AL West: Angels hoping to make up ground

Baseball Betting Lines

05/18/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - As we near the quarter-post of the Major League Baseball season, it's usually a good tipping point to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

Although some may start slow, the true contenders won't be held down for long. Likewise, some of the weaker teams who start out hot will eventually come back down to Earth.

Fortunately for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (18-22), the American League West is still anybody's division. And entering play Monday, they had gained three games on first-place Texas in a span of three days. They were able to do so thanks to a three-game sweep over the Oakland Athletics at home this past weekend. Equally as important as the ground they made up, was the revival of a starting rotation that has been anything but consistent.

On Friday, Joe Saunders tossed a four-hit shutout to outlast A's starter Dallas Braden and pick up his second win of the season. In Sunday's series finale, Joel Piniero also pitched a four-hit shutout to lead the Angels to another 4-0 win. And in between those gems, Ervin Santana allowed only two earned runs in six innings during Saturday's 12-3 rout, striking out six along the way.

Now, the team will try to solve its road woes as it embarks on a seven-game road trip this week, with stops in Texas, Chicago and St. Louis. But so far that trip has started with more of the same -- a 4-3 loss to former slugger Vladimir Guerrero and the Texas Rangers on Monday night.

Guerrero went 2-for-4 in his first game against his former squad. On the season, the 35-year-old designated hitter is batting .340 with 31 RBI -- both figures which are among the Major League leaders. Of course, had he put up those kinds of numbers last year in Anaheim, he likely would've received a suitable offer to stay put.

"I wasn't healthy (last year)," Guerrero told The Orange County Register. "Unfortunately, I had no time to work out on my knees and shoulder because I had surgery the year before. It was a struggle."

Without question, if the Angels are to tackle their problems on the road during this trip, the starting rotation must continue to deliver. At the very least, things are headed in the right direction.

Through the first 30 games of the season, the Angels starters had combined for a robust 5.59 ERA. In the 10 games since, they've posted a 2.03 ERA.

All told, the Angels entered Tuesday just 3 1/2 games off the pace in the division.

RANGERS ENJOYING HOME COOKING

Of all the AL West squads, the Angels aren't alone in their struggles on the road (6-11). Oakland is just 5-13 away from home, while the Texas Rangers are 7-11 in opposing ballparks. However, the difference is that Oakland and Texas are both 14-7 at home.

With Monday's 4-3 win over L.A., the Rangers improved to 7-1 at home so far in the month of May. Meanwhile, they've lost their last five road games. Texas will continue its homestand with another tilt against Angels tonight, followed by a two-game set with Baltimore and then a three-game interleague series with the Chicago Cubs this weekend.

Considering none of those teams are above .500, the Rangers could be in line to create some separation in the division if they continue to take care of business at home.

A'S ROTATION FACING A POTENTIALLY HUGE LOSS IN DUCHSCHERER

A's right-hander Justin Duchscherer has seen his promising career become sidetracked by both physical and mental ailments, and the latest setback is threatening his 2010 season.

Duchscherer, who missed all of last season after undergoing elbow surgery and later fighting clinical depression, will find out this week if he needs season-ending hip surgery. In a report on the team's website, Duchscherer said that he has a femoroacetabular impingement, caused by the hip ball and socket rubbing together and creating friction. He'll soon meet with orthopedist Thomas Byrd in Nashville to determine whether he'll need surgery. The recovery timetable for such a procedure is generally 4-6 months.

Duchscherer had been scheduled to return from the disabled list and start Saturday's game against the Angels, but he wound up being a game-time scratch. By Sunday, he was back on the disabled list.

"My goal is to try to do whatever I can so that I can pitch this year, and then at the end of the season have it addressed," Duchscherer said. "But sometimes what we want and what actually happens doesn't coincide."

Through five starts this season, he had gone 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA before his bothersome hip landed him on the DL May 7.

STILL NO SIGNS OF LIFE FOR M'S OFFENSE

By now, it's looking more and more likely that the Seattle Mariners' (14-24) offense may never recover from its early-season slump, which is reaching historic proportions. Seattle continues to rank at the bottom of the league in virtually every offensive category.

Remarkably, the team has been held scoreless during the first three innings of every game since May 1, which is a span of 10 games. Let that stat marinate for a second -- it's basically the equivalent of letting the other team bat and playing only defense until the fourth inning.

So with that, the onus becomes even greater on the starting rotation to put up as many zeroes as possible. Cliff Lee has certainly done his part, having posted a 2.08 ERA with 25 strikeouts and only one walk in his four starts. Doug Fister (3-1, 1.72) and Jason Vargas (3-2, 2.93) have also impressed. Felix Hernandez had allowed 13 runs over his previous two starts, before holding Baltimore to one run over seven innings last Thursday.

The Mariners are hoping he can build on that when he opposes Ben Sheets tonight in Oakland. If not, and the offense continues to stumble, things are bound to get ugly quick in Seattle.

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Online Sportsbook Football Betting

Why Sports Betting is so much fun?

Betting Sports

The most popular sports to bet on are NFL and college football along with NBA and NCAA basketball. There are multiple betting opportunities within those sports, beginning with the basic wager on a game’s outcome (also called betting the side). College Football Point spreads are used in both football and basketball in an attempt to even the attractiveness of each team in a match-up. ( See our article detailing how and why point spreads are made)

But you could also simply bet on the money line, or straight-up winner of the game. Oddsmakers use the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite or expected winner and less money on the underdog to balance the action on both sides. While money line gambling is an attractive option for football and basketball bettors who only care about picking a winner, it is the primary option for those bettors who enjoy wagering on MLB baseball and individual sports like boxing, tennis, golf and racing events such as NASCAR. ( More details on playing the Money Line)

Points (or Runs) Scored

Another bet across all major team sports including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey involves wagering on the amount of scoring in a game, called an Over/Under total. For example, the Over/Under total on Super Bowl XXXIX was 48, which means a bettor could wager whether there would be more or less than 48 points scored by both teams combined in the game.

The final score of Super Bowl XXXIX was 24-21; the scoring of both teams added up to 45, which means the game went Under . So Under bettors won, and Over bettors lost.

Future Bets

Sports gambling doesn’t end there. Betting sides and totals are the most common wagers available everywhere, but many sportsbooks also offer future bets on big upcoming events like who will win next year’s Super Bowl and what movie will win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

The main advantage of futures is that you can get appealing odds by betting far in advance. For example, with NFL futures you often can get much higher odds on a team by betting before the season even starts. A NFL future bet on a team to win the Super Bowl odds might be 20/1 in the preseason; but by midseason, their odds might decrease to 10/1 if they turn out to be legitimate championship contenders.

Proposition Bets (or Prop Bets)

Proposition bets , also known as prop bets, focus upon the more exotic aspects of a game and are generally reserved for events that are widely televised. Prop bets are extremely popular when it comes to wagering on the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace Casino’s sportsbook is well-known for the enormous number of prop bets offered. For example, you can bet on:

Types of Bets

Straight Bet

Involves one individual wager, whether it be on your team to cover the point spread, to win the game straight-up on the money line, or to go over/under the total.

Sports Betting Parlays

A parlay is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers and is dependent on all of those wagers winning together. The benefit of the parlay bet is much better odds than placing each individual bet separately since the difficulty of hitting it is much higher.

Standard payoffs on a two-team parlay are 13/5; while a three-teamer pays 6/1; and a four-teamer 10/1.

Parlay cards are also fairly common in sportsbooks and popular with bettors, as they are released early in the week with set odds that do not change in return for a slightly lower payoff.

Round Robin Betting

Adventurous bettors who enjoy betting parlays sometimes put together a series of parlays called a Round Robin . A three-team Round Robin consists of one three-team parlay and three two-team parlays. For example, Joe likes teams A,B,C – with a Round Robin he has a three-teamer with ABC, and two-teamers with AB, AC, and BC.

Betting Teasers

Similar to a parlay, a teaser bet is a single bet that links together two or more individual wagers, but is different in that the point spread is adjusted to your advantage on each individual wager. In exchange for the points, you get less of a return on your bet compared to a parlay. For example, a 6-point teaser would move the line on a 7-point favorite from -7 to -1, meaning the team would have to cover 6 less points. Each of the individual wagers must win or the bet is a loss.

These are the main types of sports bets available today. But as sports betting continues to grow, sportsbooks will continue to develop new and creative ways to bet. We’ll continue to track these changes to the sports gambling landscape, so check back often and we’ll tell you all about it!

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.

Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

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