Cabrera-led Tigers continue series with Blue Jays

Baseball Betting Lines

07/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miguel Cabrera's primary goal is to help the Detroit Tigers capture an American League Central title. Still, one would think the possibility of becoming baseball's first Triple Crown winner in 43 years has got to cross the All-Star first baseman's mind at times.

Cabrera continues that quest and tries to lead the Tigers to a third straight win in tonight's matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays from Comerica Park.

Detroit got the upper hand in this four-game series with a 5-2 triumph in Thursday's opener, with Cabrera coming up with the contest's biggest hit. The standout slugger snapped a 2-2 tie with an run-scoring double in the eighth inning, capping off a 3-for-4, two-RBI day.

Cabrera's final hit ignited a three-run frame for the Tigers, with Ryan Raburn following with an RBI single and Gerald Laird later tacking on a sacrifice fly. The clutch double also made a winner out of fellow All-Star Justin Verlander (12-5), as the Detroit ace yielded just two runs and scattered eight hits before giving way to closer Jose Valverde to start the ninth.

Thursday's performance raised Cabrera's major league-leading RBI total to 85, while his .347 average trails only Texas' Josh Hamilton for the best in the AL. He also has 24 home runs on the season, topped only by Toronto's Jose Bautista for the AL lead in that category.

"Every time he comes up, I'm like, 'OK, here we go,'" shortstop Danny Worth told the Tigers' official site of Cabrera.

The win was the second in a row for Detroit following a season-worst string of seven straight losses and moved the club within two games of idle Chicago for first place in the AL Central.

John Buck accounted for all of Toronto's scoring with a two-run homer off Verlander in the second inning. Starting pitcher Ricky Romero (7-7) held the Tigers to two runs over the first seven frames, but was removed after walking Johnny Damon to start the bottom of the eighth. Damon would cross the plate with the go-ahead run on Cabrera's double against reliever Shawn Camp.

"I think I battled all game," Romero said to Toronto's website afterward. "It's a tough lineup. I made some good pitches when I had to and got some good double plays when I had to. It's a tough loss."

The Blue Jays have now lost three of four since opening a current 10-game road trip with three straight wins over the hapless Baltimore Orioles. They'll try to bounce back tonight behind Shaun Marcum, who had a hand in one of the victories in the Baltimore series.

Making his first start since July 1, Marcum allowed nine hits in five innings but did not walk a batter and managed to limit the Orioles to one run in a 10-1 Blue Jays' rout this past Sunday. The 28-year-old had been shut down for a couple of weeks after experiencing inflammation in his surgically-repaired right elbow.

Marcum missed the entire 2009 season recovering from the procedure but has made a nice comeback, having compiled an 8-4 record with a very solid 3.36 ERA through 18 starts and striking out 92 batters in 112 1/3 innings. He's also held his own on the road, where the righty has gone 5-2 with a 4.14 ERA in 10 outings.

In five career appearances -- two of which have come in a starting role -- against Detroit, Marcum is 1-1 with a 5.28 ERA. Both those starts came during the 2008 campaign, including a Comerica Park assignment in which he tossed six innings of two-run ball to notch a win.

The Tigers counter with youngster Rick Porcello, with the former first-round draft choice aiming to build off an excellent return to the majors last Saturday. The talented right-hander permitted just one run on six hits and did not issue a walk over eight innings against Cleveland, although he wound up with a no-decision in a game that eventually went into extra frames.

A 14-game winner who finished third in voting for the AL's Rookie of the Year Award last season, Porcello experienced a serious sophomore slump during the first half of 2010. The 21-year-old produced a 4-7 record and a substandard 6.14 ERA in 13 starts before being optioned to Triple-A Toledo on June 20, but posted a more-respectable 3.21 ERA in four games with the Mud Hens.

Porcello faced the Blue Jays twice as a rookie in 2009 and split a pair of decisions while recording a 4.91 ERA in 11 innings. The win took place at Comerica Park in September, with the highly-regarded hurler surrendering just two runs and four hits over a sharp six-inning stint.

Thursday's clash was the first 2010 meeting between these teams. Toronto prevailed in five of eight encounters with the Tigers last season, with the clubs splitting a four-game set in the Motor City from September 11-14.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

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. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

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).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

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.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

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 week 1 NFL lines


Now that the 2008 NFL schedule is finally out, it is only matter-of-course for lines on “Week 1” to follow.  Of course MySportsbook.com is the first to churn out odds for the NFL’s inaugural week for the upcoming season.   Expect a lot of fireworks the first Thursday night of the season as the defending champion Indianapolis Colts face off against the surprise of the 2008 season, the New Orleans Saints.  These teams were ranked #1 and #3 in the NFL respectively a season ago so a high scoring affair could be in order.  As of now, the Colts will be giving 6 points to the Saints; keep in mind the Saints were one of the better road teams last season going 6-3 SU and 7-2 ATS.  The first Monday night of the season will again provide a “double feature”. Coming off a disappointing season, the Cincinnati Bengals will look to get back to playoffs and improve their public image as they take on the AFC North favorite Baltimore Ravens.  The second game features a couple of teams that haven’t had too much success recently but each could make some noise if the NFC is as weak as it was last year as the San Francisco 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals. The most interesting game of the opening week will feature the NFC champion Bears as they hit the road to take on the NFL’s top team during last year’s regular season, the San Diego Chargers.

MySportsbook.com Week 1 odds:

Saints +6 @ Colts -6

Falcons @ Vikings (pick ‘em)

Panthers @ Rams (pick ‘em)

Broncos -3.5 @ Bills +3.5

Chiefs -1 @ Texans +1

Dolphins +3 @ Redskins -3

Patriots -5 @ Jets +5

Eagles -3.5 @ Packers +3.5

Steelers -4 @ Browns +4

Titans +6 @ Jaguars -6

Bears +6 @ Chargers -6

Lions +3 @ Raiders -3

Bucs +6.5 @ Seahawks -6.5

Giants +4 @ Cowboys -4

Ravens +3 @ Bengals -3

Cardinals +3 @ 49ers -3

 Super Bowl line (2008)

NFC +6.5 vs. AFC -6.5

MySportsbook is a large, publicly traded company with strong financial backing. You will find their customer service is second to none and their web site is extremely user friendly and easy-to-use. All major professional sports games are available. Once you signup with MySportsbook, you may never use another online sportsbook again.

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