Another day and another win for the Dodgers. LA won its 11th straight game last night as Greg Maddux won his Dodger Stadium debut 4-2 over the Rockies. You are all familiar with this growing story. LA lost 13 of 14 to open the second half of the season, but it continues to lead the way in MLB these days with the longest active winning streak of any team. The Athletics with six straight wins and the Angels with four straight wins are the only teams with winning streaks of more than three.
My free game for Wednesday is with the LA Dodgers over the Col Rockies at 10:10 ET. It’s a HUGE Wednesday for me in the American League as I open with my 15* AL Getaway Day Game of the Month and close with my 20* AL Game of the Month (only 20* AL game in the month of August). I’m on a 4-0 run with my 20* AL and NL Games of the Month (I won in both May and July while going through June, which is a heavy month in the International League),! so DON’T miss out!
The amazing thing about LA’s current streak is that punters have been able to play ‘in’ LA, without paying a premium. LA began their winning streak with a three-game home sweep of the Nationals from 7/28-7/30, never starting as a favorite by more than $1.40. The team then won back-to-back three-game series in Cincinnati and Florida, each time opening as underdogs. The Dodgers have started this week 2-0, opening favorites at $1.60 on Monday, $1.50 last night and opened at -$1.25 tonight.
The Royals snapped their four-game losing streak by beating the Red Sox 6-4 last night. That leaves the Indians and Rangers, who have lost four in a row, with the longest active losing streak in MLB. The Indians make a very interesting case, as while four teams in MLB have worse overall records than Cleveland’s 47-64 mark, the Indians are under $2,513 (at $100/game) when it comes to “line” rankings. of money”.
The Pirates come in with the second-worst money line record at minus $2,124. While seven other American League teams have lost money line records, the next worst team after the Indians is the Orioles, who at 51-63, are less than $608. That’s quite a difference ($1,905)! A quick look at the top of the money line rankings shows the Tigers commanding over $3,393, the Twins in second with over $1,937 and the Mets in third with over $1,363.
The Mets are by far the National League leader in this department, as their closest pursuer is the Arizona D’backs (57-56), who check in at over $531. Wondering about those red hot Dodgers? The team’s 11-game winning streak still leaves them slightly on the downside, under $49. For the record, the Dodgers happen to be the biggest ‘over’ team in MLB, going 64-44-5 on the year.
Other highlights from last night included Minnesota’s 4-2 win over the Tigers. He gives Minnesota a 41-13 record in its last 54 games (one-third of MLB’s 162-game schedule). The 1998 New York Yankees own the best 54-game record of any team (45-9) since MLB adopted a 162-game schedule in the 1961 season.
The Mets beat the Padres 3-2 last night. Met starter Steve Trachsel is now 9-1 in his last 11 starts (since June 9), despite a 5.40 earned run average over that span. Trachsel leads the major leagues in wins over that span, but ranks 85th in ERA among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched.
The Marlins beat the Nationals 4-2 last night as rookie Ricky Nolasco won his 10th game. I mentioned Detroit’s rookie pitchers yesterday and I would be delivered if I didn’t mention what’s going on in South Florida. Florida’s rookies have combined for 35 wins this season, eight more than any other major league team (Detroit is next with 27) and 21 more than any other National League team (Chicago is next with 14).
Wednesday’s MLB schedule is packed again with 15 games on the menu. Two AL games headline the card. The Twins and Tigers play the deciding game of their series in Detroit at 7:05 ET. Johan Santana (12-5, 3.22) starts for Minnesota and Jeremy Bonderman (11-5, 3.81) for Detroit. Santana has been nearly unbeatable in the second half of the season in recent years, going 33-3 with a 2.31 ERA in 49 starts after the break since 2003.
Santana has a 4.31 ERA since this year’s break, but he also has a 3-0 record as the Twins have won all five of his starts. Minnesota has won 14 of Santana’s last 15 starts and his strikeout-to-walk ratio on the season is a staggering 168-35. He is 8-2 with a 2.66 ERA in 19 career appearances against the Tigers, including 13 starts. While Santana has done well against the Tigers, Bonderman has struggled against Minnesota. He is 2-5 with a 6.17 ERA and a .336 opponents batting average in 10 career appearances against the Twins.
The White Sox beat the Yankees 6-5 in 11 innings last night, tying the game with Paul Kornerko HR in the ninth (River’s third blown save in 31 chances this year). It was Chicago’s first win in four tries this year against New York and just the team’s ninth win in 23 games since the break. Tonight on ESPN at 8:05 ET, it’s Randy Johnson vs. Jon Garland. Johnson has a 5.11 ERA on the year, but is still 11-9 on the season with the Yankees winning 14 of his 24 starts.
Jon Garland goes for the White Sox and hasn’t lost since June 8 (against Detroit). He has posted a 3.26 ERA in his last nine starts with an 8-0 record. Despite Chicago’s recent struggles, it should be noted that the White Sox are 31-19 (.620) against teams that currently have winning records. That is the best record of its kind for any major league team.
CFB Notes
There were a total of 23 schools that entered the 2005 season with new head coaches last year. There were only 10 new hires this year, but then, with the tragic death of Northwestern’s Randy Walker over the summer, this year’s “carousel of coaches” grew to 11. In a special weekend edition of Ness Notes (available Saturday morning), I’ll give you a preview of the 11 schools and coaches.
The 23 coaching changes last year were broken down like this. There were 10 schools bringing in coaches with previous experience (Spurrier in South Carolina and Meyer in Florida being the biggest names) and 13 schools that were giving their ‘boys’ their first head coaching job at the Division IA level. Of course, the biggest name in that group was Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis.
Of the group of 10 with prior experience, Meyer at Florida (7-5), Miles at LSU (9-3) and Spurrier at South Carolina (6-5), they took over teams that had produced winning records in 2004. Meyer, Miles, and Spurrier all improved their school’s records in 2005, with a combined 27-10 SU (up from 22-13), though their ATS records were nearly identical to the previous year, 17-17- 2 compared to 17-17-1 !
Of the group of seven that inherited teams with losing records from 2004, the 2005 season was not an improvement overall. The combined records of the seven schools in 2004 were 22-55 SU and 31-43 ATS. The 2005 records for those same schools totaled 20-58 SU and 28-46-1 ATS.
Of note, Hal Mumme took over a New Mexico State team that was 5-6 SU and 6-5 ATS in 2004 but was 0-12 and 2-10 ATS in 2005. On the other hand, there was Walt Harris of Stanford. The Cardinals went 4-7 (6-5) in 2004 and while they were only 5-6 in 2005, they were an impressive 7-2-1 ATS.
There were 13 managers last year making their Division IA debut. Four were taking over schools coming off winning records in 2004, Miami-Ohio, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh and Utah. Those four teams fared worse in 2005, with Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh going from 7-5 to 4-7 and 8-4 to 5-6, respectively. Combined, the four teams fell from collective records of 35-14 SU (29-18 ATS) in 2004 to 23-22 SU (19-24 ATS).
That leaves the nine coaches who took over teams with losing records since 2004. Those schools posted collective records of 35-67 SU (41-60 ATS) in 2004 and actually improved in 2005, reaching a collective 40-61 SU and 48-48 -1 TTY. Leading the way was Notre Dame, which went from 6-6 (6-6) to 9-3 (7-5) under Charlie Weis. With less fanfare, Skip Holtz at East Carolina led the Pirates to a 5-6 mark, as well as an impressive 8-3 ATS record (the team was 2-9 SU and 5-6 ATS in 2004).
The NFL will be in the spotlight tomorrow as Ness Notes will be available Monday through Friday at 1:00 ET. Don’t forget about my special weekend edition, featuring the CFB “carousel of coaches” from 2006.
