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    Astros at Pirates - Aug 24th

    Houston Fading, So Fade Houston

    By: Ganchrow Sports

    Two teams on nearly opposite ends of the salary stick meet in Pittsburgh, with the bargain basement Pirates the favorite over the high-priced, and disappointing, Astros.

    Houston is a team really struggling to get wins right now. They have a modest lineup and a shaky bullpen, and they need a strong edge in starting pitching to give them an advantage over teams they play, especially when they are on the road. In this game, they will be sending out Wandy Rodriguez, whose current ability is very questionable, putting Houston at a disadvantage, and giving value to Pittsburgh as a small favorite.

    Pittsburgh starter Paul Maholm is certainly a bit shaky himself. But he has mixed in some quality starts with his mediocre and poor ones throughout the season, and he has been significantly more effective at home. He suffers when he goes up against strong offenses in hitter-friendly parks on the road, but coming back home and facing the modest Houston lineup in this game, he should have a decent start, resembling the ones he was having prior to his last disastrous outing at Cincinnati.

    Wandy Rodriguez can be reasonably good at times, but in his last start he had control issues, and a quality start from him here, while it is certainly a possibility, is not likely.

    Pittsburgh will also have an important bullpen edge in this game. This means that even if Maholm has a start on the low end of the spectrum, say four runs in five innings, and Rodriguez has a start on the high end, say two runs in seven innings, Pittsburgh will still have a very legitimate chance of winning anyway.

    Pittsburgh has been a reasonably profitable team at home the whole season, as well as in the month of August. With small edges in all areas of this game, facing a generally unimpressive opponent, this is a home game where they have value as a small favorite.

    Play: Pirates -115
    Last edited by Willie Bee; 08-24-06 at 03:24 PM.

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