Jason Storm
Free Picks Newsletter Lead Researcher
157-104-1 Overall Record

Pro Baseball Predictions: St Louis Cardinals (+160) vs. Miami Marlins (-170) Over -Under 7

The MLB Season kicks off today. Well, not really, we are actually 2 games into the regular season. The Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics actually played 2 games over in Japan last week. There was little hype about it, but now we can start to get excited.

Tonight on ESPN the New look Miami Marlins, Yes I said Miami Marlins not the Florida Marlins will debut their new stadium versus the St Louis Cardinals. You should tune in just to see what a beauty Marlins Park really is. This isn’t your dad’s baseball stadiums, this is beautiful! Even features a  450-gallon aquariums behind home plate!

Being early in the season, I thought I would give you guys the projected lineups for tonight’s game. As always with baseball there was a ton of player movement and its hard to keep up with. This will give you some idea of the teams player movements

St Louis Cardinals: Rafael Furcal, Jon Jay, Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, David Freese, Yadier Molina, and Tyler Green.

Miami Marlins: Jose Reyes, Emilio Bonifacio, Hanley Ramirez, Giancarlo Stanton, Logan Morrision, Gaby Sanchez, John Buck, and Omar Infante.

Remember that these are just the projected started and are not official. Its only done to help you see some player movement as we start a new MLB Season.

With Baseball its the starting pitching that’s most important as that is the biggest influence on the lines.

Florida starts ace Josh Johnson while St Louis sends Kyle Lohse to the mound. It’s really unfortunate that Chris Carpenter had some off season setbacks. We would of been in for a great pitching duel for opening night.

However, I fully expect Josh Johnson to do his part. Johnson was injured last year, but seems to have fully recovered by his outstanding Spring Training numbers. Johnson allowed only 6 runs over 22 and 1/3rd innings. That is a very encouraging mark.

With Johnson, I want to see his strikeout numbers. Johnson is one of the best young pitchers in baseball even if you are unaware of that. He has great stuff and has a great strikeout to walk ratio. This spring in just 22 innings he had 24 K’s and just 10 BB. That’s what I want to see from the young star.

He should be excited to face this Pujols-less Cardinals team. He has a lot of history against 2 of St Louis most important offensive players. Rafael Furcal, a true leadoff man, is just 4 for 17 against Johnson lifetime. That’s a .235 average. Carlos Beltran is even worse, in 28 plate appearances, he has just 6 hits for a .214 average! Johnson has dominated these guys throughout his career.

However, here is the main reason I really like the Marlins tonight. Some pitchers love the early season, others hate it. You will hear me say this nearly everyday this month. Johnson loves pitching in April. Opponents batting average against Johnson is just .191 in the month of April in his career! Yes, batters are hitting less than .200 against him! Johnson has some of his best stuff in April, again that can be seen by his K – BB Ratio of 115K to just 38 walks in the month of April in his career.

The Cardinals don’t even have their ace to send out against the Marlins true ace. There is a reason this line is that big. Miami is looking to start this organization over with a win today. They have a new city, a new logo, and the best ballpark in the world. They are coming for this one and there is no reason to think they wont get it.

Pick: Miami Marlins -170