Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
05/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Injuries to a number of key regulars have rendered the Atlanta Braves' offense punchless over the last few games, a trend the slumping club would like to end in this afternoon's divisional showdown with the National League East-leading Philadelphia Phillies from Citizens Bank Park.
After failing to record a hit off Washington's Scott Olsen until the eighth inning of Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Nationals, the Braves' bats were stymied by Phillies' graybeard Jamie Moyer in last night's opener of this three-game series. The 47-year-old spun a dazzling two-hitter to become the oldest player in major league history to throw a shutout in Philadelphia's 7-0 triumph.
Moyer (4-2) struck out five without a walk and needed only 105 pitches to record the 10th shutout of his long and storied career. At 47 years and 170 days old, the veteran lefty broke Hall of Famer Phil Niekro's mark of being the eldest pitcher to blank the opposition over nine innings. Niekro was 46 years and 188 days of age when he threw his final shutout.
"Outstanding control and command on both sides of the plate," said Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel about Moyer. "He says if he can put the ball where he wants to do he can get them out, and that was a great example of it right there. [The Braves] hit a few balls hard but not very many, he was just that good."
Jayson Werth gave Moyer all the support he would need with a three-run homer in the third inning, with Raul Ibanez and Wilson Valdez each delivering two- RBI singles in the fifth to stake the Phils to a 7-0 advantage.
All seven runs came against Braves starter Derek Lowe (4-3), who was tagged for 11 hits in a five-inning stint.
Atlanta has now lost 10 of its last 11 on the road and fell to 4-13 as the visitor this season, tied with Baltimore for the worst record in the majors.
The Braves did play Friday's test without rookie sensation Jason Heyward (strained groin) and All-Star catcher Brian McCann (eye problems) and were forced to place shortstop Yunel Escobar on the disabled list with a groin injury earlier in the week. McCann is expected to return to the lineup for this afternoon's contest, while Heyward, the team's leader with eight homers and 26 RBI, is considered day-to-day.
Atlanta has also had to deal with injuries on the pitching end, with valued starter Jair Jurrjens recently sent to the 15-day DL after injuring his hamstring in an April 29 outing at St. Louis. As a result, Kris Medlen will make his initial start of the season this afternoon in Jurrjens' place.
Medlen has pitched exclusively in middle relief for the Braves this year and compiled a 1-1 record with a 2.55 earned run average in 12 appearances out of the pen. The sophomore right-hander struggled when used as a starter as a rookie last year, going 1-2 with a poor 6.38 ERA in four starts and walking 11 batters in only 18 1/3 innings of work.
This will be Medlen's first-ever start against the Phillies, but he's faced them twice already in relief this season and seven times over the past two years. The 24-year-old has recorded a 6.75 ERA lifetime versus Philadelphia and allowed two runs in 2 1/3 innings during his two previous matchups in this series in 2010.
Joe Blanton makes his second start of the year for Philadelphia this afternoon, having spent the season's first month on the disabled list with a strained left oblique. The stocky right-hander pitched well for the most part in Monday's debut, despite being saddled with a loss against St. Louis.
Blanton held the Cardinals to one run over the first six innings but faltered in the seventh, when he was charged with three more runs allowed and failed to finish out the frame. For the game, the 29-year-old gave up 10 hits over 6 2/3 innings and struck out four while walking one.
The University of Kentucky product is no stranger to the Braves, having made five starts against Atlanta a year ago. Blanton was 1-1 with a 5.23 ERA in those tests, with the lone win coming at Citizens Bank Park on August 30 by virtue of yielding just one run and three hits over seven innings.
Philadelphia puts a streak of four straight wins on the line today and has gone 6-2 thus far on a 10-game homestand. The two-time defending NL champs will be without their dugout leader this afternoon, however, as Manuel will miss the game due to a personal matter. He's expected to be back behind the bench for Sunday's finale.
Atlanta lost two of three to the Phillies at Turner Field last month, but did win five of the nine 2009 encounters between the teams held in Philadelphia.
<< Angels attempt to pin eighth straight loss on Mariners
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The struggling Seattle Mariners will try to snap out of
their rut tonight as they host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the middle
bout of a three-game set at Safeco Field.
After last night's 8-0 setback to the Angels,
<< Cards, Pirates set to continue series between Central foes
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals hope to carry over the momentum
from a late-inning victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday into
tonight's clash between the National League Central teams from PNC Park.
The division-leading Ca
<< Surging Blue Jays strive to stay hot in Chicago
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Riding the longest current winning streak in the majors,
the Toronto Blue Jays go for seven in a row when they take on the Chicago
White Sox tonight in third test of a four-game set.
Last night, Alex Gonzalez blasted a thr
<< Cilic, Youzhny to meet in BMW final
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Croat Marin Cilic and two-time
runner-up Mikhail Youzhny of Russia were both semifinal winners Saturday to
reach the title match at the clay-court BMW Open, a French Open tune-up.
The Aussi
Kentucky's Orton, Bledsoe staying in NBA Draft >>
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -Kentucky freshmen Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton are choosing to remain in the NBA Draft.Orton and Bledsoe announced Saturday they will not return to school for their sophomore seasons. They'll join fellow underclassmen John Wall
Nationals promote Chico for Saturday start >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals have recalled
left-hander Matt Chico from Double-A Harrisburg for Saturday's start against
the Florida Marlins.
Chico went 1-2 with a 3.12 earned-run average in five start
Martinez Sanchez downs Jankovic for Rome crown >>
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Unseeded Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez
finished off her stellar run of tennis at the $2 million Italian Masters on
Saturday, defeating Jelena Jankovic in a long straight-sets final.
Martinez Sanche
Canada rolls by Italy in Worlds opener >>
Mannheim, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rene Bourque, Matt Duchene and Steven
Stamkos each posted a goal and assist as Canada opened its 2010 World
Championship slate with a 5-1 victory over Italy.
Corey Perry and Kris Russell al
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.
(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).
The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.
"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."
Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.
"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."
When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:
CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.
DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.
PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.
You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.
"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."
Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.
(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)
Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."
But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."
Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."
Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."
All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.
In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.
"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."
To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting