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Encarnacion homers again as Blue Jays blast DiamondbacksBaseball Betting Lines05/23/2010 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jose Bautista homered and drove in four runs and Edwin Encarnacion finished his torrid weekend with another home run as Toronto clubbed Arizona, 12-4, to salvage the last of a three-game set at Chase Field. Shaun Marcum (4-1) was the beneficiary of all the offense, as he went five innings to grab the win for the Blue Jays, who snapped a three-game skid. He allowed three runs on six hits, while walking one and striking out a season-high eight in his first career meeting against Arizona. Encarnacion had five homers and eight RBI in the series. John McDonald, who was one of seven players with multiple hits, collected a pair, drove in two and scored twice for Toronto, which improved to 15-9 on the road. Billy Buckner (0-2) suffered the loss in his second start of the season after getting knocked around for eight runs -- seven earned -- on 11 hits over four- plus frames. He walked one and struck out a pair, as the Diamondbacks had their four-game win streak broken. Chris Young homered and knocked in two runs for Arizona. Tony Abreu doubled with one out in the home first and came in to score the game's first run on a two-out single by Justin Upton. Fred Lewis led off the third with a single and advanced to second base when Abreu's fielding error allowed Aaron Hill to reach. Both runners advanced on an Adam Lind ground out and came in to score when Jose Bautista stroked a base hit to center field. Marcum helped his own cause with a run-scoring double in the fourth that plated McDonald with one out to make it a 3-1 game. The Diamondbacks got a run back in their half of the fourth when Stephen Drew doubled to begin the inning and scored on a two-out single by Young. The Blue Jays then turned on the power switch in the fifth inning getting a two-run home run from Bautista and a monstrous two-run shot from Encarnacion, who left the yard three times Friday and again on Saturday. McDonald followed with a double that chased Buckner from the game and Jose Molina greeted Cesar Valdez with a base hit that scored McDonald to finish off the five-run rally for an 8-2 lead. Arizona tallied in the bottom half of the inning on a run-scoring single by Augie Ojeda that made it an 8-3 contest. McDonald came up with the bases loaded and two out in the sixth and sent a sinking line drive to left field that Conor Jackson did not make the catch on. Hill and Lind came in to score and then, when the ball skipped past Jackson, Encarnacion, who had been intentionally passed, was able to score all the way from first base. Toronto loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh against Saul Rivera and pushed across a run on a Lind sacrifice fly. Young launched a lead off long ball in the bottom of the ninth off Kevin Gregg to account for the game's final run. Game Notes Bautista has hit a home run in six of his last nine games and seven total during that stretch. He has also hit a major league best 10 round trippers in the month of May...Encarnacion has seven hits in six games since returning from the disabled list on Tuesday and six of them have been home runs...Lyle Overbay of the Blue Jays had two hits and has hit safely in six straight games...Abreu left the game with a sprained left wrist after tagging out Molina at second base in the fifth inning and was replaced by Ojeda...He will be further examined on Monday...Arizona leads the all-time series, 5-4...The Diamondbacks are 39-60 against the American League since 2004, while the Jays are 51-60 against the National League over that same stretch...Toronto designated pitcher Dana Eveland for assignment following the game.
<< Blue Jays designate Eveland
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays have designated pitcher Dana Eveland for assignment. The 26-year-old left-hander compiled a 3-4 record with a 6.45 earned run average in nine starts this season. He got off to
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How to bet pro footballThere is little doubt that the NFL is where the sportsbooks see the most action and also make the most loot. The NFL possesses betting friendly attributes that are unlike any of the other major sports. First off, there are relatively few teams to keep track of in comparison to college football betting or college basketball. And second, these teams play only once a week which makes staying on top of the results much easier than it is in the daily leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and MLB. These dynamics, along with the sheer excitement of watching and wagering on football, brings more square action to the table than any of the other sports. Almost every Tom, Dick and Harry in America is an NFL expert in their own mind and that is precisely what the oddsmakers prey upon. Understanding who bets the games is just as important as understanding which teams are playing the games. The market at times will dictate price, which in the betting world means the oddsmakers cater to the public rather than reality. Knowing the market inside and out is the basis of our NFL handicapping model. That is, our approach to NFL handicapping is of the contrarian or value seeking variety. We will at times place a higher premium on public sentiment than on the fundamentals. This strategy dictates playing dogs and/or lesser competent teams, or teams the public wants nothing to do with. Or better yet, fading the teams the oddsmakers want you to bet on. Along these same lines, we carry a similar notion that the first week of the NFL season presents one of the ripest opportunities for the astute gambler. This conflicts with conventional wisdom and/or handicapping lore, as most would say it is better to watch a few games and assess each team before jumping in with both feet. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are some interesting trends to exploit in Week 1 and we’d be remiss to ignore them. Let us quickly explain. Gone are the days of dynasties, where the same core players stay intact and dominate the league year after year. Free agency and player movements can completely transform teams from one season to the next. In today’s parity-driven NFL, poor teams typically don’t stay poor for all that long and excellent teams must constantly reinvent themselves to stay on top. The temptation might be to assume prior year results are the best indicator of who is going to cover in Week 1. To Joe Public, playoff teams from the prior season, home teams, favorites, and so one, look even more enticing than usual since there is no current season performance to judge them against. But the question begs: are the oddsmakers setting a trap? To find the answer, we culled five years worth of Week 1 NFL data. As always, all of our analysis is done from an ATS perspective. The purpose here is to share the most important angles we unearthed and try to explain the logic behind them. So strap on your helmet, throw on your shoulder pads, and follow our lead as we expose some rare holes in the oddsmakers’ line of defense. Home vs. Away Teams Over the past five seasons, NFL home teams in Week 1 are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). This of course implies that roadies are a 58 percent winning proposition during this time. The public at large has a tendency to overvalue home teams and this is especially true in Week 1 when there is no current season data to make predictions from. Consequently, the oddsmakers almost surely shade the home teams, by and large making road teams the choice for the value player. Conclusion: Look long and hard at road teams first when handicapping the opening week. Price ranges Favorites are just 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent) in the opening week over the past five NFL seasons (Coincidentally, home teams hold the same ATS record as noted above). This means that underdogs bark at a 58 percent clip. Mid-range favorites performed the worst among our specified price ranges. In particular, favorites priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 are only 8-15 ATS (35 percent) during this time. The same basic pattern holds true when looking at home favorites (road favorites gravitate towards a 50 percent mean). Home favorites indeed are just 21-32-3 ATS (40 percent) in the first week of NFL action since 1999. Again, mid-range favorites are similarly the poorest performers when we look at home teams. Consider that home teams priced between –3 1/2 and –6 1/2 have stumbled to a 6-13 ATS (32 percent) mark in Week 1 games the past five seasons. Conclusion: Like home teams, favorites and particularly mid-range favorites are generally overvalued in Week 1. Playoff teams It might surprise you to learn that playoff teams from the prior year versus non-playoff teams from the prior year are a mere 16-23-3 (41 percent) ATS in NFL Week 1 games over the past five seasons. Home teams which made the playoffs versus teams which did not make the playoffs from the prior season drop to a meager 7-14-1 ATS (33 percent) during this time. Why are playoff teams, and in particular those at home, such bad bets the past five openers? Just as the case with home teams and with favorites, oddsmakers intentionally overprice playoff teams in the opening week to compensate for the public’s propensity to over bet them. This theory holds true just looking at straight-up records from the past season as well. That is, home teams with winning records from the prior season vs. road teams with losing records from the prior season are just 8-13 ATS in Week 1 NFL games since 1999. Conclusion: Playoff teams from the prior year and in particular, home playoff teams, are overvalued in Week 1 NFL games. Scoring defense and scoring offense Do good defenses and for that matter good offenses from the prior season fare better against the number the following year in Week 1 games? Well, sort of. Generally speaking, teams with a solid offense or defense from the prior season tend to do well in the opening week so long as they are on the road. As a host, however, the best offenses and best defenses from the prior year tend to be overvalued in Week 1. Consider that the top five scoring defenses (i.e. points allowed) from the prior season are a nice 8-4 ATS (66 percent) on the road in NFL openers the past five seasons. Meanwhile, the top five scoring defenses from the prior season are just 3-8-2 ATS (27 percent) as a host in Week 1 during the same time period. There is no discernable advantage or disadvantage for teams with a top five scoring offense (i.e. points scored) in Week 1 games. However, when we look at scoring offenses from the bottom up (isolating the five worst offenses from the prior season), the results are rather interesting. In particular, teams ranked in the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are 9-4-1 ATS (69 percent) when on the road in Week 1. The logic is simply that the public perception is a poor scoring offensive unit from the year prior will have little chance of winning on the road in Week 1. In turn, the oddsmakers compensate for this perception and these poor offensive teams from the year prior carry extra line value on the Week 1 trail. Conclusion: Teams with top-ranked defenses from the previous season are good bets when playing on the road, but poor bets when playing at home. Also, teams ranked among the bottom five in scoring offense from the prior season are generally a good value in their Week 1 openers, provided they are playing on the road. Scoring margin An exceedingly straightforward way of measuring scoring offense and scoring defense together as a whole is to look at a team's “margin." Margin is simply scoring offense minus scoring defense, which is a fairly clear-cut measure of how a team does on both sides of the ball. Typically, the higher the margin, the better the team. In this regard, it might seem counterintuitive that teams carrying the higher margin from the prior season in week one matchups are merely 31-42-7 ATS (42 percent). Furthermore, road teams with the higher margin are 14-20-6 ATS (41 percent), while home teams with the higher margin are 17-22-1 ATS (44 percent). Once again, these results line up with the theory that better teams from the prior year are overvalued come opening day of the following season. Conclusion: “Better” teams, which often boast a higher margin than their opponent, are overvalued the following season in NFL openers. In sum Oddsmakers cater NFL betting lines to match public perception and also to bait the public into poor bets. The temptation to use the prior year’s success as a buy sign for how a team will perform against the spread in Week 1 of the following season is an enormous trap. The fact is, isolating road teams, road dogs, non-playoff teams vs. playoff teams, teams with a losing record or low margin vs. playoff teams or ones with a high margin from the previous year is where the line value resides. Quite simply, taking the road less traveled is your surest path to NFL betting profits. To visit this sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Visa needs.
Sportsbook accepts U.S. credit cardsSportsbooks That Take US Credit Cards for NFL football bettingSportsbooks that take credit cards are not always easy to come by....Everything from credit card companies denying gambling transactions to the fear of chargebacks by customers has slowed down sportsbook credit card transactions by a high percentage. There are however still sportsbooks that take credit cards. When using your credit card it is highly recommended that you try either: MySportsbook.com or Sportsbooks.com. Both sportsbooks have a high rate of accepting credit cards and will save you the time and hassle of looking around the web to make a credit card transaction. |
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