You Want Me To Stick This Where?
So, it looks like Sports’ Other Evil Empire, the Yankees, are on the verge of yet another raping and pillaging. Rumor has it that the Yankees are on the verge of signing Cliff Lee. Shocking.
But what is interesting about this situation is that Lee is slated to start against the Yankees tonight.
So now Lee is faced with a bit of a conundrum. If he knows he is going to the Yankees sooner rather than later, does he really have motivation to beat them tonight? In a way, wouldn’t he be beating himself, and not in the fun way? Should he “roll over” for what will soon be his team, in a similar Jerry-West-trading-Pau-Gasol-right-before-going-back-to-join-the-Lakers way?
I know I would be betting on it. And the reality is that if Lee pitches, there is no way his head can be right. If Lee doesn’t pitch - likely because he’s about to be dealt and the Mariners wouldn’t want to have him get hurt and get nothing for it - then the Mariners would A) be trotting out some garbage spot starter and B) have to feel like a bunch of ass-clowns because the front office will have (rightfully) clearly mailed it in on the season. And with a break for the All Star game coming up could you blame the Mariners for mentally checking out before a “vacation” and rolling over in this series? I know I wouldn’t.
Either way, I obviously love the Yankees tonight (remember to bet them as “action” that means that the wager stands even if there is a pitching change; be sure to check out your books’ policies on this) and I really like the ‘over’ as well. This whole thing is another example of how we, as handicappers, actually have it tougher than regular bettors (which makes it more impressive how much we win!) in terms of releasing plays. At Doc’s we have to have our plays up by noon. I can’t wait for last-minute changes like this to release plays. If so, things would look a lot different each day.
