Monday offers up a tiny college baseball slate, but for those sickos looking to get action on it, I’m here to help. We’re sitting at a laughable 3-8 (-5.5u) on college baseball bets this season, so if you’re fading me, I don’t mind — at least one of us is making money! Still, I like this spot for today’s San Jose State-Stanford game a lot. Let’s dive into today’s college baseball odds to make our picks and predictions for today, Monday, February 26. Hungry for more? You’ll find more college baseball picks on Twitter or Discord. You can also check out our sports betting tools or our sports betting promos, and I recommend my 2024 college baseball season preview.
College Baseball Odds, Pick & Prediction Today: February 26
College Baseball Odds, Pick & Prediction Today
San Jose State Spartans at Stanford Cardinal
SJSU: +250 | STAN: -345
Game Time: 5 pm. ET
Where: Stanford, Calif.
Odds via BetMGM
The struggling Stanford Cardinal, coming off a series loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions, have a Monday home game scheduled against the San Jose State Spartans this evening. Neither team has done much to stop opposing offenses, but neither team’s offense has shown up much so far, either.
Stanford’s pitching staff has been atrocious as a unit this season. The Cardinal have a collective 2.016 WHIP and are allowing 9.3 runs per nine innings. We saw Stanford’s mid-week unit in action against UNLV last week, and the Cardinal coughed up a whopping 2.222 WHIP to go with 10 earned runs. The unit isn’t necessarily bound for positive regression, either — losing ace LHP Quinn Mathews and weekend starter RHP Joey Dixon leaves them shorthanded.
San Jose State’s pitching staff has been similarly awful. The Spartans have coughed up a collective 1.750 WHIP while allowing 7.96 runs per nine. We haven’t seen a weekday game from them yet, but their weekend series saw much of their bullpen on the mound, leaving them shorthanded for this battle against the Cardinal. Combined, these pitching staffs are coughing up a brutal 17.3 runs per nine.
With two shaky pitching staffs, it makes sense to play the over. But we need to talk about just how bad both sides have been on offense before we can lock the bet in, because, well, they have been awful. Stanford’s batting splits (.269/.368/.407) are atrocious and mark a major downtick from last season (.316/.403/.539). San Jose State’s splits are worse (.203/.300/.328) and also mark a major downtick from last season (.281/.372/.454). These teams combined to score 14.7 runs per game last year; they’re combining to score only 8.71 this year.
So should we expect these offenses to bounce back? Yes. Stanford may have lost a key offensive piece in OF Braden Montgomery this offseason, but C Malcolm Moore (2024 OPS: .603; 2023 OPS: .950), INF Owen Cobb (2024 OPS: .774; 2023 OPS: .839) and INF Temo Becerra (2024 OPS: .510; 2023 OPS: .876) — three of Stanford’s four leaders in plate appearances — are all performing well below their averages from last season, which suggests some regression is in order.
The same phenomenon is true for San Jose State’s batters. OF Sebastian Ordurno (2024 OPS: .322; 2023 OPS: .680) INF Theo Hardy (2024 OPS: .689; 2023 OPS: .871) and INF Dalton Bowling (2024 OPS: .427; 2023 OPS: .915) are all lagging near miles behind last year’s production. Odurno, Hardy and Bowling are also three of San Jose State’s five leaders in plate appearances. I bought the over 14 for -115 at DraftKings and recommend that you do the same.
College Baseball Pick Today: Stanford/San Jose State Over 14 -115 at DraftKings
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