Saturday MLB Best Bet: Cubs vs. Rockies

Written by Jake Thompson
Saturday, 16 April 2011 19:00

The Saturday MLB best bet will be on the Cubs and Rockies game.

Online sportsbooks have made the Colorado Rockies (11-2) the large betting favorite for today’s 8:10 PM ET home game against the Chicago Cubs (6-7), and our Saturday MLB best bet will let everyone know if this squad deserves to be such large betting favorites.  The home team has won the last 8 head-to-head meetings between the Rockies and the Cubs, with the over being a winner in 6 of the last 9 (today’s total is at 10 runs).

The Rockies will start right-hander Jason Hammel (1-0, 1.45 WHIP, 4.91 ERA) in this one and he’s had two decent but unspectacular starts.  Hammel went 7.1 innings while giving up 6 hits and 4 runs against the Cubs last season and is the type of pitcher that rarely dominates but generally gives his team a chance to win with doable innings.  Cubs’ right fielder Kosuke Fukudome is listed as questionable with a hamstring issue that has kept him out of his last 4 games.

23-year-old prospect Casey Coleman (0-0, 2.00 WHIP, 7.20 ERA) will get the start for Chicago and the young right-hander started the year out with a rough start against the Milwaukee Brewers.  Coleman is similar to Hammel in that he’ll provide decent but rarely dominant innings, and he’s never squared off against the Rockies in his young career.   Colorado is hitting just .253 on the season but clutch hitting and extra base hits have them scoring an average of 4 runs per game against the opposing team’s starting pitcher.

I believe the Cubs have the better offense at this early point in the season and they’ll only get better if Fukudome can come back and play this evening.  The starting pitchers are fairly similar and you have to back Chicago at these big underdog odds because they could easily steal a win here and improve on their 3-4 road record.

Cubs 5

Rockies 4