As the weekend ends, here are the sports betting tidbits that caught my eye:

• What a strange story out of Toronto. Frank Thomas was off to a lousy start, but he led the team in home runs and RBIs last year, so it seems very bizarre that he got released. The story is that he and the team mutually decided that he would move on after he was told his playing time would be reduced. I’m not buying it. There has to be something more to it for it to have gone down this quickly. Regardless, someone will likely snap up Thomas pretty quickly – he’s old and on the decline, but he is still better than lots of guys on lots of rosters.
• Roger Federer finally won a tournament. It took a shocking amount of time for him to get the first one for the year. It will be very interesting now to see when the next one comes – it will be a good indicator of whether his game is back in form, or if the year is destined to be a disappointment.
• It was a little surprising that the 76ers beat Detroit. It’s even more surprising that they not only won, but were significantly the better team. Detroit’s next game will be crucial (there’s an understatement)
• Danica Patrick finally won a race. Does that mean we don’t have to hear about her constantly anymore? Dare to dream.
• If I had been pressed to pick a team to emerge from the NHL’s Western Conference playoffs I would have had to have had a good reason to pick against Anaheim. I can’t even begin to understand, then, how they managed to get tossed by Dallas in the first round, and how they looked so incredibly lousy in their last game. That’s a teamthat is going to go through a pile of changes in the offseason.
• If the first playoff game is any indicator then the Pau Gasol trade could go down as perhaps the best in NBA history by the end of the playoffs.