, Rick Reed 10-3, Denny Neagle 9-3, Pete Harnisch 10-5, Curt Schilling 10-5, Russ Ortiz 8-4.
National League Bad Month: Masato Yoshi 3-14, Jason Schmidt 2-9, Dustin Nermanson 5-12, Darryll Kile 6-14, Paul Byrd 3-7, John Burkett 4-9, Brian Bohanon 5-10, Ryan Dempster 5-10, Bobby Jones 4-8.
AUGUST PITCHERS
American League Good Month: Pedro Martinez 14-3, James Baldwin 13-3, Omar Olivares 8-2, Roger Clemens 13-4, Bartolo Colon 13-4, Andy Pettitte 13-4, Orlando Hernandez 12-5, Estaban Loazia 12-5, David Wells 12-5.
American League Bad Month: Bryan Rekar 0-11, Brad Radke 5-10.
National League Good Month: Garrett Stephenson 9-1, Tom Glavine 15-3, Mike Hampton 14-3, Scott Elarton 8-2, Bobby Jones 8-2, Steve Parris 8-2, Russ Ortiz 13-5, Pete Harnisch 12-5, Armando Reynoso 11-5, Brian Anderson 10-4, John Smoltz 8-3, Kevin Brown 12-6, Randy Johnson 12-6.
National League Bad Month: Chris Benson 3-8, Randy Wolf 3-8, Jon Leiber 4-11, Omar Daal 5-11, John Snyder 5-11, Brian Meadows 4-9, John Burkett 5-10.
SEPTEMBER PITCHERS
American League Good Month: Tim Hudson 8-2, Chuck Finley 12-5, Aaron Sele 11-5, James Baldwin 8-4.
American League Bad Month: Steve Woodward 3-10, Steve Sparks 3-9, Jeff Weaver 3-7.
National League Good Month: Randy Johnson 13-3, Dennt Neagle 10-3, Chan Ho Park 13-4, Jamie Wright 12-4, Andy Benes 9-3, Kevin Millwood 11-4, Pete Harnisch 10-4, Darryl Kile 10-4, Shane Reynolds 7-3, John Burkett 10-5, Kirk Reuter 10-5, Todd Stottlemeyre 8-4.
National League Bad Month: Jon Leiber 2-10, Armando Reynoso 3-11, Randy Wolf 3-8, Rick Reed 4-9, Sterling Schmidt 3-7.
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