New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge, center, clenches his helmet while walking in the dugout after he was pulled from the game after suffering an apparent injury while hitting a single off Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Glenn Sparkman on April 20, 2019, in New York.Julio Cortez | Associated Press

Newsletter: A little love for the hated New York Yankees - Bettors Insider, Vol. 1, No. 51 (April 22, 2019)

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A little love for the hated New York Yankees

I come by my Yankee fandom honestly: I grew up in the Bronx, my dad and almost all our relatives were Yankee fans and when I was a kid it was during one of those brief periods when the Yankees were lousy.

So no front-running, carpet-bagger here.

With this year's team, however, I'm seeing something I've never seen before. They actually have a M*A*S*H unit tending to players down the third base line. Well not really but . . .

Pitching ace Luis Severino, out. Set-up ace Dellin Betances out.

Shortstop Didi Gregorious recovering from Tommy John surgery. Third baseman Miguel Andujar has a labrum issue. Replacement shortstop Troy Tulowitzki out. Catcher Gary Sanchez out. The entire projected starting outfield of Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge is out. Backup first baseman Greg Bird is out. Backup outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury has been out forever. Pitcher CC Sabathia, who just got off the DL, only had heart surgery in the off-season.

Collectivity, that's six of eight starting position players missing from the lineup – more than 150 HRs and 500 RBIs (3 runs per game) from last year.

Yet somehow they're 12-10, 2.5 games out of first and having won 7 of their last 10. Not sure how much longer their Triple-A team can compete with the rest of major league baseball even with their legit pitching, but Sanchez and Tulowitzki should be back soon and Hicks and Stanton should be back in May.

In the meantime, the Bronx Bandages just have to figure out a way to upset bettors and find ways to win.

NBA fantasy value of the night

@NBAFantasy on Twitter

Because you can bet on anything

@OddsShark on Twitter

Uh, the three naked "courtesans" in episode one of Season 8 were females . . . Arya was the first female with her name in the opening credits. But sheesh, she started on the show when she was 12.

Bettor Bit

@inkstainedretch on Twitter

Today's Schedule

Overnight - Neal Abrams picks for today's matches at the Barcelona Open and Hungarian Open.
Overnight - How we fared over the weekend.
10 am - Boop Single Digits (BoopStats for the digital attention span) (Single Digits will also give you an early peek at Boop's Quickie Quiz, which posts at noon on Twitter @BoopStats.)
10 am - Sean Miller's soccer picks.
10 am - Robert Mims' bonus Tuesday column.
11 am - Andrew Albert's baseball picks.
Noon - Chris Garrity's horse racing picks for Indiana Grand and Turf Paradise.
Noon - Mick McMudder's horse racing picks for Parx.
1 pm-5 pm - Craig Dietel's NHL Playoffs picks. Greg Frank's NBA Playoff picks. The Swish Analytics Deep Dive Game of the Day.
6 pm - Boop's Philly Props.

Weekend + Monday Results

We still have all our horse racing picks to catch up on, not to mention the second episode of "Game of Thrones," but we got through the weekend's other sports. Neal Abrams led the way in tennis with a 7-2 mark (going 6-for-6 yesterday in Barcelona and Budapest), Greg Frank went 5-3 in the NBA Playoffs and Sean Miller somehow managed to stay above .500 (12-11, with 11 PUSH bets) even though European soccer was again beset by 0-0 and 1-1 ties. Matt Kuchar, at 24-1, finished second at the RBC for Mike Kern, losing by one stroke to a 125-1 shot.

We'll try to do better today. And compile the horse racing results.

Good luck at the tables, windows, kiosks and apps.