Bondi Blog: The Tampa Bay Rays are poised for a profitable start to the baseball season

July 8, 2020 Greg Turner

As we continue to navigate these uncertain times, we’re all living life a bit differently now. The same is true here at Harry Bondi Sports.

We are known as the “Home of the Fast Start,” as we consistently get off to profitable starts to every season in every sport. The reason is simple. When the season begins — no matter what sport — we are more prepared than other bettors, handicappers and oddsmakers.

This will never be more true than later this month when professional sports return as we have spent our “lockdown” time working harder than ever. We are currently offering packages for the NBA and baseball and we expect there will be football every weekend this fall and, as usual, are offering our Early Bird Special

Join before August 1st and you will receive all of our selections through the Super Bowl for only $1500, that’s a savings of $1,000! Call 1-877-332-0077 and speak to Harry now.   

While we prepare for the return of major sports, we continue to record remarkable results at the horse track and on the golf course. We had our fourth-straight winning Saturday, an almost unheard of accomplishment in horse racing, winning the Met Mile with Vekoma and placing in both the Metropolitan & Suburban Stakes! A $20 bettor netted $258 last Saturday. We also went 3-1-1 on our golf matchup bets last weekend.  

This week, in golf we like Joel Dahmen (-130) over Louis Oosthuizen as one of our matchup bets in the Workday Charity Open that starts tomorrow. Many of you have probably never heard of Dahmen and are wondering why he would be the favorite over a major champion. But Dahmen continues to be one of the most underrated players on tour. He has eight top 20 finishes in his last 14 starts and since the PGA Tour restart he ranks sixth in strokes gained overall, including second on approach shots and sixth on tee-to-green. Meanwhile, Oosthuizen continues to struggle. In three starts since the restart, he has one missed cut and when he made the cut he finished 55th and 46th. 

We have 7 other best bets for golf this week and it’s just $99 to receive our other golf and horse racing selections for this week. Call 1-877-332-0077 to get in on the winning.  

One team that our Chief Baseball Handicapper Frank Drake has zeroed in on as a “hot start” team is the Tampa Bay Rays.

Not only have the Rays won 90-plus games in back-to-back seasons, but they have done so thanks to terrific depth up and down the roster, especially on the pitching staff. The starting rotation is bolstered by a top three that features Blake Snell, the defending Cy Young winner who is back from surgery, Charlie Morton and Tyler Glasnow, three of the top 11 pitchers in the American League, based on our algorithm. What’s more, the bullpen is just as deep and talented. Last season, the Tampa Bay relievers finished second in the AL with a 4.13 xFIP and led the majors in ERA. The bullpen is dangerous because multiple guys can pitch multiple innings in multiple days. Remember, this is a team that used a starter-by-committee strategy to beat Justin Verlander and the Astros in a playoff game last year. This flexibility will be especially advantageous in the first few weeks of the season when teams are slowly working their way into games and trying not to extend their starters too long.

But as great as all of the above sounds, we’re not jumping in to bet the Rays over season win total or take a shot on them winning the AL East. 
After breaking down every team’s schedule, Frank Drake discovered the Rays have a tough 60-game slate. Not only do they play multiple games against the Yankees and Red Sox as well as interleague games with the Braves and defending champion Nationals, but the team travels more miles than any other team in the AL and NL East and AL and NL Central divisions, for a total of 10,939 miles. For context, the Yankees will travel only 5,604 miles. More travel means more risk for players contracting COVID-19 and missing games.

There is also a brutal 10-game road trip in August when the Rays go through Boston, Toronto, and New York and all 10 games with the Yankees take place within 30 days (Aug. 6 through Sept. 2).

That’s why we’re planning on jumping in on the Rays early in the season, which starts July 23. The team’s first 12 games are against four teams that rank among the worst in the league in pitching depth, via our rankings: Baltimore ranks last in baseball in pitching depth at No. 30, while Toronto is 25th, Atlanta is 14th and Boston is 23rd. The Rays will have a major advantage over these teams as the new season begins and we’ll be backing them early and often before the oddsmakers catch on!

By the way, in case you missed it, check out a Bondi Blog from earlier this month where Frank divulged a baseball team he is going against when first pitch arrives on July 23.

We hope you and yours are well and if we can help in any way please call.