Sportsbook baseball lines are not going to favor the Pittsburgh Pirates very often this season. Pittsburgh does not have a good team but they did make news by announcing they are going to start the season with their pitcher hitting in the eighth spot in the lineup. While the move is unusual it probably won’t help them much vs. the baseball odds at the Internet sportsbook.
Sportsbook odds list the Pirates as one of the longest shots to win the World Series this season at 100-1. Pittsburgh simply doesn’t have the payroll to compete with the big money teams like New York and Boston. The Pirates will be interesting to watch the first few games though since they are hitting the pitcher in the eighth spot. The Pirates are going to hit the pitcher eighth and shortstop Ronny Cedeno ninth. The Pirates don’t have many hitters to begin with so they are going to have to scratch out runs. They are hitting Akinori Iwamura in the lead off spot followed by Andrew McCutchen. Last season McCuthen hit .286 but the Pirates are choosing to go with Iwamura for now in the lead off spot. He hit .275 with a .350 on-base percentage for Tampa Bay in 2008.
If you think that the Pirates will be better vs. baseball odds at the sportsbook with the pitcher hitting eighth you may want to think again. They are going to be bad no matter who hits where in the lineup. Pittsburgh was 2-4 vs. sportsbook odds last season when they hit the pitcher eighth in the lineup.
Normally when you look at baseball odds at the sportsbook you try and find some positives for each team. There are not a lot of them for the Pirates. McCutchen could be a solid hitter for the team. Zach Duke and Paul Maholm are decent pitchers and there is some talent in the minor leagues. The Pirates are hoping to get decent seasons out of Andy LaRoche and catcher Ryan Doumit. The Pirates got a good year out of Garrett Jones last season so perhaps he can duplicate his success this year. Lastings Millege continues to disappoint while the rest of the lineup isn’t very good.
The rotation has Duke and Maholm who can impact baseball odds at the Internet sportsbook and not much else. The bullpen is even worse as they are counting on Octavio Dotel to close games and Joel Hanrahan to be their setup man. Hanrahan is hurt so the Pirates have to hope Brendan Donnelly has something left.