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07/25/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lefty Ross Detwiler makes his season debut today when the Washington Nationals try to avoid a sweep in the finale of a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.
On Saturday, Ryan Braun drove in Rickie Weeks with the game-winning run in the ninth inning, lifting the Brewers to a 4-3 win. Braun and Jim Edmonds each recorded a solo home run in Milwaukee's third straight win, which was credited to John Axford (6-1) despite suffering his first blown save of the season.
After Adam Dunn's sacrifice fly tied it in the top of the ninth, Weeks reached on a one-out single off Drew Storen (2-2) in the bottom half.
Joe Inglett took a payoff pitch off the plate to draw a walk, then Braun roped a line drive off the base of the left-field wall to bring in Weeks without a play at the plate.
Detwiler, who turned 24 in March, debuted with the Nationals shortly after they made him the sixth overall selection in the 2007 draft. He struck out one batter in a single scoreless inning that year, then returned to go 1-6 in 15 games - 14 starts - in 2009 while posting a 5.00 earned run average in 75 2/3 innings.
The 6-foot-5, 174-pounder was called up to replace starter Luis Atilano, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 21 because of bone chips in his pitching elbow.
Detwiler was 2-2 with a 2.48 ERA in seven starts this season with Triple-A Syracuse.
Milwaukee counters with righty Dave Bush, who's winless in two starts since the all-Star break. The 30-year-old Pittsburgh native was shellacked for 16 hits and 12 runs over 10 innings in those outings, which resulted in losses at Atlanta and Pittsburgh.
He defeated the Pirates in Milwaukee for his most recent win on July 10.
Bush, who is 3-2 in five lifetime starts against Washington, is 2-4 in 10 outings at Miller Park this season.
The Nationals took two of three from the Brewers at home from April 16-18, but have lost in 11 of their last 13 visits to Miller Park.
<< Mets wrap up disastrous road trip at Chavez Ravine
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - R.A. Dickey targets his first win in six starts this
afternoon when the New York Mets wrap up what has been a disastrous road trip
with the finale of their four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at
Dodger Stadium.
<< Shin denies Pressel, Thompson at Evian Masters
Evian-les-Bains, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former world No. 1 Jiyai Shin
birdied the 18th hole Sunday to earn a one-shot victory at the Evian Masters,
her seventh win on the LPGA Tour.
Shin made five birdies for a five-under 67, fi
<< Hunter tries to stay perfect, as Rangers finish set with Halos
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tommy Hunter will try to remain flawless on the season when
he takes the hill for the Texas Rangers this evening in the finale of a four-
game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Rangers Ballpark in
Arlington.
<< A's, White Sox close set at Coliseum
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With Ben Sheets hitting the disabled list Dallas Braden
will head to the hill for Oakland, as the Athletics battle the Chicago
White Sox this afternoon in the finale of a three-game set at the Coliseum.
Sheets, who was su
Orioles activate C Wieters >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Orioles activated catcher Matt
Wieters from the 15-day disabled list on Sunday.
The 24-year-old backstop was put on the DL on July 10 with a right hamstring
strain. Over 77 games this season,
Gaunt rallies for Challenge Tour victory >>
Essex, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Daniel Gaunt closed with a four-under 68
Sunday to come from behind and win the English Challenge.
Gaunt finished at 17-under-par 271 for his first European Challenge Tour
victory.
It was amat
Montanes survives first-round match in Gstaad >>
Gstaad, Switzerland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fourth-seeded Albert Montanes rallied
for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) win over fellow Spaniard Pere Riba in the first
round of the Gstaad Open.
Russian Igor Andreev was also a first-round winner o
Johnson gets dramatic home win in Sweden >>
Stockholm, Sweden (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sweden's Richard S. Johnson made a long
birdie putt at the 18th hole Sunday to win the Scandinavian Masters by one
shot.
Johnson closed with a one-under 71 and finished at 11-under 277, beating th
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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