Parley forecast WEDNESDAY, 05/04/2017

-114 HOU

Last April, one of the most surprising early season developments was old pro Charlie Morton throwing harder and racking up lots of K's. Morton.s injury prone tendencies once again showed up and he ended up going down for the count with a shredded hammy. New season and the apparently new and improved Morton is coming off a really nice spring with his new team. Incredibly, he was actually touching 97 in Grapefruit League action! This is a guy who prior to what I thought was a blip last April had been throwing his four-seam at 91-93 for several seasons. I think Morton could be a really nice value investment early on. He's going to be facing plenty of guys who've never seen him previously, as his entire big league career has been in the National League. I don't mean to sound like I'm going overboard on Morton. But I gotta tell ya, if this guy is gonna throw this hard and still pound the lower regions of the strike zone, he's going to shock some observers. Seattle southpaw James Paxton has big time heat and he's certainly capable of shutting down the Astros. But the Mariners have come out of the gate looking very sluggish with the sticks. Seattle has scored only one run in 18 innings to start the new season. With the Mariners not in good form on offense and my feeling Morton could be an early season stunner, I'm going with the Astros to pick up another win over the Mariners.

102 MIN

At 1:10 pm, our complimentary selection is on the Minnesota Twins over the Kansas City Royals.  Less than two years removed from a World Series title and it could be that the Kansas City Royals are one of the worst teams in MLB by the end of the season.  If the Royals aren't in contention by the end of June, then there are no fewer than four major offensive players on this team who could be moved at the deadline (Moustakas, Hosmer, Cain, Escobar) because they are all going to be free agents next year.  But the great thing about the start of the season is that everyone is on even terms - more or less.  That goes for the Twins as well, who figure to fare about the same as the Royals when all is said and done.  But Minnie is a team moving in the opposite direction as KC, with a roster full of young talent who figure to get better as the season progresses.  LHP Hector Santiago didn't exactly set the world on fire when he came to the Twins last August, but he has a career of 3.99 ERA in 15 games (nine starts) vs. the Royals and most of those were against a better team than the one KC is putting on the field this season.  Take the Twins.  As always, good luck...Al McMordie.