Rockies try to stay on right path in LA

Baseball Betting Lines

06/04/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Don't look now, but the Rockies are showing signs of life. Having snapped a pair of painful losing streaks, Colorado takes on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the rubber match of a three-game set at Dodger Stadium.

Colorado blanked Los Angeles on Tuesday, 3-0, to halt a season-high eight-game losing streak as well as a franchise-worst 13-game skid on the road. The victory improved the Rockies road record this season to just 9-24 and was their first victory away from Colorado since May 9 at San Diego.

Not only that, but the club showed it has some fight in it, as catcher Yorvit Torrealba mixed it up with Los Angeles' Matt Kemp in the eighth inning, causing both benches to clear. Torrealba and Kemp were ejected after the fracas.

Jeff Francis (2-5) tossed seven scoreless innings, working around four hits and fanning five batters. Seth Smith was 2-for-3 and scored once, while Chris Iannetta belted a solo home run for the Rockies.

Todd Helton singled in a run and drew a pair of walks, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. He is batting .419 (13-for-31) in that span with two homers and seven RBI.

With Francis hopefully back on track, Aaron Cook aims to rebound from a few shaky outings this afternoon. Cook has been Colorado's best pitcher this year and is 7-3 with a 3.36 earned run average, though the groundball specialist gave up 10 hits and a season-high seven runs on Friday in Chicago, getting tagged for three homers in the no-decision.

The right-hander is 1-2 in his last four starts with a 5.60 ERA, but has already beaten the Dodgers once this year. Cook earned the fifth victory of a six-start win streak earlier this season when he downed the Dodgers on May 4, holding them to a pair of runs over 7 2/3 innings.

The 29-year old is 4-5 with a 4.50 ERA in 16 career games (11 starts) against LA, but just 1-3 in seven games at Dodgers Stadium, with five of those being starts.

Clayton Kershaw makes his third career start today and first against Colorado. The 20-year-old has posted no-decisions in his first two outings and lasted only 3 2/3 innings against the Mets on Friday. The left-hander gave up four runs on five hits and four walks in the outing.

Brad Penny (5-7) allowed two runs on six hits in six innings of work last night. Delwyn Young doubled twice for the Dodgers, who have dropped three of their last four outings, while Juan Pierre had two hits. James Loney and Jeff Kent produced the other hits for Los Angeles.

Andre Ethier homered when the Dodgers faced Cook in early May and is a career .545 hitter (6-for-11) against him. Kent has also enjoyed success when facing Cook, going .579 (11-for-19) with a homer and five RBI.

The Dodgers have won six of eight versus the Rockies this year.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.