The Seattle Mariners traded their gilded closer, Paul Sewald, at the MBL trade deadline to Arizona.
Sewald was in the midst of a lights-out season, leading the A.L. in saves, with a minuscule ERA. Long suffering M’s fans thought their ownership had thrown the towel in on the 2023.
Since the trade, Seattle has won 12 of 15 games and have moved to within five games of Texas in the A.L. West and is tied for the third wild card spot.
What happened? Seattle has a message for the MLB: closers are over-rated. They used Andre Munoz last night to shut down Houston in the ninth in a two rum game. So its closer by committee.
The Astros face Seattle at home again tonight with their ace Framber Valdez on the mound. The Astros have to win the series or risk falling into a wild-card scuffle with a bunch of teams.
Wild-Card Mania
Wow, here are on August 19 and their are a plethora of pennant races still active: AL East, Al West, NL Central and a number of teams in the wild-card hunt.
In the AL, there are five legit teams battling for three wild card slots: Tampa, Houston, Seattle, Toronto and Boston, with the Red Sox three games behind Seattle, with the Jays a half game back.
The NL is even more crazy, with seven teams in it –San Diego is five games out and that looks bleak, but six other teams are within two games. That’s wide open.
While I was initially leery of the expanded wild-card format for MLB, going from two to three, and fearing it would delegitimize the regular season games and go the way of the NHL, it turned out to be a great move. Lots of teams still in the hunt which is fun for the fans of those teams.
Today more games are meaningful in late August than ever before, and that’s a good thing.
JOHN FREDERICKS:
MLB MONEY LINE WAGERS FOR Saturday August  17 2023
2023 MLB Godzilla Season Stats
251-210-1 -$625
*Based on all wagers at $100 per game at money or run line odds as specified in Draft Kings. Note: If money line is -$150, we are laying $150 to win $100, etc.  If we take +$130 and we win, we win $130 for our $100.
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August 18, 2023
Yankees (-160) at Boston
New York has lost six straight and has weakly, meekly and quietly faded out of the playoff race. The Red Sox are surging and have cut their gap to three games.
This is strictly a Gerrit Cole bet. The Yankees ace is on his way to a Cy Young winning season, and left Sunday’s game with a five run after seven innings.
I like Cole at home in this spot to end this nightmare for the Yankees. The guy is a rugged competitor, and the losing is sucking the life out of the Bronx-Bummers. Cole rights the ship today. That what Cy Young candidates do.
Pick: Gerrit Cole (-160)
Giants at Braves (-120)Â
The Giants are losing again: dropped seven of 10 and they can’t beat good teams on the road. Atlanta at home on a Saturday night rocks. Get out the cell phone lights and do the chop! I’ll take the Braves at home -120 any day. Good value regardless of the pitchers.
Pick: Atlanta (-120)Â
Seattle at Houston (-160)Â
Both teams are playing well and the Astros always seem to bounce back after these tough losses. Shut out last night, look for an offensive explosion tonight at Minute Maid. The M’s burned all their high leverage relievers last night in hanging on to that win. The Astros did not.
Pick: Astros (-160)Â
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