It doesn’t take long in a baseball season – typically just a month or less – for it to become very clear that there are a few teams that just aren’t going to be competitive. They get off to a poor start, and it seems all but impossible that they are (more…)

When the baseball season passes the quarter pole – 40 games played – it is an important milestone for sports bettors. By that time in May we are starting to get a better sense of what we are really dealing with in the season. Hot, fluky starts have cooled off, teams that (more…)

The ability to quickly and accurately assess what statistics tell us about ball players and teams is crucial to success in baseball handicapping. Unfortunately, it’s not something that most casual MLB bettors understand or do effectively. With pitchers, quickly being able to assess their stats and what they mean is particularly important. (more…)

I love Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby. It’s a great spectacle, and a stunning display of just how good these hitters can be. It’s also a pretty good for betting opportunities – or at least it can be depending upon the ball field. When you are looking to cash in betting on the (more…)

Each year in baseball there seems to be one or two divisions that are particularly weak. The leading team is barely above .500, the competition is limp, and some of the teams in the division are just plain bad. For baseball bettors these weak conferences can be a particular issue. They can (more…)

By the middle of May in baseball we often have a division leader or two that is totally unexpected. I’m not talking about a MLB team that was a potential contender that has started strong. I mean a ball team that was expected to be plain lousy that has far exceeded expectations. (more…)

When I am handicapping Major League Baseball, the fifth starters in rotations almost always give me headaches. That’s not the spot where teams typically put their stars. That means that performances can be wildly inconsistent, and in turn means that MLB teams will frequently make changes in who they use and how (more…)

Every so often in baseball we see a truly crazy game that seems like it never wants to end. It can go into 15 innings or more and take hours to complete. If the ball game was a night game then it can be really, really late by the time it (more…)

The media loves rivalries in baseball. That means that the betting public likes them, too. the problem is, though, that both parties give a lot of rivalries far too much credit. Sure, there are some rivalries that are essentially blood feuds – hatred so intense that they have a direct and (more…)

For baseball bettors April is a time of getting comfortable – determining which teams are good and which aren’t, which players are poised to break out and which will struggle, and which managers are going to perform well. When May comes around bettors start to get a better sense of what (more…)

If you’re going to bet on professional baseball and have not done so before, you’ll need to understand exactly how the three standard bets work. MLB offers wagering opportunities through the runline, moneyline and over/under.  Baseball bets are similar to standard NFL bets, but different enough to deserve some special attention.

The (more…)

Is there value in the MLB runline? Would you simply be better off playing the moneyline? Opinions vary concerning whether you should play the runline or moneyline. There are times when the runline is better and other times you’d just assume take the moneyline.

The difference works in this manner. Let’s say (more…)

Every year in baseball there are a couple of rookie pitchers who absolutely explode onto the scene. They may or may not have been highly heralded before the season starts, but by June they have piled up the wins, scorched the radar guns, and garnered miles and miles of headlines. Sometimes (more…)

Spring training is an interesting time for baseball bettors. Baseball takes their preseason much more seriously than other sports, so it’s much more compelling than other preseasons. That could make it tempting for people to bet on it, then. The problem, though, is that betting on spring training is very different (more…)

When it comes to handicapping baseball there is nothing more important than evaluating starting pitchers. It’s the pitchers that make the difference between good games for a team and bad ones. No other single player affects the outcome of games in any major sport more than the starting pitcher does. When (more…)

As a baseball handicapper there is nothing that annoys me more than streaky pitchers. They can look for a long time like they can’t possible lose, and then before you know it – and for seemingly no reason – they can forget how to pitch for several games in a row. (more…)

Baseball bettors know that betting on the playoffs is a very different proposition than betting on the regular season. In some subtle but still significant ways betting on the wild card round, the LDS, is different that betting on the LCS as well. here are seven of those differences and the (more…)

Betting on the World Series is one of the best things that baseball bettors get to do each year. If you aren’t careful, though, it can also be a very easy time of year to make costly betting mistakes. The coverage of the World Series is understandably more comprehensive and more (more…)

The World Series is by far the busiest time of the year for baseball betting. Serious MLB bettors bet more money on the final series than on others, and more casual bettors are drawn to betting on the biggest games of the year. While it can be easy to make mistakes (more…)

By the time the World Series rolls around the weather can be a real issue. The ball games are played in the last half of October, and the games are played at night, so it’s almost certain to be cold in northern markets, and rain and even snow can occasionally be (more…)

For baseball bettors and fans, opening day is a great, great day. It’s when everything is new, and everything is still possible. It’s also the end of an offseason that seems very long after we got used to seeing so many games played every day for months. For bettors who aren’t (more…)

One of the best sources of value in baseball betting – especially in the first couple of months of the season – is betting on pitchers coming off a lousy year who are returning to their full potential – or at least something close to it. The trick is, of course, (more…)

In many ways betting on the baseball playoffs is no different than betting on the regular season – after all, baseball is baseball. There are a few key ways, though, that the two portions of the season differ from each other. Winning bettors over the long term are those who can (more…)

Over the course of each baseball season we see several pitchers who have been toiling in the bullpen become regular members of the starting rotation. Sometimes it is a middle reliever, while other times it will be a closer or set-up man. For bettors these transitions can be challenging. We have (more…)

One of the toughest parts of handicapping the playoffs in baseball is pitchers going on short rest. The deeper we get into the postseason the more desperate teams get, and the more likely it is that a guy will be asked to pitch sooner than would be ideal. A pitcher pitching (more…)

Every year at the start of the major league baseball season there are many rookie pitchers making their major league debut. In the next couple of months many more guys who weren’t quite ready to start the year get their chance. For bettors those pitchers can create interesting betting opportunities. If (more…)

Momentum should be a dirty word for sports bettors. It is one of the hardest concepts in sports to become comfortable with, and one of the very easiest ways for a bettor to be led off track and bet on a team that isn’t as good as they may seem. One (more…)

When a major league baseball team enters September with a cushion of five games or more in the pennant or wild card race then they typically can hang on and get ready for their berth in the playoffs. From time to time, though, we’ll see a team that seems determined to (more…)

At the start of every Major League Baseball season there are a few pitchers who get off to very fast starts. In their first couple of starts they are virtually unhittable. That leads to an impressive record, a microscopic ERA, impressive stats, and increased attention from the public. The challenge for (more…)

Right now baseball seems like the furthest thing from our minds – it’s the middle of winter, NFL football is still in full swing and the Super Bowl is still a couple of weeks away. Before you know it, though, it will be spring training time. Pitchers and catchers report just (more…)

With spring training almost underway, that means we are close to one of my favorite times of the year as a sports bettor – the release of baseball season win totals. These are the most interesting props available in any sport all year because they are so interesting to think about, (more…)

Regular season win totals are an increasingly popular bet, and one that can often present nice value for astute bettors. The problem is, though, that it can be incredibly easy to make costly mistakes with these bets because of the amount of time your money is locked up, and the amount (more…)

Every year in baseball there are a couple of teams that should be pretty good that get off to absolutely terrible starts. Within a couple of weeks of the season they have fallen well below .500, and are miles out of first place in their division. Sometimes these starts are signs (more…)

Baseball bettors always hear about the importance of evaluating matchups – how a starting pitcher stacks up against an opposing offense. But what does that actually mean? Here are seven factors to consider when evaluating starting pitcher matchups:

How well is the team hitting recently? – Bettors can be blinded by how (more…)

I love handicapping baseball. I don’t think it is the hardest sport to handicap overall, but it is a unique challenge. In order to succeed at the sport you have to be able to make some adjustments form other sports, and to do some things that you aren’t required to be (more…)

I love playing baseball season win totals. The number of games teams play and the power of statistics in baseball make the win totals a better place to search for value than any other long term prop bet that is available. The win totals are popular, and that popularity is growing (more…)

If you are anything like me the you are very excited for the dawn of April because it means that baseball – the most glorious of sports for bettors – is here again. It’s here for a long time, too. It can be tough betting on baseball when it starts, though, (more…)

Baseball seems like such a simple game – you hit the ball and run around the bases. People who know and love the sport, though, know how complex and at times confusing it can be. For everything that really matters in baseball there are a dozen things that seem like they (more…)

Managers are a tough thing for handicappers to deal with when making baseball picks. On the grand scale they are obviously important – the manager sets the tone for the team and keeps them on task and motivated. From game to game, though, I don’t believe at all that managers are (more…)

Typically, it takes several years for a baseball team to develop and grow from a pretender to a contender. Every so often, though, a team is able to go from the basement to the penthouse in just one year. The Twins made a habit of it in the 1980s and early (more…)

The offseason in baseball can seem like it goes on forever. For baseball bettors, then, opening day is a time of immense excitement and possibility. The first couple of weeks of the new baseball season can be unpredictable, though. New faces and changed teams can make it hard to get a (more…)

Most people who are familiar with the intricacies of sports betting will tell you that parlays are for suckers. In almost all cases they are right. There are situations in baseball that can be different, though. In fact, sometimes parlaying in baseball can be a good idea.

Before we look at why (more…)

As the season progresses in baseball it is a sure thing that starting pitchers are going to get hurt and be forced to miss a start or more. For baseball handicappers, any change to the rotation can cause a headache because it introduces more uncertainty to the handicapping process. It’s not (more…)

Baseball betting is largely done on the moneyline. Any time you are betting on the moneyline underdogs become attractive – there is nothing wrong at all with getting back more money than you bet when you win. The challenge, though, is telling the difference between the live longshots that are worthy (more…)

For baseball handicappers there are few things harder to evaluate than bullpens. It is tough to know in any given game how much a bullpen is likely to be needed, which pitchers will be used, and which batters they are likely to face. The response that most bettors have in this (more…)

It is very difficult to learn too much that is meaningful in regard to sports picks from the games played in the first half of spring training. Teams don’t care about the results, preparation means more than wins, rosters are in a constant state of flux, and split squads make it (more…)

Streaks are a big part of baseball. You never have to wait long until you can see another team in the midst of a long stretch of futility. Because teams play virtually every day it doesn’t take long for the losses to add up, and things can get ugly in a (more…)

When people think about betting on baseball, they usually consider the moneyline or, less frequently, the runline. There is another option that is far less often considered, but which can be useful in some circumstances – the 5 inning bet, also known as the first half bet. This simply is a (more…)

During the long baseball season games can blend into each other and all seem like they are the same. When there is something that can make a particular game stand out from the crowd and gain some attention then it can really draw a lot of betting attention. One of the (more…)

A lot of casual baseball bettors have enough trouble getting their heads around the moneyline, so they don’t even consider the runline – a moneyline with a spread of 1.5 runs. It’s a mistake because in the right situations the runline can be very profitable. The favorite has to win by (more…)

Baseball is a great sport to bet on. For bettors who don’t regularly bet on it, though, it can be very intimidating. There are a couple of good reasons for that. Most significantly, you have to bet with the moneyline or runline when most bettors are more familiar with the point (more…)

Baseball is a stat driven league. That means that baseball handicappers who want to be successful have to have a good grasp on statistics and how to interpret them. The problem, though, is that some of the statistics that are regularly published in newspapers and magazines, discussed on TV, and embrace (more…)