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First-place Braves open second half against BrewersBaseball Betting Lines07/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Braves have done everything possible in this season's first half to potentially make Bobby Cox's last year as manager a special one. Seeking to give their manager one more championship before he retires at season's end, first-place Atlanta will hope to get its second half off to a good start this evening in the opener of a four-game series versus the disappointing Milwaukee Brewers at Turner Field. The Braves own the top home record in baseball (30-10), currently lead the National League East by four games over the New York Mets and are 4 1/2 games up on the three-time defending division champion Philadelphia Phillies. They have won 15 of their last 23 games and had won four in a row before suffering a loss to the Mets on Sunday. Atlanta also helped secure the NL home-field advantage in the World Series in Tuesday's All-Star Game, as catcher Brian McCann's three-run double with two outs in the seventh inning helped lift the Senior Circuit to a 3-1 victory, its first over the AL since 1996. "It'd be big for any NL team that gets there," McCann said of home-field advantage. "Being in first place at the break, we've had a lot of guys on our team step up and play big. It was nice just to come out here and be a part of this All-Star Game." McCann, who hit .267 with 10 homers and 37 RBI in the first half, became the first Braves player to earn All-Star Game MVP honors since Fred McGriff in 1994. He was joined in Anaheim by teammates Martin Prado, Omar Infante, Jason Heyward and Tim Hudson. Prado, who started at second base due to an injury to Philadelphia's Chase Utley, went 0-for-3, while Infante and Hudson did not get into the game. Heyward missed the game due to an injured left thumb, and the Braves hope the rookie can still flash his power when he returns some time in the second half. He hit 11 homers and drove in 45 runs in 71 first-half games. Atlanta added some power on Wednesday, when it swapped Yunel Escobar to Toronto for fellow shortstop Alex Gonzalez in a five-player trade. The Braves also dealt pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes to the Blue Jays while getting back a pair of minor leaguers. The 33-year-old Gonzalez is hitting .259 with 17 homers, six off his career high, and 50 RBI in 85 games this year. Escobar, meanwhile, was hitting just .238 with zero homers and 19 RBI. Atlanta should also get a boost with the healthy return of Jair Jurrjens, who makes his third start tonight since missing two months of action due to a hamstring injury. The 24-year-old made his return on June 30 and beat Washington with five innings of one-run ball, then got a no-decision versus Philadelphia on July 6 after yielding three runs on two hits and three walks over six innings. Jurrjens is 1-3 with a 5.40 earned run average on the season, but 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts at home. Jurrjens has faced Milwaukee just once before, getting a loss to them on June 5, 2009 after the right-hander allowed four runs on nine hits over seven frames. The Brewers counter with the red-hot Dave Bush, who has won three of his last four decisions and hasn't allowed more than two runs in any of his past five outings. He closed out the first half with a victory over the Pittsburgh on Saturday, yielding two runs on six hits and striking out five over 6 1/3 innings, while improving to 4-6 with a 4.14 ERA this year. "My last month or so, I've had good command...I'm feeling stronger and gotten in decent rhythm," said Bush after the game. The 30-year-old righty lost to the Braves on May 11, getting charged with three runs on seven hits over six innings of an 11-3 setback. Bush fell to 1-1 with a 2.33 ERA in four career starts versus Atlanta. Bush's win over the Pirates was part of a three-game sweep for the Brewers to close out the first half and followed five straight losses. Still, Milwaukee is 8 1/2 games back of first place in the NL Central and begins an eight-game road trip tonight. "It's nice to come back and sweep and go into the break with some momentum," said All-Star Corey Hart, who hit a game-winning two-run homer in the ninth inning of Sunday's 6-5 finale. Hart started Tuesday's All-Star Game in right field, while teammate Ryan Braun was in left. However, the duo combined to go 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, though Hart finished third in Monday's Home Run Derby. Braun went 6-for-12 with two homers, three RBI and five runs scored in the Pittsburgh series, while Hart is tied for the NL lead with 65 RBI and comes out of the break with a five-game hitting streak. The Braves have won four straight and six of their last seven versus the Brewers, including a three-game sweep at Milwaukee from May 10-12.
<< Rangers open second half at Fenway
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers enter the season's second half in good position to end an 11-year playoff drought. The Boston Red Sox, on the other hand, still have some work to do in order to secure a fourth consecutive trip to the postse
<< Giants, Lincecum welcome a returning Beltran to the Bay Area
<< Szavay stays hot; Dulgheru pulls out in Prague
<< Angels hope to get second half off to good start vs. Mariners
<< White Sox put win streak on the line versus rival Twins
Phillies head to Chicago riding win streak >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies had an up-and-down first half, and it was no different for the club over the season's final week before the All-Star break. They do come out of the hiatus with some momentum, and the Phillies will
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Montana adds four transfers >>
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Sportsbook Betting LinesWho Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?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. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).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). How the Opening Line Is MadeThe opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.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. Why Sports Betting Lines ChangeOnce the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include: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. |
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