Oakland(+120)
Athletics vs. Yankees: Who Is James Kaprielian? (Archive)
The Oakland A’s have a hot rookie pitcher who can help them beat the New York Yankees and the MLB odds this Friday night.
Oakland Athletics vs. New York Yankees
Friday, June 18, 2021 – 07:05 PM EDT at Yankee Stadium
Well, here we are with another chance to fade the New York Yankees (35-33, minus-6.80 betting units). It’s just the right thing to do; the last time we put the other side in our MLB picks, it was the Detroit Tigers back on May 28, and they paid us out at +208 when they beat the Yankees 3-2. Delightful.
Our next golden opportunity is Friday’s game versus the Oakland Athletics, and it’s the MLB.TV Free Game of the Day if you want to check it out gratis. We’re still waiting for our trusted gang of online sportsbooks to put this contest on their MLB odds board as we go to press, but the A’s have opened as +110 road dogs overseas. Close enough for government work.
Billy Boy
If you’re like me and you were raised on Moneyball, you won’t be surprised to see the Athletics (43-27, plus-9.39 units) raking in the cash. That’s what they do. Given the No. 24-ranked payroll in the majors – $86.1 million, less than half the $201.4 million the No. 2 Yankees are shelling out, Billy Beane and his minions have assembled yet another winning team. They’re eighth overall in hitting (10.3 WAR) and 10th in pitching (7.3 WAR) at FanGraphs. Smell the value.
The Athletics also have yet another blue-chip pitching prospect in James Kaprielian (3.87 FIP), their projected starter for Friday. The Yankees took Kaprielian with the No. 16 picks in the 2015 MLB Draft, then shipped him to Oakland two years later in the Sonny Gray trade. Vintage Beane! Kaprielian is up 1.57 units this year, leading the A’s to a 4-2 record in his six starts, but buyer beware: Kaprielian’s .238 BABIP and 86.6 percent of runners stranded suggest he’s been at least somewhat lucky on the mound thus far.
They Need A Pitcher
Sometimes, the Yankees roll the dice on a pitcher like Gray and it works out. It didn’t in this case, although they gave up on Gray (now with the Cincinnati Reds) way too early, the point being, New York’s rotation always seems to be paper-thin. This year, Jameson Taillon (4.49 FIP) is their No. 3 starter, and he’s already down 5.33 units on a team record of 4-8. Woof.
It remains to be seen whether any of the four prospects the Yankees sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Taillon this offseason will pan out. Meanwhile, he’s struggling to make the transition to the American League, and to recover from the multiple arm injuries that cut short his 2019 campaign and forced Taillon to miss all of 2020. We can take advantage of his misery by putting a small sum on Oakland. It’s a moral imperative.
MLB Pick: Oakland +120 at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.