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07/13/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - We know this much is true about the Texas Rangers: on paper, they are a better ballclub than they were before Friday.
When the Rangers traded for Seattle Mariners' ace Cliff Lee, they effectively complemented their potent lineup with a bona fide horse, one who last year proved himself to be more than capable of handling a pressure-packed postseason workload.
Lee comes to a Rangers team that already holds a 4 1/2-game lead in the American League West. Rangers fans are still giddy enough about the acquisition to give Lee a mulligan for his Rangers debut Saturday against Baltimore, when he allowed six earned runs in nine innings. In fact, the whole team could use a mulligan after suffering a four-game sweep at home to the Orioles, owners of the worst record in the American League.
"Good time for a break. We need it," manager Ron Washington said. "Sometimes it's not the best team that wins, it's the team that plays the best."
Indeed, there figures to be plenty of days ahead when Texas will play the role of favorite. And with a few weeks remaining until the July 31 trade deadline, it will be interesting to see the trickle-down effect the Lee deal will have on division rivals Oakland and L.A.
Another thing to keep an eye on during the second half of the season is the budding Triple Crown race between the Rangers' Josh Hamilton and Detroit's Miguel Cabrera. Those two are tied for the Major League lead in batting average (.346) and are tied for second with 22 home runs apiece, behind Toronto's Jose Bautista with 24. Hamilton put himself into the mix with an insane month of June, when he hit .454 with nine home runs and 31 RBI. Cabrera has the edge with a Major League-best 77 RBI, while Hamilton ranks fourth with 64. But if anybody can produce runs in bunches, it's Hamilton, as he proved in 2008 with a league-high 130 RBI and 331 total bases.
The question is, will he be able to pick up right where he left off coming out of the break?
Another storyline worth watching will be Lee's impact on the rest of the rotation. Texas has already gotten healthy contribution from starters C.J. Wilson (7-5, 3.35) and Colby Lewis (8-5, 3.33). Can they continue to pitch effectively under Lee's shadow? According to Fox Sports Southwest, Lee's debut was the most watched television program in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Saturday, doubling the team's average Nielsen household rating this season.
Even with a new-look rotation, the offense will continue to garner the most attention. Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero are having tremendous rebound seasons. Ian Kinsler is hitting .310 and is on pace to shatter his career-high in walks despite missing the first month of the season with a high ankle sprain.
Then, there is the pending sale of the team which has been an ongoing soap opera in the Fort Worth area. On Monday, team president Nolan Ryan sued his own ballclub for 'derailing' the deal and asked a bankruptcy judge to approve the sale.
While that drama continues to unfold, the Rangers will open the second half armed with a shiny new toy atop the starting rotation, and looking to build on their division lead.
ANGELS SPUTTER INTO ALL-STAR BREAK
While the first-place Rangers were suffering an improbable sweep to close out the season's unofficial first half, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were doing a nosedive of their own. Rather than seize the opportunity to gain some ground, the Angels flatlined, as they've now lost eight of their last 10.
All told, things could be worse. Prior to that 10-game stretch, the Angels were 3 1/2 games back of Texas in the AL West. Now, they are 4 1/2 games back, thanks to the Rangers dropping seven of their last 10. For now, chalk it up to good fortune for the Halos. However, another stretch of that magnitude could very well drop them into a hole too deep to climb out.
This marks the first time since 2006 that L.A. is not in first place at the All-Star break. It's no question the team has missed the presence of first baseman Kendry Morales, who was in the midst of a big season before breaking his leg during a walk-off home run celebration in late-May. Manager Mike Scioscia has confirmed the Angels are looking to add another bat, but not to rent a player for the remainder of the season.
"We know that one person is not going to fill Kendry Morales' shoes and what he brings to the team," Scioscia told the team's website. "He's the one hitter in the middle of our lineup that really makes everyone around him better. I think that speaks volume to his talents. That being said, I think that our offensive lineup -- if people can play to their capabilities -- will be deep enough for us to absorb a lot of that and to give ourselves an opportunity to score runs and support what we think is a good pitching staff."
WHAT NOW FOR THE MARINERS?
When the Seattle Mariners dealt Cliff Lee to the Texas Rangers on Friday, general manager Jack Zduriencik all but threw in the towel on the 2010 season. Among the most disappointing teams during the first half of the season, the Mariners have to be at or near the top.
When you look back at the expectations following a flurry of offseason moves, to where Seattle (35-53) is now, 15 games back in the division, it's a sobering reality of just how far the team has strayed from its intended path. And now, the ace is gone, and plenty of questions remain.
At the forefront of those questions is, what exactly did the team get in return for its departed ace?
In addition to receiving three prospects from Texas, the key to the deal was 23-year-old first baseman Justin Smoak, who came through the Rangers' minor league system with such high hopes. But he struggled in his first taste of big league action, hitting .209 in 70 games with the Rangers. Initial reports on Friday had a deal in place for Seattle to land Yankees prized catching prospect Jesus Montero, among others. However, that deal ultimately fell through, and Zduriencik acted quickly on Plan B when the Rangers changed their mind on dealing Smoak.
Still, Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu is preaching patience with the youngster, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his Seattle debut.
"I keep trying to get people to understand, this kid is just starting his career, really," Wakamatsu said. "To be traded and come over with the expectations and all those things, he's got to work some things out. We've seen him, and I've seen him. He's awfully impressive, but we're going to have to be patient with him."
A'S STILL IN THE HUNT
Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane does not have a reputation for making blockbuster deals at the trade deadline to improve his ballclub. Despite the fact that his team is a manageable 7 1/2 games back of the Rangers, who so far have made the biggest splash of the trading season, the rumor mill has been pin drop-quiet regarding any potential deals involving the A's.
Oakland boasts the AL's third-ranked team ERA (3.85) thanks in part to All- Stars Trevor Cahill (9-3, 2.94) and Andrew Bailey (1.70, 18 SV). That said, if Beane were to make a deal before the trade deadline, at the top of his wish list would have to be one word: power.
The A's rank last in the majors with 57 home runs, and that's even with four home runs in a pair of wins over the Angels this weekend. Prior to blasting three homers against the Angels' Scott Kazmir on Saturday night, Oakland had gone 23 straight games without a multi-homer game.
According to manager Bob Geren, we should be seeing more long balls in the second half, regardless of what Beane does or does not do at the trade deadline.
"I'm trying to think who's below their career norm at this point," Geren told the Oakland Tribune. "(Kurt) Suzuki has 10, so he's pretty much on pace. (Kevin Kouzmanoff) will probably hit more in the second half than he did in the first half (8). Same thing with (Mark) Ellis, and you know Jack (Cust) will, too."
<< Taylor pleads not guilty to rape charges
New City, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor has
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May.
He pleaded not guilty at a Rockland County courthouse on Tuesday as he was
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Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The American League will try to stretch its unbeaten streak
to 14 games over the National League when the respective All-Star teams battle
Tuesday in the 81st edition of the Mid-Summer Classic at Angel Stadium.
This marks
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Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died
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Nets-Warriors make sign-and-trade deal for Morrow >>
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -The New Jersey Nets have acquired guard Anthony Morrow in a sign and trade deal with the Golden State Warriors.The Nets say the deal was completed on Tuesday, just a day after they handed Morrow an offer sheet on a three-
Magic make it official with Richardson >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Orlando Magic have signed swingman Quentin
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Blue Jackets re-sign Boll >>
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Blue Jackets have re-signed right
wing Jared Boll to a two-year contract, the team announced Tuesday.
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Ronaldinho set to join Flamengo >>
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reports in Brazil suggest Ronaldinho
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accepted an offer to
Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.
March Madness odds and printable March Madness brackets
With the field of 64/65 set, MySportsbook.com has the Florida Gators as the 4-1 favorite to successfully defend their National Championship. Men’s Division-1 College Basketball has not seen a team repeat as National Champions since Duke won back to back championships in ’91 & ‘92. After losing three out of four late in the season, the Gators are full of momentum as they won their last four games by an average of 18 points. Not surprisingly, right behind the Gators are the other three top seeds: Kansas 5-1, UNC 6-1, and Ohio State 7-1. Many consider Kansas to be the hottest team in the country, having won 11 straight. With Kansas, it is hard to ignore all of the early exits from the “dance” in recent years. With an impressive ACC Tournament, UNC ensured themselves the other top seed. UNC has about as much talent as any other team in the tournament but with a team that’s best players are primarily freshman and sophomores, could youth be a concern. Behind freshman sensation, Greg Oden, OSU will look to do what their football team failed to do just a few months earlier. OSU seems to have peeked at the right time, as they currently have a 17 game winning streak. Since the tournament field was expanded in 1985, there has never been an instance where all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four. It is obvious that each of the top seeds have the talent to make it through to Atlanta. But as everyone knows, when makes the NCAA Tournament so special are all of the spoilers and “Cinderella” stories that knock off the favorites on a daily basis.
Be sure to logon to MySportsbook.com to see check out all of the early lines and “March Madness” props. Also be sure to enter the “$10,000,000 Perfect Bracket Contest”. If someone has the skills to predict every winner, they will be set for life and walk away with $10,000,000. Even if no one can cash in on the Grand Prize, with a $35,000 guaranteed prize pool and a Mazda RX-8 to the first prize winner, Sportsbook.com’s bracket is a must for all “March Madness” fans.
MySportsbook.com’s odds to win the Championship and Regions:
| EAST | National Championship | Region |
| Arkansas | 300-1 | 50-1 |
| Belmont | 1000-1 | |
| Boston College | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Eastern KY | 1000-1 | |
| George Washington | 75-1 | |
| Georgetown | 10-1 | 3-2 |
| Marquette | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Michigan State | 100-1 | 25-1 |
| New Mexico St. | 500-1 | 200-1 |
| UNC | 6-1 | 6-5 |
| Oral Roberts | 500-1 | |
| Texas | 15-1 | 5-1 |
| Texas Tech | 200-1 | 5-1 |
| USC | 75-1 | 20-1 |
| Vanderbilt | 100-1 | 30-1 |
| Washington State | 40-1 | 15-1 |
| WEST | ||
| Duke | 50-1 | 10-1 |
| Florida A&M | 1000-1 | |
| Gonzaga | 200-1 | 40-1 |
| Holy Cross | 300-1 | |
| Illinois | 300-1 | 60-1 |
| Indiana | 75-1 | 40-1 |
| Kansas | 5-1 | 13-10 |
| Kentucky | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| Niagara | 1000-1 | |
| Pittsburgh | 40-1 | 8-1 |
| Southern Ill. | 50-1 | 12-1 |
| UCLA | 10-1 | 3-2 |
| VCU | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Villanova | 100-1 | 40-1 |
| VA Tech | 50-1 | 15-1 |
| Weber St | 1000-1 | |
| Wright St | 1000-1 | 300-1 |
| MIDWEST | ||
| Arizona | 50-1 | 30-1 |
| Butler | 40-1 | 30-1 |
| Davidson | 300-1 | |
| Florida | 4-1 | 4-5 |
| Georgia Tech | 75-1 | 25-1 |
| Jackson State | 1000-1 | |
| Maryland | 30-1 | 6-1 |
| Miami-OH | 300-1 | |
| Notre Dame | 100-1 | 20-1 |
| ODU | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Oregon | 40-1 | 6-1 |
| Purdue | 300-1 | 60-1 |
| Texas A&M CC | 1000-1 | |
| UNLV | 100-1 | 30-1 |
| Winthrop | 500-1 | 100-1 |
| Wisconsin | 15-1 | 7-2 |
| SOUTH | ||
| Albany | 200-1 | |
| BYU | 200-1 | 40-1 |
| Central CT St. | 1000-1 | |
| Creighton | 100-1 | 35-1 |
| Long Beach St. | 500-1 | 200-1 |
| Louisville | 40-1 | 10-1 |
| Memphis | 30-1 | 4-1 |
| Nevada | 75-1 | 35-1 |
| North Texas | 500-1 | |
| Ohio State | 7-1 | 6-5 |
| Penn | 500-1 | |
| Stanford | 200-1 | 50-1 |
| Tennessee | 100-1 | 20-1 |
| Texas A&M | 12-1 | 11-5 |
| Virginia | 75-1 | 18-1 |
| Xavier | 100-1 | 40-1 |
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To bet on March Madness games this online sportsbook accepts credit cards.
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