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Picks for 6/4/09: Betting Against the Worst Team in Baseball

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Rivalry Page: Giants vs Nationals

Rivalry Page: White Sox vs Athletics

Result: -1.12 units

San Francisco Giants (-106) over Washington Nationals (1.0 Units) -

The Nationals are baseball's worst team so is there no wonder we are going to go against them with a small favorite? But only if Randy Johnson pitched today.

In fact, we have got to love the Giants specifically because Randy Johnson is going for his 300th win. It will be his first attempt to do so and the Nationals are just the perfect team for him to get it done against.

Here are some positive points.

1) In 10 career starts against the Nationals, Johnson has a less than 3 ERA.

2) When a pitcher like Johnson goes for win 300, you will expect all his attention and effort in getting the scouting reports correct, etc. Since the Nationals are so lousy to begin with, they are susceptable to being taken advantage of.

3) The Nationals hit worse against lefties than they do against righties.

Take this game action with Johnson on the mound. The extra day off helps him out.

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Chicago White Sox (-157) over Oakland Athletics (1.5 Units) -

We tend to shy away from favorites but there's reason to like the White Sox today.

If you are going to take a favorite, you have to be certain that the opposing team's offense won't bust out for a bunch of runs. And be sure that the favorite pitcher has the angles on his side.

First, the Athletics hit lefties pretty poorly. They average just 3.5 runs a game against southpaws.

Second, Buehrle will seek to even out this series. A loss would make the White Sox lose 3 games to 1 to the Athletics. A win would tie it up. And Buerhle is such a homer. His team is 5-1 in his home starts! 8-2 in his 10 starts.

Third, the A's won't see the importance of this game as the White Sox would. The A's have already grabbed two wins, so it is not of utter importance to win this game 4 as it would be for the White Sox to win and save face!

With these three things set up perfectly, we like the White Sox to pull out this last game at home.