Gage Jump's strong road ERA and Seth Lugo's five straight home quality starts point to under 9 in Kansas City

We are just about three weeks from the official start of the NFL season, and I'm super excited for the opportunity to bet on some pigskin.

Before we get to that point, we have about five weeks left of the baseball season.

Then the NFL will be in full swing, and the MLB will be looking at the playoffs.

In addition, we will get the start of basketball.

What a great time! Before we get there, though, we want to get some money in the bank, and we will do that with a game between the Athletics and Royals.

The Athletics are one of the worst teams in baseball, which is a bit frustrating because they made some good progress last year.

This season, they are almost 30 games under .500 and have a chance to be the worst team in baseball.

I'm not sure there is one single thing you can point at as a reason for the failures.

Perhaps it is due to injuries - Nick Kurtz and Shane Langeliers have played fewer than 100 games.

Maybe it is that their pitching staff has one of the worst ERAs in the game at 5.47 and a 1.50 WHIP.

Today, the Athletics send out Gage Jump to the hill in hopes of maybe lowering that team ERA.

Jump is 5-7 for the season with a 4.50 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP, so not much better than the overall team marks.

Jump is still young, just 23 years old, so this is mostly a development year for him.

He has shown strong performances on the road with a 2.60 road ERA.