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Home - Baseball Betting
2006 Houston Astros
Predictions
Take your MLB gambling up a notch this summer
with our 2006 Houston Astros predictions. The Houston Astros made an
incredible run to finish the 2005 regular season, stealing the Wild Card
and defeating conference rival St. Louis in the playoffs on their way to
the World Series. Having to win to make the playoffs got the Astros
playing great baseball and gave them good momentum heading into the
postseason. We saw this same effect with the Steelers this past NFL
season when they had to win do or die games for over a month to make the
playoffs. While other teams were coasting, such as St. Louis, Houston
was playing to win.
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Many analysts were saying that the Astros ran out of gas in the World
Series. Realistically, they ran out of bats. They struggled to support
their elite pitching staff all season long, and I don’t see big changes
on the offensive end on the horizon. It really hurt this team to lose
Beltran and Berkman’s numbers suffered slightly because of it as his
2005 stats were below his career averages. They don’t have a strong
lineup and rely heavily on their pitching staff to pick up wins.
Outside of Berkman, Morgan Ensberg is the only guy with any punch, after
hitting .283 last season with 36 home runs and 101 RBIs.
The Astros have started slow the past several seasons and have caught
fire down the stretch. They have especially struggled early on versus
left handed pitching as they started last season winning just 4 of their
first 18 against south paws and just 1 of their first 12 on the road
versus lefties. It would be wise to take a look at this team in the
early going to see if a similar trend develops. The pitching staff has
really carried this squad the last two seasons and last year they held
opponents to only a .246 opposing batting average, which was the best in
the major leagues. Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte, and Brandon Backe form a
decent top three, but they will be anxiously awaiting to see if Roger
Clemens is going to make his way back into an Astros uniform. The
bullpen has developed great talent over the years, with Dotel, Wagner,
and now Brad Lidge. Lidge struggled in the playoffs but I’m expecting
him to recover and have an impressive season after picking up 42 saves
last season.
The Astros have become a fan favorite and one of those teams that
people really enjoy betting on. A lot of that comes from them playing
in the same division as the Cardinals and Cubs and getting a lot of
quality games against ace pitchers. With that being said, you can
really benefit by opening up multiple sportsbook accounts so you can
keep track of where the public money is going and hit up advantageous
lines. Look at the sponsors at this site and you will never be stuck
with a losing sportsbook, just ones that pay when you making winning
picks.
This article was written by Jimmy Boyd Pick up his free
baseball picks here.
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