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AL East-leading Yankees pay a visit to Chase FieldBaseball Betting Lines06/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Yankees are back in familiar territory atop the American League East standings and own baseball's best record. They will try to maintain both tonight in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. While the Tampa Bay Rays struggled with the Florida Marlins this weekend, the Yankees took two of three meetings against the crosstown rival Mets in the Bronx and posted a 4-0 victory in Sunday's series finale. Mark Teixeira's grand slam in the third inning was all ace CC Sabathia needed to push his record to 8-3 this season. The big lefty fired eight scoreless innings and limited the Mets to four hits with six strikeouts and two walks. "I felt pretty good out there. I wasn't thinking 'If you get me a run, the game's over' or anything like that," Sabathia said after winning his fourth straight start. "I felt like once we had the lead I was confident enough to keep pounding away, hitting the strike zone." Derek Jeter shook off a heel injury to record two hits and Jorge Posada ended 2-for-4 with a double for the Yankees, who are one game ahead of both Tampa Bay and Boston in the AL East Division. New York has won two straight after a three-game slide and nine of its last 13 contests. It will also visit former manager Joe Torre and the Los Angeles Dodgers on this interleague trek. Yankees All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano went 0-for-3 on Sunday, but still leads the major leagues with a .367 batting average. He entered yesterday's game hitting .440 with eight doubles, five homers and 21 runs batted in since May 26. A.J. Burnett could use some of that firepower when he takes the mound in the desert tonight. Burnett has lost three straight starts and is only 2-5 with a 6.36 earned run average in his last eight appearances. He previously pitched in last Wednesday's 6-3 loss to Philadelphia and gave up all six runs on six hits and four walks over a season-low 3 1/3 innings. Burnett, who has given up at least four runs in each of his last three trips to the hill, is 3-3 in eight road starts this season. The righty will make his sixth career start against the Diamondbacks and is 3-2 with a 3.67 ERA over the first five encounters. Arizona probably can't wait for interleague play to be over as it has lost five of the last six contests against the American League. After losing all three meetings in Boston, the D'Backs dropped two of three games in Detroit over the weekend. In a 3-1 setback on Sunday, Ian Kennedy was saddled with the loss for permitting all three runs in the seventh inning and six hits, including two homers, over 6 2/3 frames. "This was very, very, very frustrating to say the least," Kennedy said on the team's website. Chris Young drove in the lone run for Arizona, which is last in the National League West standings at 13 1/2 games off the lead. Rusty Ryal had two of the four hits for the D'Backs. Rodrigo Lopez has the pleasure of welcoming the Yankees to the Valley of the Sun and will make his 15th start of the season Monday. Lopez has lost three straight starts and is winless in his last four decisions. He is just 2-6 with a 4.70 ERA this season and was pummeled at Boston the last time out on Wednesday, giving up six runs and 10 hits in seven innings. Lopez, who has lasted at least seven innings in four straight outings, picked up his last win on May 15 at Atlanta. He is 1-3 in seven home starts in 2010 and has had plenty of experience against the Bronx Bombers. In 24 career matchups (20 starts) with New York, the right-hander is 8-8 with a 5.90 ERA. The Yankees are 7-2 all-time in regular season games with Arizona and swept a three-game series in the Bronx the last time these two clubs squared off in 2007. The Yankees outscored the D'Backs, 18-4, in those games. Arizona, of course, beat New York in seven games to win the 2001 World Series. New York is 140-100 in interleague play, while the D'Backs are 87-109.
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Sportsbooks to bet on footballRecently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it. He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games. "Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote. He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games. Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk. Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible. Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines. Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy. With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season. Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas). And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.) The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors. While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger. Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under. One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it. Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami. What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5. That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well. MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple. "The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money. "At the end of the day, we liked the home team." So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams. In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish. MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover. The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing. Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed. MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash. To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards. |
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