Baseball betting in the Cactus League features the Cincinnati Reds hosting the Colorado Rockies on Monday in a game that can be see on the MLB Network. The Rockies are led by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki while the Reds feature Joey Votto. The Reds are the home team in this matchup and a slight favorite in MLB betting.
Baseball betting lines on Colorado have the Rockies as a definite contender in the National League this season. The Rockies made the playoffs last season and are one of the favorites to make it again in 2010. One of the big keys for Colorado will be the play of Tulowitzki. He is off to a solid start this Spring and it was the same last year when he hit .317 in the Spring. The problem for Tulowitzki though is that he has a .187 career average during the first month of the season. It is somewhat amazing that he has a .283 batting average in three years even with those horrible starts. “If I had an answer, obviously, I’d figure it out,” he said. “A lot of people throw things out. Maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that. It comes down to there’s always a month when a player struggles, and mine just happens to be at the beginning.”
Colorado took Tulowitzki with the seventh overall pick in the 2005 draft and it was not long before he was in the Major Leagues. He didn’t spend much time in the minors so he has been greatly helped by manager Tim Tracy. “People have to realize I didn’t spend much time in the Minor Leagues,” Tulowitzki said. “My learning curve was at the big league level. If I had more time in the Minor Leagues I might have had time to figure out I should stand up, and when I got here I’d have been a finished product.” Tulowitzki hit .297 with 32 home runs and 92 RBIs last season.
Cincinnati has been around .500 in baseball betting this Spring. While the team has not done much, closer Francisco Cordero has been excellent. He is coming off a season in which he converted 39 of 43 saves. “To me, it was my best season,” Cordero said. “I had a good year in Texas in 2004 when I saved 49 games. I had a good year in Milwaukee in 2007 and saved 44. Last year, I had 39 but it was my best year because of what happened in the offseason.” He has five appearances this Spring, five scoreless innings with four hits, two walks and five strikeouts.