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Braves try for another outburst against CubsBaseball Betting Lines04/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Regarded as one of the top prospects in all of baseball, Atlanta's Jason Heyward lived up the hype for a least one day. Heyward will try to help the Braves open the season with two straight wins for the second year in a row this evening, when they host the Chicago Cubs in the second contest of a three-game set from Turner Field. Expectations have risen steadily for Heyward since the Braves took the Atlanta resident 14th overall in the 2007 draft. He hasn't disappointed yet, as he turned window-smashing homers in spring training into an Opening Day start on Monday versus the Cubs. It didn't take long for the 20-year-old to make an impact, as he crushed a three-run homer with his first major league swing in the first inning of his first big-league game, helping Atlanta to a 16-5 victory over Chicago. Heyward was the fifth Brave to homer in his first at-bat and helped Atlanta claim its biggest Opening Day victory since a 21-6 defeat of the Orioles way back in 1896. "It was loud, for sure," said Heyward about the noise after his blast. "The home run put the team ahead and that's what it felt like." Heyward finished with four RBI, and his homer was part of a six-run first inning for the Braves that erased an early 3-0 deficit. The Cubs' Marlon Byrd had put his club ahead with a three-run homer in the top of the inning. Yunel Escobar had two hits and drove in a career-high five runs for the Braves, while Brian McCann connected on a solo homer. That helped give Derek Lowe (1-0) the win in his second straight Opening Day start for Atlanta, despite allowing five runs over six innings. Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano (0-1) wasn't as lucky. He matched the shortest outing of his career by yielding eight runs over 1 1/3 frames of work. Jeff Samardzija gave up another six runs (4 earned) in relief for a Chicago team that led the majors in the spring with four shutouts to go along with a team earned run average of 4.24. "It's just one game," said Aramis Ramirez, who also homered for the Cubs. "Hopefully they'll pick it up and they will. It was just one of those days where they hit everything." The Cubs will next try to solve 24-year-old Braves starter Jair Jurrjens, who is coming off an excellent 2009 season in which he went 14-10 with the NL's third-lowest ERA at 2.60. Jurrjens, who battled right shoulder inflammation in the spring, went 4-0 with a 0.97 ERA in his final five starts in 2009, a season in which he held opponents to a pair of runs or less in 26 of his 34 starts. The right-hander did lose his only other career start versus Chicago, giving up four runs on seven hits over six innings of a July 6 loss. The Cubs' Derek Lee connected on a two-run homer in the first inning of that meeting. The Cubs counter with Ryan Dempster, who saved 85 games with Chicago from 2005-07 but enters his third straight season as a full-time starter for the club. The 32-year-old righty started off slow in 2009, going 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in his first five starts. However, he was 5-2 with a 2.27 ERA in his last nine outings of last season, helping him post season totals of 11-9 with a 3.65 ERA. Dempster is 2-11 with a pair of saves and a 5.14 ERA in 26 career games versus the Braves, 15 of those starts. Atlanta won four of the six 2009 meetings between these teams and took two of three from the Cubs in Chicago's lone visit to Turner Field.
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Betting FootballNFL Football Betting OnlineIs there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL? I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants. Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said. There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans. Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal. For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though. A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup. The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games. Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff. So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action. Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns. “I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said. Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season. “Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said. It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties. Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples. The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left. “The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits. “These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.” Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough. The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday. “Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.” Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach? “It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.” Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines. Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence. The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night. MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds. A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family. A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital. Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards. |
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