posted April 16, 2008 at 17:10 EST in MLB Betting Trends

Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Francisco Giants

The Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants open up a three-game series on Monday night what makes this meeting notable is the return of Randy Johnson.

The Big Unit is slated to pitch on Monday night after two rehab starts. His first one was awful but his second outing was much better.

After Johnson, the D-Backs will throw Micah Owings and Brandon Webb, giving them a significant advantage over Jonathan Sanchez, Kevin Correia and Barry Zito.

The D-Backs had won nine straight prior to last night’s loss. They are clearly one of the better teams in the NL West while the Giants, who are 5-8, are one of the worst teams in baseball.

Pick: Arizona

Minnesota Twins @ Detroit Tigers

Speaking of some of the worst teams in baseball, the Detroit Tigers are in the conversation. The World Series favorites have started the season 2-10 and are clearly no longer World Series favorites.

Part of the problem has been pitching. Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson, the two starters the Tigers will throw in this two-game series, have allowed 14 earned runs in 21.2 innings pitched (5.94 ERA). On top of the poor pitching, the Tigers haven’t been hitting as well as expected. Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield and Miguel Cabrera have combined to hit two home runs.

The Twins are the better choice in this series, even though they are on the road. Nick Blackburn and Scott Baker are two young, decent starters. But mostly this is just a play against a team that is really struggling right now.

Pick: Minnesota

Pittsburgh Pirates @ Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates open up a three-game set on Monday in what should be a mismatch.

The Pirates are a so-so team that will likely finish with their 16th consecutive losing season this year. The Dodgers are expected to be competing for first place in the National League West.

The Dodgers have Hiroki Kuroda, Hong-Chih Kuo and Brad Penny slated to throw against Zach Duke, Matt Morris and Paul Maholm.

Ian Snell and Tom Gorzellany, the Pirates best two pitchers, are not scheduled to pitch in this series, which gives another advantage to the Dodgers.

Pick: Los Angeles

Toronto Blue Jays @ Baltimore Orioles

The Toronto Blue Jays are the epitome of inconsistency. They lost two of three in their season-opening series against the New York Yankees, then swept a series against the Boston Red Sox, then were swept by the Oakland Athletics and then swept the Texas Rangers.

Following the logic, this should be the series the Jays lose.

They will throw Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum in this mini two-game series against Matt Albers and Steve Trachsel.

The Orioles have been one of the bigger surprises in baseball so far this season. They are 7-5 and are have only lost at home once in six games.

I’ll stick with them.

Pick: Baltimore

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