[LUCKYME1]

Matt Rivers
100,000* MONSTER LOCK Your winner here is on the Braves!


Sure San Diego has been a lot better of late as we saw in that recent five game winning streak but if you think for a second that the weak as heck hitting Padres are a legitimate team that can truly compete with Bobby Cox' Braves than you are crazy!

Adrian Gonzalez certainly is a baller but there still isn't much else there. The Padres have unknown guys that are seriously Minor league talent right now. When compared to McLouth, Chipper, McCann and the visiting Bravos it is no contest at all. No the Braves are not going to win the World Series and probably won't win the Wild Card but they are a pretty solid squad right now with a bullpen that is no joke. Moylan, Gonzalez and Soriano all could be closers and have that 7th, 8th and 9th inning fully covered.

The Padres just traded away Jake Peavy and also almost unloaded Gonzalez and closer Heath Bell as well. This team is not a big league club right now, they're just not. If they start the season now and play the full 162 game schedule they would lose 100 plus game for sure. The recent streak is not a sign of things to come as they beat an ice cold Cincinnati team that has been awful for awhile now and then had one great comeback on Friday night which every team has a few times a season.

PETCO is a tough park to score runs which ill help this decent but far from good young kid in Mat Latos. But it also will be friendly to a solid enough Kenshin Kawakami.

In the end look for your typical 5-2 type of a game at this ballpark where the Braves are just overall too well balanced and stout.

[LUCKYME1]

Matt Rivers

Complimentary Play

For Monday take the Brewers on the left coast.

Sure we're well behind the eight ball here as Clayton Kershaw is a young blossoming stud unlike Manny Parra who does not seem to be progressing at all but at this price with two studs in Fielder and Braun on my side I can't pass up the Brew Crew.

The Dodgers are very very good this season as evidenced by their gaudy record but I still do not see them as a total elite ballclub. Granted getting George Sherrill makes that bullpen dominant leading up to a semi stud closer in Jonathan Broxton and the lineup with Manny, Ethier, Kemp, Loney and others can be very good so all in all the blue probably should be win this game as the boys from Milwaukee have been fairly disappointing. There is, though, still too much of an upside for the Brewers to be getting such a high price.

I can't make this into a real pay type of a play because I would not be too shocked if Los Angeles jumps on Parra and rolls by a bunch but if the lefty can hold his own for awhile, which is also possible, than I have enough confidence in the Brew Crew with their studs plus guys like Hart and Hardy among others to plate some runs.

Also with the Dodgers playing the late Sunday night game all the way pretty much on the East Coast in Atlanta and then traveling back across the country may not be a huge factor in the sport of baseball but it certainly doesn't hurt us here.

1♦ Brewers