Our last pick of the “first half” was a loser, but just for halfsies so we press on and into the second half up over three units. Friday is our first chance to hop back into action and that’s just what we’ll do.
Free Pick
The price is weird on this one. While I’m seeing many -140 price tags on the Cardinals, there are almost just as many -125’s. I can’t really explain it aside from giving the advice to take St. Louis if you can grab them at that cheaper price.
Noah Syndergaard has shown bits of why he’ll be a really good big league pitcher. He ran off three straight starts of just one earned run allowed before the All-Star break (and four of five). But this will be his first start against a St. Louis lineup that has the experience and game plan to give him some trouble. He’s still just a 
rookie and the Cardinals know that they’ll probably only need two or three runs against Syndergaard to put Lance Lynn in a good spot to get a win at home. Look for the home team to work the young man – working up his pitch count and grinding out at-bats to put up a few runs. I don’t necessarily like them to knock Syndergaard around Busch Stadium; but they can do just enough.
Now I think Lynn has traditionally been a first half pitcher but I’m not really sure. And I really don’t care to check because it means absolutely nothing when you’re talking about the first start after the break. At this point it’s just a way to sort statistics. Lynn has had seven days of rest since his last start so look for him to be as fresh as he’ll ever be in any start during the course of the regular season. Is he as new and trendy as the guy on the other side? No. But is he just as effective at this point in either’s career? I think so. And I also like his chances to shut down a pretty darn bad Mets’ offense. Therefore, it’ll be the Birds at home.
Free Pick: St. Louis -125
YTD: 13-8-4 +3.72
2014: 45-28-3 +9.02
amazins • cardinals • lynn • mets • st. louis • syndergaard