Some baseball teams love the hot, sticky days of July – it’s when they are at their best. Others play like they would rather be off at the beach or on the golf course or anywhere other than at the ballpark. There are of course many factors that go into how a team plays at a certain time, and you can get in trouble with broad assumptions. There are some teams, though, that consistently exhibit the same behavior in July. that doesn’t mean that you should be those teams blindly this year, but it does mean that you could keep an eye on them, and if they look like they are going to repeat their past performances then you could climb on board for the ride. Here’s a look at six teams that have shown particular love or hate for July in recent years. I’ll ignore teams like the Royals, Nationals and Orioles – they have been lousy in July, but they’ve been lousy every other month as well:

Continue reading “Baseballs Hottest and Coldest Teams In July”

Kellen Moore Heisman Trophy CanidateThe Heisman Trophy presentation is still half a year away, but it’s never too early to start thinking about it. Or to bet on it, for that matter. Heisman Trophy college football odds for the upcoming NCAA football season have popped up this week, and there is a lot to find interesting from among them. Here’s a look at some of the highlights and lowlights (odds here are taken from 5Dimes):

Continue reading “Heisman Trophy Betting Odds: A Look At the Opening Lines”

The third chapter of the truly captivating Stephen Strasburg story will be written on Friday when he starts at home against Jake Peavy and the Chicago White Sox. Strasburg entered the league as perhaps the most hyped pitcher ever to debt thanks to the age of the internet. He’s also one of the rare prospects who has not only lived up to the dizzying expectations, but has probably exceeded them. His first start was a masterpiece like many starters in the league will never throw. The second wasn’t quite as smooth, but it was still very impressive and well above average.

Continue reading “Handicapping Stephen Strasburg’s Future Starts”

Stephen Strasburg has captured all of the headlines and imagination recently, and he should – his first outing was special in an incomprehensible way. He’s the poster child for the youth movement on the mound these days, but he’s far from the only young  guy who is doing some damage against opposing teams. Young pitchers are really paying off at the betting window as well – eight of the 25 most profitable starters who have had at least seven starts this season are under the age of 25, and two more are 25. It seems like it used to take a few years for pitchers to find their stride and settle into the role of strong starter, but guys these days are just jumping out of the gates. Beyond the profitable pitchers there are young guys tearing it up – Tim Lincecum had two Cy Youngs by 25, and David Price is leading the AL in wins at 25.

Continue reading “Young Pitchers Stuffing Bettors Wallets”

When it comes to betting baseball, not all games are created equally. You can essentially break the season into three broad types of games that teams play – division games, games outside the division but in the league, and inter-league games. Each type of game has different characteristics which the successful bettor will recognize and look to exploit. Today I want to look at division games – why they are unique, and how to deal with them.

Continue reading “Handicapping Divisional Baseball Games”

The NBA Finals are about to start. Needless to say, that means that there are a whole lot of props available for sports bettors to invest in. Oddsmakers are getting increasingly creative, so you can bet on pretty much any aspect of the series. With so much available, there inevitably are at least a few that are more than a little interesting. Here’s a look at a handful of the props that stand out in my eyes as being worth a closer look. For simplicity I’ll take all of these props from Bodog, but most online books are offering a wide range of their own:

Continue reading “NBA Finals Prop Betting”

It seems like there is no escaping the Stephen Strasburg hype. The guy has been eating hitters alive in the minor leagues (three straight scoreless outings), and any day now I expect his first major league start, likely June 4, to be named a national holiday. There is so much attention and hype surrounding Strasburg that there is absolutely no chance of betting value in his debut – or likely all year for that matter. Despite the absence of opportunities with him, young pitchers making their major league debuts can provide very attractive value to people who have been paying attention and who realize what the pitchers are capable of and what they have been doing in the minors. Here’s a look at five guys who aren’t as hyped as Strasburg, or even as much as Cincinnati prospect and recent Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman, but who we should see playing with the big boys in the not-so-distant future.

Continue reading “Young Stud Pitchers Not Named Stephen Strasburg”

The NBA playoffs have bee full of great stories. The Celtics have gone back in time by a couple of years. The Suns finally got the Spurs’ monkey off their backs. The Lakers are looking like the Lakers. Performance the most impressive showing so far, though, is by the Orlando Magic. Not only have they swept both of their opponents, but they won their four second round games by a stunning combined total of 101 points. That shouldn’t be possible in the playoffs, and certainly not in the second round. The Magic are now riding a 14 game winning streak, and the only time they didn’t cover the spread over that stretch was in the first game of the playoffs, and they only missed by one point. Oddsmakers haven’t been shy with setting numbers, but Orlando just doesn’t care.

Continue reading “Will the Magic Run Out In Orlando?”

The Rockies are a game below .500, and they haven’t exactly been the model of consistency this year, but there sure are reasons to be optimistic. The biggest reason for that is something that hasn’t been a strength for them for a long time – their pitching. They obviously have Ubaldo Jimenez – the second best pitcher in a ridiculous strong cast of National League pitchers so far this year. His ERA is a ridiculous 0.93, and he has been absolutely ferocious. He has lost just once, and that was in a seven inning, one run game in which his team totally let him down offensively. I expected him t be very good this year, and he has exceeded all expectations.

Continue reading “The Rockies Are Easy To Like”

Wow. Just wow. There couldn’t possibly have been a better mother’s day gift for all the mothers who are baseball fans out there than Dallas Braden’s tour de force performance today. On the day that so many major leaguers were sporting nifty pinks bats and pink sweat bands, Braden dished up the second perfect game in Oakland history, and just the 19th in major league history. From a betting perspective a perfect game is meaningless unless you have a way to predict it in advance, but it’s still pretty much the most impressive thing you can see in baseball. Add in the storyline about Braden’s grandmother – his mother died when he was in school, so his grandmother raised him. He still lives with her, and today she was there to see it. Great stuff.

Continue reading “Just Perfect!”

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