July 14th, 2009 Picks

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(skip to picks)Terrible, terrible 0-3-0 day today. Woke up to Denis Istomin having been taken down in straight sets, then took Trelleborgs FF who lost 0-1. The bulk of the picks were in the evening and I ended up taking Pujols or Howard to win the home run derby. Bad choice, though both of them did well in the second round they just had too big of a mountain to climb with Nelson Cruz and Prince Fielder hitting 11 apiece in the first round. So on to the picks.

Recaps

Crivoi Advances After Making The Most Of 14 Break Points

V. Crivoi def. D. Istomin 6-0 6-4

Denis Istomin was a bit off in the first set as Victor Crivoi broke his serve three times to take the set in a sweep, 6-0. Istomin was a bit better in the second set but was still unable to win 60% or better of his first serve points, which is pretty bad even for a mediocre player like Istomin. You can check out the stats yourself by clicking on `match stats' and then clicking on `Today's Results' and going back to 7-13-09 there. Crivoi double faulted five times to once for Istomin but it wasn't much to put him in danger as he was winning 69% of his first serves and 50% of his second serves. This was another tennis match where the money line favorite ended up winning the match.

Match Stats

Depleted Trelleborgs Sunk At Home By Örebro SK

Örebro SK 1 - 0 Trelleborgs FF

Trelleborgs FF had not lost at home since July 20^th of last year, but all good things must come to an end. They were missing a number of players from their core Starting XI and Trelleborgs long run of futility against Örebro continued.

``Dock var det Örebro som fick matchens första riktigt heta målchans men Viktor Noring stod bra placerad och kunde parera långskottet. TFF vaskade fram några halvchanser innan ett till synes helt ofarligt örebroanfall blev betydligt giftigare genom en olycklig passning från trotjänaren Mattias Thylander. Roni Porokara tackade och tog emot och med en tungt skott längs marken pricksköt finnen in de svartvitas ledningsmål"

Read more....Box Score

Prince Fielder Crowned 2009 Home Run Derby Champion

Final Round: P. Fielder 6, N. Cruz 5

Prince Fielder certainly deserved to win this one. Of all the participants he, along with Nelson Cruz, were the only ones who seemed to consistently be able to jam the ball way out to the 450' mark and beyond. Cruz had a bit of a let down starting in the second round, but Fielder seemed to be able to get behind just about every hit he had.

``This year's All-Star festivities were supposed to belong to Pujols in his home ballpark. But Fielder snatched the spotlight in the annual warmup for Tuesday night's Midsummer Classic. With three outs remaining in the final round, Fielder smacked a drive onto the grassy hill in center field to clinch the crown. He posed for a moment with his bat held high, then embraced Brewers teammate Ryan Braun near home plate. Pujols, who leads the majors with 32 homers, needed a late rally just to avoid elimination in the first round. With one out to work with, he connected on consecutive swings to force a three-player swing-off for the final spot in round 2, sending the red-clad crowd of 45,981 into a high-fiving frenzy. Looking tired, he managed six homers next time up for a two-round total of 11, easily surpassed by Fielder, Cruz and Howard, the 2006 derby champ. `I wish I would have put a better show for our fans,' Pujols said. `I was nervous a little bit.'"

Read more....ResultsPhotos

Picks
1) Who Will Win Stage 10 Of The Tour de France: Mark Cavendish vs. Any Other Cyclist - Any other cyclist
2) Nuria Llagostera Vives vs. Masa Zec Peskiric - Peskiric
3) Alla Kudryavtseva vs. Nicole Vaidisova - Vaidisova
4) BSC Young Boys @ FC Zürich - FC Zürich win
5) Los Angeles Sparks @ Connecticut Sun - Connecticut
6) How Many Points Will Be Scored In The First Half: 69 or fewer vs. 70 or more - 70 or more
7) Where Will President Obama's First Pitch Land First: The Ground vs. Albert Pujols' Glove - Pujols' glove
8) Which Team Will Score The First Run: American League All-Stars vs. National League All-Stars - NL All-Stars
9) American League All-Stars vs. National League All-Stars - AL All-Stars
10) How Many Runs Will Be Scored In The Third Inning: 0 runs vs. 1 or more runs - 0 runs
11) Which Team Will Score More Runs In The 5^th Inning: American League vs. National League - AL All-Stars more runs or tie
12) Jonathon Papelbon vs. Mariano Rivera - Rivera allows fewer hits
13) What Will Be The Final Out Of The Game: Strikeout vs. Ground Out or Fly Out - Ground out or fly out

Previews

Defending league champions FC Zürich take on runners up Young Boys Bern at Letzigrund today.

4) FC Zürich begin their title defense today in the Axpo-Swiss Super League against runners up Young Boys Bern. FC Zürich won the league last season by six points with two more victories than Young Boys. They'll be playing at Zürich's home ground, Letzigrund, where they defeated the Young Boys twice last season by scores of 3-0 and 2-1. FC Zürich will have a fully healthy squad and have added Swiss national team striker Jonathan Vonlanthen. Vonlanthen has some scoring punch but his specialty is fine passing as he amassed 36 assists in 34 matches for the Swiss national team. Young Boys will be without Mario Raimondi (M, Achilles) and Thierry Doubaï (M) for today's match but are otherwise healthy. Raimondi was their second leading goal scorer last season. This is essentially a rematch of the sides who dominated on their home grounds and were dominated away from home, except Young Boys are a bit weaker and FC Zürich have added Verlonthen so I have to favor FC Zürich.