07/03/2009 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - He won't have the home crowd on his side until after the All-Star break, but Los Angeles Dodgers star left fielder Manny Ramirez probably doesn't mind, since he is finally done serving his 50-game suspension for violating the league's policy on performance enhancing drugs.
Ramirez will lead the Dodgers into Petco Park Friday night for the first of three straight matchups against the NL West-rival San Diego Padres.
Ramirez was slapped with the suspension back on May 7 after testing positive for a banned substance, and the Dodgers played to a solid 29-21 mark without the slugger in the lineup. Ramirez, whose bobblehead giveaway is scheduled for July 22 at Chavez Ravine, made a few rehab stints in the minor leagues to get back into shape.
"Hopefully, Manny will give us a more consistent offense," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said on the team's site. "We've been lucky to win a lot of close games. We've made the most out of the runs we've scored. But I think the presence he brings to the lineup is a security blanket for the rest of the guys."
The Dodgers didn't really miss a beat without Ramirez in the lineup and still sit atop the NL West with a comfortable 7 1/2-game lead over San Francisco. They were 6 1/2 games ahead of the Giants and 21-8 when the All-Star was suspended in early May. Ramirez was hitting .348 with six homers and 20 RBI at the time.
LA still has the best record in baseball and got a huge lift from Juan Pierre in Ramirez's absence. Pierre started all 50 games in left field and did a fine job for Torre, going 68-for-214 for a .318 average and compiling 14 doubles, 21 RBI, 31 runs, 15 walks and 20 steals in those games. Pierre had a hit in Wednesday's 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies in the finale of a three- game series in Los Angeles.
Rafael Furcal drove in the lone run with a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning and Brad Ausmus delivered the lone multi-hit performance for the victors, going 2-for-3 at the plate.
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw tossed five shutout innings in the no-decision, while Ramon Troncoso earned the win with a scoreless eighth and Jonathan Broxton posted two strikeouts in the ninth for his 19th save for Los Angeles, which became the first team in the majors to reach 50 wins (50-29). Ronald Belisario also helped the cause by hurling two shutout innings of relief.
The Dodgers won two of three meetings versus Colorado and will kick off a nine-game road trip against the Padres, Mets and Brewers on Friday.
Los Angeles will hand the ball to Hiroki Kuroda for tonight's game, and he is just 1-4 in six starts since beating San Diego on Opening Day. Kuroda lost his most recent outing on Sunday versus Seattle, as he yielded four runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings of a 4-2 loss.
Kuroda, who is 2-4 with a 3.77 ERA in seven starts this season, will face the Padres for the second time in 2009. The right-hander allowed one run in 5 2/3 innings of a 4-1 triumph at Petco Park on April 6, improving to 3-1 with a 4.78 ERA in five career starts against San Diego.
Meanwhile, the Padres just dropped three of four to the Houston Astros and are coming off Thursday's 7-2 setback at Petco Park. Scott Hairston and Everth Cabrera each drove in a run, while starting pitcher Kevin Correia allowed six runs on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts over five innings to suffer the loss.
"I made a couple of mistakes and they took advantage," said Correia. "It wasn't my day today. Especially that last inning, that's what killed me and the game."
Correia permitted three runs in the fifth for the Padres, who have dropped six of their last nine games.
Taking the hill for the Friars tonight will be Chad Gaudin, who has won two straight starts since going 0-3 through his previous four outings. Gaudin started the streak with seven innings of two-run ball and struck out 11 in a 9-7 victory at Seattle on June 23, then tossed eight shutout innings and recorded nine strikeouts five days later in a 2-0 win at Texas.
Gaudin is 4-6 in 13 games (12 starts) this season and lowered his earned run average from 5.60 to 4.97 the last time out. The righty will face the Dodgers for the second time this season after losing to them on May 3 at Chavez Ravine. Gaudin was tagged for six runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings of a 7-3 setback.
He is 0-1 with a 9.45 ERA in two career games (1 start) against Los Angeles.
The Dodgers have won seven of 10 matchups with the Padres this season and 11 of the last 15 contests between the clubs.
<< Rockies to open homestand with last-place Diamondbacks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Rockies are back home after a lengthy road
trip and will open a three-game series tonight against the National League
West-rival Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field.
Colorado went 5-4 on a nine-game road swing
<< Reeling Indians try to get back on track vs. A's
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians have been playing poorly since mid-
June and will try to stop a five-game losing streak tonight in the opener of a
three-game series versus the Oakland Athletics at Progressive Field.
The Indians have
<< Twins try to gain ground in Central in opener with Tigers
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Twins have an opportunity to gain some
ground on the division-leading Detroit Tigers when the American League Central
rivals begin a key three-game series tonight at the Metrodome.
The Twins presently trail
<< Greinke hopes to slow down White Sox
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There haven't been many pitchers who have slowed down the
Chicago White Sox as of late, but Zack Greinke has shown in the past to be
quite capable of such a task.
The Kansas City Royals ace will take the mound in tonight
Serena and Venus will decide Wimbledon champ on Saturday >>
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Second-seeded Serena Williams and third-
seeded Venus Williams will square off in Saturday's ladies' final at
Wimbledon, where Venus topped her younger sister in last year's third all-
Williams f
Rangers sign Arnason >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Rangers inked forward Tyler
Arnason to a two-way contract on Friday.
The 30-year-old posted five goals and 22 points in 71 games for the Avalanche
last season.
Over 487 career contests
Blue Jays bring up Dellucci, designate Adams for assignment >>
Bronx, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays purchased the contract of
outfielder David Dellucci from Triple-A Las Vegas and designated infielder
Russ Adams for assignment on Friday.
The 35-year-old Dellucci signed a minor lea
Sol's Abily claims WPS Player of Month >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Sol midfielder Camille Abily
was selected as the WPS Player of the Month for June.
The 24-year-old French international from Rennes had five goals in the month
of June, helping the Sol to
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. “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).
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.
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.
MySportsbook.com Releases World Series Championship Lines
New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox early favorites to win 2008 World Series
The Major League Baseball season starts this weekend and MySportsbook.com, a leading online sportsbook for over 8 years, is the first to offer baseball sports betting lines on who will win the 2007 World Series.
"The World Series is the biggest baseball event in the sports betting world and MySportsbook.com is excited that we are first to market with betting lines on every team," says Tim Dalton, Marketing Director, MySportsbook.com. "We are getting things ready for a great baseball season and our members are looking forward to our Player Payback Bonuses, as well as Dime Lines, all season long."
Going in to this weekend, MySportsbook.com's favorites to win the World Series are the New York Yankees at 7-2 and last year’s winners the Chicago White Sox at 9-2.
"These betting lines are ripe for the picking," Dalton added, "baseball fans know that the season is long and many factors, including players staying healthy, will affect these Future odds as the baseball season progresses. Betting on your favorite team in the beginning of the season could prove quite lucrative. We are seeing examples of this right now in the NCAA College Basketball Tournament with a lucky few that placed pre-season bets on George Mason to win it all. Anything can happen."
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts Mastercard needs..
About www.MySportsbook.com
MySportsbook.com is the foremost online sportsbook offering Internet wagering to its worldwide customers. Fully licensed and regulated in St. John’s, Antigua since 1997, MySportsbook.com offers a complete range of online casino games, sports betting lines, poker tournaments and horse racing offtrack betting daily through its portfolio of companies and managed services. With over 7 years of experience, MySportsbook.com has become one of the most respected companies in the gaming industry by providing unparalleled 24/7 customer support and timely payouts. MySportsbook.com is part of the SportingBet PLC group of companies that is publicly-traded on the London Stock Exchange ( LSE ) under the symbol SBT.L. MySportsbook.com provides a secure environment for sports and casino wagering and has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MAXIM Magazine, Cigar Aficionado, and CNN’s Paula Zahn Now among others.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting