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05/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The imposing starting rotation which Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik dreamt up this offseason is nearly in place.
Former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, acquired in an offseason trade from Philadelphia, made his long-awaited debut on Friday, tossing seven shutout innings against the Texas Rangers, striking out eight. Lee, who went 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA in five postseason starts for the Phillies a year ago, is now fully recovered from an abdominal injury.
Also last week, Erik Bedard threw a 55-pitch bullpen session devoid of any setbacks and could soon be ready to begin a rehab assignment. Bedard had season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum last summer. The Mariners are hopeful Bedard can return to form after posting a 2.82 ERA in 15 starts last year before being shut down. The team is still playing it safe, targeting the end of May for his return
"He looks better than before," manager Don Wakamatsu told the team's Website.
Considering Bedard allowed two or fewer runs in 13 of his 15 starts last season, that's quite a statement.
"It looks like his arm is a little freer, and he's not putting as much stress on it," Wakamatsu continued. "We're pretty excited about that, and we think he is, too. It's one thing to get him back. The second part is to try to keep him from the injuries recurring."
Of course, Seattle still has Felix Hernandez atop the rotation. King Felix allowed five runs in Saturday's 6-3 loss to Texas, breaking a remarkable string of 18 consecutive quality starts (six innings or more, three earned runs or less) dating back to May of last season.
Doug Fister (2-1, 1.29) has shined thus far in his first full season. On Sunday, he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against Texas and went on to allow just three hits in eight innings. However, the M's lost the game, 3-1, which has been the running theme on the young season. They also spoiled Lee's masterpiece in a 2-0 setback to the Rangers on Friday.
Even without Lee and Bedard for the season's first month, the M's starters still rank second in the American League with a 3.23 combined ERA, behind only Tampa Bay (2.64). Where those two teams differ, however, is in the win-loss column, as the Rays' starters have gone 14-3, while Seattle's starting staff is just 6-7.
Obviously, Seattle's offense has left much to be desired. Only two players are hitting above .250. Situational hitting has been virtually nonexistent. The team went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position during Saturday's 6-3 loss to Texas. Also, the Mariners have a Major League-worst nine home runs on the season, a total which is matched by five individual players across the league. Chicago's Paul Konerko has 12. Then again, maybe that shouldn't come as a surprise when the heart of the order is comprised of Franklin Gutierrez, Jose Lopez and Milton Bradley
In an interview with local reporters over the weekend, Wakamatsu said he has kicked around several potential changes with the lineup, but any help from outside the organization is ultimately up to Zduriencik.
"I think you're going to constantly look," Wakamatsu told the Seattle Times. "The way we're playing right now, we're (two games) out. If that increases, then we're going to look to do something else."
RANGERS SHAKE OFF ADVERSITY, LEAPFROG TO TOP OF AL WEST STANDINGS
Entering play today, only two games separate the first-place Texas Rangers (13-12) and the last-place Seattle Mariners (11-14) in the AL West pecking order.
Thanks to a three-game sweep of the Mariners over the weekend, Texas is now the pace-setter in the division standings. In sweeping that series, the Rangers were able to overcome seven shutout innings against Mariners' starter Cliff Lee on Friday, and eight shutout frames against Doug Fister on Sunday. All told, the Rangers have now won five of their last six, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider some of the injuries the team has had to deal with.
All-Star second baseman Ian Kinsler was activated from the disabled list on Friday after missing the first month of the season with a high ankle sprain. In his place, Joaquin Arias hit .321.
All-Star right fielder Nelson Cruz, who is hitting .323 with a team-high seven homers and 17 RBI, was placed on the DL last week with a strained right hamstring. He is expected to be out until mid-May. No worries there, as his replacement, David Murphy drove in the game-tying run in the 9th inning and the game-winning run in the 11th of Sunday's dramatic victory.
And with that, the Rangers have sent a strong message that they don't plan on bowing out when the chips are down.
ANGELS' STARTERS EYEING CONSISTENCY
Considering how tight things are in the AL West standings, it's still too early for Angels' manager Mike Scioscia to worry about his starting rotation. The starters are 9-12 with a combined 4.96 ERA, which ranks fourth-worst in the AL. The only consistent one of the bunch has been Jered Weaver (3-1, 3.19). The rest of the rotation, not so good.
Ervin Santana (1-2, 4.59), Joel Pineiro (2-3, 5.76), Joe Saunders (1-4, 5.74) and Scott Kazmir (2-1, 5.57) have all struggled to get going to this point. However, Scioscia feels it's only a matter of time before things get turned around.
"We haven't seen the level of consistency we want or expect, but that doesn't change our evaluation of what we have," Scioscia told the team's website. "We have good arms down there with really good talent. I feel confident that we will see the rotation more in line with what we saw at the end of last year, when we were really going well."
With the team headed to Boston for Game No. 4 of its 10-game road trip, sooner or later Scioscia will need to start seeing some returns from his starting rotation, which was billed as one of the team's biggest strengths heading into the season.
TIME TO WORRY ABOUT SHEETS?
When Oakland general manager Billy Beane made a play for Ben Sheets in the offseason, the hope was that he'd be getting the starting pitcher who more closely resembled a four-time All-Star, and not the one whose career has been sidetracked by injuries.
But after leaving in the fourth inning of Sunday's start against Toronto, Beane is still waiting for the former version of his new ace to show up. In just 3 1/3 innings, Sheets was charged with nine earned runs on 10 hits against the Blue Jays. He hadn't given up nine runs in a start since August 2005. He also allowed eight extra-base hits, which is believed to be an Oakland record, according to The Oakland Tribune.
Sheets' latest start followed up another ugly outing in Tampa Bay last Tuesday, in which he allowed eight runs on nine hits in just four innings of work. His ERA now stands at 7.12, not what Beane and the front office had in mind.
"My location is terrible," Sheets said after Sunday's meltdown. "You can't throw the ball in the middle of the plate in the big leagues. I don't think I could throw a ball that's not in the middle of the plate to a Little Leaguer right now. They hit the ball hard. Their outs were hard. Everything was hard.
"I wouldn't say my location's been this bad ever since my rookie year. I think if you've got stuff, you can (overcome poor location) a little more. My stuff's not bad, but it's not unbelievable either."
When you're paying someone $10 million to be a 'stopper,' that's certainly not an encouraging sound bite, particularly with the team just wrapping up a 1-5 road trip.
<< Red Stars grab first win of season
Cambridge, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Red Stars claimed their first win
of the season on Saturday at Harvard Stadium as Casey Nogueira and Cristiane
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Following a score
<< Diamondbacks recall Valdez to start against Astros
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks recalled right-hander
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series opener at Houston.
The 25-year-old Valdez went 1-1 with a 3.80 earned run a
<< NBA Playoff Preview - Orlando vs. Atlanta
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The well-rested Orlando Magic finally will get back to
work on defending their Eastern Conference championship when they kick off the
second round of the postseason against their division rival, the Atlanta
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The se
<< Northeastern signs Coen to extension
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Northeastern men's basketball coach Bill Coen
has signed a multi-year contract extension.
Coen has guided the Huskies to a record of 66-62 during his four-year tenure,
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Turin, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Italy's Matteo Manassero, who became the
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After being the you
Capps earns monthly closer honor >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Washington Nationals closer Matt Capps has
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April.
Capps finished the first month of the season with 10 saves in as ma
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Amsterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hamburg striker Ruud van Nistelrooy
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the Netherlands' 26-man training squad for the tournament.
The 33-year-old former
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Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun is
unsure whether he will still be at Anfield next season.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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Sportsbook betting odds favor Europe in Ryder Cup
September 19, – Despite holding a decided edge in the all-time series, with 24 wins, 2 ties and 10 losses, Team USA is the underdog again heading into the Ryder Cup in Kidare, Ireland this weekend, according to MySportsbook.com. The Europeans have captured four of the past five editions, including their largest victory ever, an 18 ½ to 9 ½ thumping in Michigan in 2004. Current Ryder Cup betting odds favor the Europeans to continue their winning ways; they are a 4-5 bet to take the title, compared to 6-5 for the Americans.
Despite being knocked out in the first round of World Match play by Shaun Micheel, Tiger Woods is predicted to lead the US charge and be their highest point scorer for the week, with odds listed at 9-4 that he outpoints all other American players, including Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco to name a few. Team USA has four relatively unknown players on the roster but all four are 2007 tournament winners and have posted some of season’s best performances, each earning over $1.5 million on the PGA TOUR. They include Zach Johnson, Vaughan Taylor, JJ Henry and Brett Wetterich.
The experienced European squad includes the likes of Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Jose Maria Olazabal and Darren Clarke, who’s emotions will be tested after the passing of his wife to a battle with cancer. Donald and Garcia are in particularly good form and each is a 5-1 bet to lead the European squad in the points race. Donald has proven he can go head to head with Woods at a major event after a run for the $1.2 million purse at the PGA Championship. Garcia’s Ryder Cup credentials prove he’s ready for battle too.
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Ryder Cup Odds| Europe Tie USA |
4-5 10-1 6-5 |
| Tiger Woods Jim Furyk Phil Mickelson Chris DiMarco David Toms Stewart Cink Chad Campbell Scott Verplank Zach Johnson Vaughan Taylor JJ Henry Brett Wetterich |
9-4 4-1 5-1 7-1 8-1 12-1 15-1 15-1 25-1 30-1 30-1 50-1 |
| Sergio Garcia Luke Donald Padraig Harrington Colin Montgomerie Darren Clarke David Howell Lee Westwood Paul Casey Henrik Stenson Jose Maria Olazabal Paul McGinley Robert Karlsson |
5-1 5-1 6-1 13-2 8-1 9-1 9-1 11-1 12-1 12-1 20-1 25-1 |
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