If you are a fan of this Philadelphia-based ball club, you can thank the Phillies hitting for getting the team to its current point. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jayson Werth have all had outstanding starts to their seasons. All three men are hitting for both power and average while they continue their onslaught on National League pitching. The unsung hero at the plate, however, for the Phillies this year has been Placido Polanco. After rejoining Philadelphia after a lengthy stay in Detroit, Polanco has hit .318 while only striking out 25 times in 261 at-bats. He has been the epitome of what good, consistent hitting can do for your baseball team, and Polanco has shown no signs of slowing down up to this point in the year. It is the Philadelphia bats that will ultimately change the course of the game against the Cubs, which makes the Phillies the free wager selection for July 16th.

It has been a season of absolute disappointment when you talk about the Cubs and the product that they have put on the field every night. Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee have played embarrassingly bad, and tensions boiled over a couple of weeks ago when Carlos Zambrano got into a verbal spat in the dugout with Lee. Manager Lou Piniella has been very good about deflecting questions related to the performance of his team, but he can't expect Chicago fans to support him much longer if the Cubs are going to play as poorly as they are. Amongst all of this, the pitching trio of Carlos Silva, Ryan Dempster, and Ted Lilly has performed particularly well considering that they are getting little-to-no help offensively. While the Cubs have not fallen to the Pirates level, they need to watch their backs because Pittsburgh is improving and could relegate Chicago to the cellar of the National League Central. For their game against the Phillies, take Philadelphia to win the game and the free bet.

Neither one of these teams is going to be mistaken for the cream of the National League crop. However, it should be pointed out that the Phillies have really been playing some good baseball as of late. With that being said, the Cubs always play the National League's best teams very hard, so Philadelphia should not expect to go to Wrigley Field and have the Cubs throw up the white flag. With their good starting pitching, Chicago will put up a battle. In the end, though, betsfreebets.com believes it will be the Philadelphia Phillies that wins your free wager for Friday night in the Windy City.