Most baseball bettors look at pitching first and everything else second when looking at baseball betting lines. MLB betting handicapping begins and sometimes ends with the pitchers. Since we know that pitching is so important to gamblers in MLB betting we need to look at which criterion is important and which is not.
MLB wagering statistics show a lot of different numbers. One of the better statistical guides in baseball betting is a pitcher’s walk to innings ratio. Pitchers that give up a lot of walks will continually get into trouble. They will also waste a lot of pitches and run up a high pitch count. That means they will not be long for the game and will not be good bets for you in MLB betting.
The walk to innings ratio can also be a big problem for the team. If a team’s bullpen saw a lot of action on a day a poor walk to inning pitcher was going then the bullpen will not be as effective the next day. That could mean the next day’s starter will be forced to go longer and the manager might give the pitcher more rope.
Another important pitching factor for a baseball betting player to monitor is to make sure that a team’s relief staff is rested. We just went over how important the walks to innings statistics are in MLB wagering. These stats affect the bullpen. Very few teams have starting pitchers that complete games. The bullpen is a factor nearly every single day in MLB gambling. Relief pitching is every bit as important as starting pitching and a team with a tired bullpen is not one you want your money to be riding on in MLB gambling.
Let’s look at a couple of pitching angles to consider when looking at the MLB betting lines. You may want to consider taking a team with a winning record on the road against a home team’s fourth or fifth starter in MLB wagering. The backend of a pitching rotation is usually pretty weak for most teams and going against those starters with quality teams is a good way to make money in MLB betting, but you are better off doing it with your team on the road since the home teams are usually overvalued. Another pitching angle that MLB wagering gamblers look at is one in which you avoid making the mistake of bucking the #1 starter for each team. If you are looking for value in baseball betting then you don’t want to be opposing a strong starting pitcher.