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05/26/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Starting pitching was supposed to be one of the Red Sox's strengths in 2010. That has been the case over their current four-game winning streak, but things could go sour quick if John Lackey can't find his form.
The struggling Lackey, who will start opposite of one of the American League's top young hurlers in the Rays' Matt Garza, will try to lead Boston to its first sweep in St. Petersburg in over seven years tonight when his club wraps up a three-game set with Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field.
The Red Sox have matched their longest winning streak of the season, winning for the fourth straight time last night with a 2-0 victory over the Rays. Boston's starters have picked up the win in each of those four victories while posting a collective 0.32 earned run average.
It's been a nice turnaround for the Red Sox, who were swept in four games by the Rays at Fenway Park on April 17-19. Boston aims for its first sweep of the Rays in Tampa Bay since taking all four games of a series in St. Petersburg from Sept. 9-12, 2002.
Boston would love for Lackey to join the pitching parade after signing him to a five-year, $82.5 million deal this offseason. However, he has struggled to just a 4-3 record this season with a 5.07 ERA.
Lackey has pitched to a 7.50 ERA over his last three starts and lost his second in a row on Friday in Philadelphia, giving up four runs on six hits and five walks while needing 107 pitches to get through five innings.
It was Lackey's shortest outing since the 31-year-old righty lasted just 3 1/3 innings in a setback to the Rays on April 19. Lackey was drilled for eight runs on nine hits in that outing, including a five-run third inning in which Evan Longoria hit a two-run double and B.J. Upton followed with a three-run homer.
That outing came one day after Garza threw eight shutout innings of four-hit ball in a win at Fenway Park, improving to 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 13 career starts versus the Red Sox.
Garza, who is tied for second in the American League with a 2.37 ERA, has pitched eight innings in five of his starts this year, including Friday versus the Astros. The right-hander allowed two runs on six hits, but took a tough 2-1 loss to fall to 5-2 on the season. The 26-year-old Garza is 0-1 in his last three starts despite a 2.91 ERA.
Garza will be looking to slow down Boston slugger David Ortiz, who is hitting just .136 (3-for-22) lifetime against Garza with two homers and four RBI.
After hitting just .143 in April, Ortiz is batting .359 this month with eight homers and 21 RBI. He slugged a two-run double in the third inning on Tuesday to back six scoreless innings from winning pitcher Jon Lester.
Lester allowed Tampa Bay's only hit, a single to Willy Aybar in the fourth inning, but also walked a season-high five with nine strikeouts to combine with three other pitchers on the shutout. Jonathan Papelbon notched his 11th save of the season and helped the Red Sox win for the seventh time in their last eight games.
"I had a hard time getting into a rhythm," said Lester. "It was one of those nights; it was just kind of a battle from the beginning. I was just not in a rhythm, not in the flow of the game, just kind of had a thick feeling. It's obviously nice to get out of there without any runs."
Jason Bartlett walked three times for the Rays, who have lost three of five since a six-game win streak, and James Shields took a tough-luck loss despite giving up just the two runs over eight innings and retiring the final 16 batters he faced.
"I'm not in any way discouraged," Rays manager Joe Maddon told his team's website. "I just really hate wasting that good of a pitching performance."
Maddon was ejected in the fifth inning along with Carl Crawford for arguing balls and strikes.
Crawford, meanwhile, could have a suspension coming after it appeared his helmet made contact with home-plate umpire Bob Davidson during a heated exchange after a called strike. Tampa Bay could certainly use Crawford tonight as he is 14-for-34 (.412) lifetime versus Lackey with a homer and seven RBI.
The Rays still lead the Yankees by five games for first place in the American League East, while the Red Sox have pulled to within 6 1/2 games.
<< Jimenez goes for win No. 9 as Rockies host D-Backs
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ubaldo Jimenez tries to become the first nine-game winner
in the majors this evening, when the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks
continue a three-game set at Coors Field.
Jimenez was again dominant this past Thursd
<< Federer, Soderling roll into third round at French Open
Paris, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning champion Roger Federer and last
year's runner-up Robin Soderling were a pair of second-round winners Wednesday
at the French Open.
The top-seeded/world No. 1 Federer had to wait out some rain delay
<< Oswalt tries to end skid in Astros' bout with Brewers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Roy Oswalt's tenure in Houston appears to be nearing the
end. Tonight, though, he will try for his first win in six starts when the
Astros continue their three-game set with the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller
Park.
Oswalt re
<< Yanks, Twins set to complete suspended game before scheduled contest
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Neither the New York Yankees nor the Minnesota Twins were
able to cross the plate in Tuesday's opener of this three-game series. Runs
could be hard to come by when the teams get together again tonight at Target
Field, with a
Giants ace Lincecum puts focus on visiting Nats >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Though often a victim of a shaky bullpen this year, Giants
ace Tim Lincecum knows the result of his last start is mainly on him. An
extra-focused Lincecum is probably the last thing the Nationals want to see
tonight
Orioles shoot for series win over A's >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manager David Trembley saw his Orioles put together one of
their best games of the season that, funny enough, came against an Athletics
club that they have struggled against over the last few seasons.
Baltimore will t
In the FCS Huddle: Top 10 FCS Offensive Linemen >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Members of the Student-Athlete Advisory
Committee at Villanova are responsible for being liaisons between their
teammates, coaches and athletic administration. Their guidelines say they must
be willing to be
Spring racing at Pimlico shows decline in handle >>
Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The recently concluded spring race meet at
Pimlico Race Course showed a noticeable drop in wagering from 2009. The
Maryland Jockey Club announced that average wagering figures were down nearly
nine pe
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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