Back at the new Yankee stadium, these teams face off tonight in a park that has been generous to the long ball this year. The new park has been the location producing the highest combined OPS in the majors thus far in 2009, at a whopping .905. It has been said that the wind patterns are blowing balls over the RF fence at alarming rates, and it looks like the wind is up above 10 MPH tonight.
Pitching are the extremely fresh faced Anthony Ortega (with one MLB start to his name) and the inconsistent A.J. Burnett. Ortega has not been good in limited action in the bigs, posting a 7+ FIP, while Burnett has been somewhere in the middle with a 4.01 FIP. Ortega is not a strikeout pitcher, and has generally tried to keep the ball on the ground, averaging a slightly higher than 45% GB rate. But he has had bad outings with the Angels and at AAA Salt Lake, and in 18.2 innings combined this year he has allowed 4 HR. Burnett has done decently against the Angels in his career, limiting them to a combined team OPS of .772 and a .247 BA. Not having Vladimir Guerrero is actually not a huge loss tonight for Anaheim, as he has been below average against Burnett with just a .735 OPS against him in career matchups. The newly acquired Bobby Abreu has been productive against A.J. though, posting .919 OPS in 58 ABs.
Versus RH pitchers, both teams are above average for the MLB, with NYY having a combined .777 OPS thus far and LAA having a nice .791 OPS. Beyond the starters, neither bullpen has been great this year, with WHIPs of 1.40 (NYY) and 1.70 (LAA) combined thus far in 2009.
This is a game to expect runs.
Free Baseball Bets pick: OVER 10.5 -110
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