A day off allowed me to come back with a fresh perspective on the league and where we are with our handicapping. Today is not about value it's about who I think has the best shot to win and make us money. Today it's the Oakland Athletics despite the Red Sox throwing out their hard throwing RHP Ruby De La Rosa who is averaging 94.4 mph. The Athletics can handle their bats vs. RHP as they rank among the leaders in the league and they faced Garrett Richards 3x this season who ranks 2nd in average fast ball velocity at 95.9mph. They roughed him up in 2 of his 3 starts and Richards is more polished than De La Rosa is at this point in their careers. Richards allowed 11 ER in 14.2 IP in those two starts and did not get through 1 inning in his only start in Oakland. Ruby De La Rosa comes into this game in an even more difficult situation because it's his first day start and he's facing the Athletics on the road where he has 2 terrible starts against two other top 10 offenses. De La Rosa has not proven that he can pitch on the road or pitch against quality offenses which Oakland absolutely is. Oakland is ranked top 10 in day OPS, overall OPS, vs. RHP OPS, L7 days OPS. De La Rosa is on 4 days, on the west coast and pitching during the day which is more like 3.5 days rest. Worse part about it is that his opponent Jesse Chavez is on 5 days rest.

Chavez has been great and his numbers show that he's not been lucky with a 8.16 K/9 and 2.20 BB/9. He faces the Red Sox who are 26th in OPS on the road, 22nd vs. RHP, 26th in day OPS and 27th over their L7 days. Chavez has a 3.07 ERA on 5 days rest, 2.87 ERA at home, and a 2.55 ERA during 6 day starts this year. What I like most is that Chavez is coming into this start on 5 days rest for the second time while De La Rosa is on his 3rd start on 4 days rest after back to back 100+ pitch efforts and he's a guy trying to prove his worth so I expect him to over pitch a bit here and get hit hard.

Where to find Freddy?