Dumpster Diving for Winners
http://www.sbrforum.com/Free+Picks/M...b-winners.aspx
There has been some talk on the SBR message boards recently by a well known poster about his hobby of dumpster diving. It seems that in between most of his time spent beating slots, and driving all over Florida in search of poker room promotions, his frugal habits have him in and out of garbage dumpsters.
I guess if you can deal with sifting through other peoples’ crapola, who am I to judge? But how profitable could this actually be? Well, the Entrepreneur-a of Basura spoke just today of finding “a 10-speed bike, a very nice coffee table, a nice lounge chair, and a nice cast iron fruit basket” all ripe for the picking in his dumpster.
Apparently he takes his throwaway treasures to a local auction house. By his estimate, he will receive approximately $130 for these four items, netting a profit of just over $100. So who is the joke on now? That’s right, me. But guess what is not on me. That’s right, my neighbor’s baby’s diapers. It’s just not worth it to me, but regardless, I wanted in on this action.
This doesn’t mean you’ll see me emerging from a trash barrel with a banana peel on my head anytime soon. No, I’m going dumpster diving for a baseball winner. I’m scouring the cellar dwellers for hidden gems. So let’s take a look at the six last placed division teams.
Baltimore – playing at Detroit against Edwin Jackson. No thanks.
Oakland – facing the streaking Rangers and Vicente Padilla. Nah.
Washington – Just no.
San Diego – With redbeard Chad Gaudin on the mound. I don’t think so.
That leaves me with Kansas City and Pittsburgh . That works out great because I really like both of them to come up with a win on Wednesday, and here’s why:
7:05 ET
Arizona +103 @ Pittsburgh -111
The Pirates are 45-61, tied with Cincinnati for the bottom spot in the NL Central. Arizona isn’t much better at 48-59, which puts them 18 back in the NL West, better than only San Diego . Am I really betting on this waste of a game? Man this dumpster diving thing is harder than it looks.
Pittsburgh recently completed their annual fire sale on any remaining valuable players that they had. That was the easiest sure bet on the board. Now those that remain will attempt to end the season on a respectable note. Ross Ohlendorf (11-10, 4.43) will get the go, and the good news is that he has been pretty steady as of late. In his last three starts, he has an ERA of just over three. Just recently he faced the Diamondbacks and held them to 2 ER in 6 IP. He ended up taking the loss as Pittsburgh was defeated 7-0.
The opposing pitcher in that game was Doug Davis (5-10, 3.59), who snapped out of a funk by holding the Pirates scoreless in 6 IP. He will get the nod once again tonight. The determining factor is that this time around, the game will be at PNC Park . Despite having the second worst road record at 17-39, the Bucs are actually quite respectable at home, winning 28 times in 50 tries. I’m betting that this holds true today. And just in case Davis shuts them down once again, there is always the 26th ranked Arizona bullpen to keep in mind.
8:10 ET
Seattle -113 @ Kansas City +105
Garbage in, garbage out for Kansas City once again. Not surprisingly, they own the Major’s second-worst record at 41-65, and sit way back in the AL Central. I can almost be guaranteed that any year that I want to go dumpster diving, that the Royals will be there. It’s strange because I like a lot of players on their team, and believe it or not, I think they win easily today.
Kyle Davies (3-7, 5.76) is in a bad rut. He’s lost six of his last seven starts for K.C. For Seattle , they’ll have rookie Lucas French (2-3, 3.38) on the mound. He’s been pretty reliable in limited action before getting roughed up a bit in his most recent assignment.
The truth of the matter is that I enjoy players like Alberto Jose Callaspo, Mark Teahen, and David DeJesus. And on the rare occasions that they find themselves in a save situation, it doesn’t get much better than Joakim Soria (18-20 saves, 1.71). It just doesn’t matter who they throw on the field, it seems. They could switch entire rosters with the Phillies and still only win 40% of their games.
But there is something about these two games that gives me a good feeling. I like both home teams today. And if they both get completely destroyed, then obviously my dumpster diving experiment will be remembered as a dumb-ster diving mess. At that point, I’ll leave the trash picking to the pros. This is harder than it looks. I don’t need a nice cast iron fruit basket or $130 that badly.
There has been some talk on the SBR message boards recently by a well known poster about his hobby of dumpster diving. It seems that in between most of his time spent beating slots, and driving all over Florida in search of poker room promotions, his frugal habits have him in and out of garbage dumpsters.
I guess if you can deal with sifting through other peoples’ crapola, who am I to judge? But how profitable could this actually be? Well, the Entrepreneur-a of Basura spoke just today of finding “a 10-speed bike, a very nice coffee table, a nice lounge chair, and a nice cast iron fruit basket” all ripe for the picking in his dumpster.
Apparently he takes his throwaway treasures to a local auction house. By his estimate, he will receive approximately $130 for these four items, netting a profit of just over $100. So who is the joke on now? That’s right, me. But guess what is not on me. That’s right, my neighbor’s baby’s diapers. It’s just not worth it to me, but regardless, I wanted in on this action.
This doesn’t mean you’ll see me emerging from a trash barrel with a banana peel on my head anytime soon. No, I’m going dumpster diving for a baseball winner. I’m scouring the cellar dwellers for hidden gems. So let’s take a look at the six last placed division teams.
Lots of dumb-ster divers at SBR
Baltimore – playing at Detroit against Edwin Jackson. No thanks.
Oakland – facing the streaking Rangers and Vicente Padilla. Nah.
Washington – Just no.
San Diego – With redbeard Chad Gaudin on the mound. I don’t think so.
That leaves me with Kansas City and Pittsburgh . That works out great because I really like both of them to come up with a win on Wednesday, and here’s why:
7:05 ET
Arizona +103 @ Pittsburgh -111
The Pirates are 45-61, tied with Cincinnati for the bottom spot in the NL Central. Arizona isn’t much better at 48-59, which puts them 18 back in the NL West, better than only San Diego . Am I really betting on this waste of a game? Man this dumpster diving thing is harder than it looks.
Pittsburgh recently completed their annual fire sale on any remaining valuable players that they had. That was the easiest sure bet on the board. Now those that remain will attempt to end the season on a respectable note. Ross Ohlendorf (11-10, 4.43) will get the go, and the good news is that he has been pretty steady as of late. In his last three starts, he has an ERA of just over three. Just recently he faced the Diamondbacks and held them to 2 ER in 6 IP. He ended up taking the loss as Pittsburgh was defeated 7-0.
The opposing pitcher in that game was Doug Davis (5-10, 3.59), who snapped out of a funk by holding the Pirates scoreless in 6 IP. He will get the nod once again tonight. The determining factor is that this time around, the game will be at PNC Park . Despite having the second worst road record at 17-39, the Bucs are actually quite respectable at home, winning 28 times in 50 tries. I’m betting that this holds true today. And just in case Davis shuts them down once again, there is always the 26th ranked Arizona bullpen to keep in mind.
8:10 ET
Seattle -113 @ Kansas City +105
Garbage in, garbage out for Kansas City once again. Not surprisingly, they own the Major’s second-worst record at 41-65, and sit way back in the AL Central. I can almost be guaranteed that any year that I want to go dumpster diving, that the Royals will be there. It’s strange because I like a lot of players on their team, and believe it or not, I think they win easily today.
Kyle Davies (3-7, 5.76) is in a bad rut. He’s lost six of his last seven starts for K.C. For Seattle , they’ll have rookie Lucas French (2-3, 3.38) on the mound. He’s been pretty reliable in limited action before getting roughed up a bit in his most recent assignment.
The truth of the matter is that I enjoy players like Alberto Jose Callaspo, Mark Teahen, and David DeJesus. And on the rare occasions that they find themselves in a save situation, it doesn’t get much better than Joakim Soria (18-20 saves, 1.71). It just doesn’t matter who they throw on the field, it seems. They could switch entire rosters with the Phillies and still only win 40% of their games.
But there is something about these two games that gives me a good feeling. I like both home teams today. And if they both get completely destroyed, then obviously my dumpster diving experiment will be remembered as a dumb-ster diving mess. At that point, I’ll leave the trash picking to the pros. This is harder than it looks. I don’t need a nice cast iron fruit basket or $130 that badly.
The ultimate dumpster diver agrees
