It’s not every day you see a 30 cent line move toward baseball’s worst team.
That’s common place for teams like the Dodgers, Yankees and Twins. Bettors love to bet on good teams and they also love to throw good teams in their parlays. That can easily jack up the price from say -170 to -200 or -215 to -245. I see moves like that and move on with my day.
But a 30 cent move to the 7-and-19 Pittsburgh Pirates?!
Hmmmmm.
The St. Louis Cardinals opened as high as -185 in the second game of today’s doubleheader with Johan Oviedo facing Pittsburgh rookie Cody Ponce, who is making his first Major League start. That number now sits at Cards -155 at William Hill, -155 at the Westgate SuperBook and -150 at Circa Sports. So there’s been a slight Pittsburgh push to say the least.[[ad:athena]]
“Sharp guys will always drive the price down if they perceive any kind of value,” Westgate SuperBook senior baseball trader Randy Blum told NBC Sports. “Even if it’s a team as bad as the Pirates.”
That makes total sense, but I just watched the Pirates score three runs in their last two games on the South Side of Chicago. They were no-hit by Lucas Giolito on Tuesday then mustered five singles and a homer against the White Sox on Wednesday.
Obviously, that’s a small two-game sample size against much better pitching. My bad.
Let me compliment my point with a 26-game sample size that tells me the Pirates can’t hit a lick. This season, they check in at 27th in homers, 28th in batting average, 29th in runs scored and dead last in on-base percentage.
I can’t wrap my finger around this line move, but those aforementioned sharp bettors definitely know what they’re doing. Tread lightly on the Cardinals in game two. Something’s up.
