Cards, Pirates set to continue series between Central foes

Baseball Betting Lines

05/08/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals hope to carry over the momentum from a late-inning victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday into tonight's clash between the National League Central teams from PNC Park.

The division-leading Cardinals snapped a string of three straight losses with a 4-3 triumph over the Bucs in Friday's opener of this three-game set. Yadier Molina went 4-for-5 and drove in three runs, including the go-ahead RBI double in the ninth inning.

Molina stepped up and hit a liner to the right-field gap off Evan Meek (1-1) to score pinch-runner Joe Mather to snap a 3-3 deadlock. Closer Ryan Franklin (2-0) then worked around a one-out single in the bottom half to nail down the win.

Matt Holliday also had four hits for St. Louis, while starter Chris Carpenter allowed two runs over seven strong innings in a no-decision.

Lastings Milledge had two hits and an RBI for the Pirates, who were coming off a three-game home sweep of the Chicago Cubs. Andrew McCutchen went 3-for-4 in the loss, while Pittsburgh starter Zach Duke gave up three unearned runs over the first 6 1/3 innings.

"They're tough. They kept coming," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of the Pirates. "It was a very tough, competitive game."

Pittsburgh could be in for a challenge again tonight, with the impressive Jaime Garcia set to take the mound for St. Louis. The rookie southpaw has been sensational thus far in 2010, having amassed a 3-1 record with a 1.12 earned run average over five starts. He's surrendered one run or fewer in four of those outings.

Garcia was outstanding once again in Monday's 6-3 victory over defending NL champion Philadelphia, holding the Phillies to one run and three hits while fanning six over six frames.

The 23-year-old did face the Pirates in relief during a brief major league stint with the Cardinals in 2008, allowing no runs over a combined 3 1/3 innings of work.

Garcia will be opposed by Jeff Karstens, who makes his third start for the Pirates after being called up from the minors in late April. The right-hander was sharp in his first appearance, tossing 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball in an April 27 no-decision at Milwaukee, but struggled badly in a loss at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.

Karstens was rocked for six runs on 11 hits in five innings against Los Angeles, while striking out three and walking one.

The 27-year-old lost his only career start against St. Louis, which took place at PNC Park on May 14 of last season. He gave up three runs over six innings in that 5-1 setback.

The Cardinals won 10 of their 15 meetings with the Pirates last season, winning six of the nine games contested in Pittsburgh.

Wwwchipshot Baseball Betting News

<< Surging Blue Jays strive to stay hot in Chicago
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Riding the longest current winning streak in the majors, the Toronto Blue Jays go for seven in a row when they take on the Chicago White Sox tonight in third test of a four-game set. Last night, Alex Gonzalez blasted a thr

<< Cilic, Youzhny to meet in BMW final
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Croat Marin Cilic and two-time runner-up Mikhail Youzhny of Russia were both semifinal winners Saturday to reach the title match at the clay-court BMW Open, a French Open tune-up. The Aussi

<< Road-warrior Rays aim to take down Athletics once again
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays seek their 14th road win of the season today as they take on the Oakland Athletics in the second installment of a three-game set at the Coliseum. Courtesy of their success on the road, the Rays own the b

<< Red Sox try to draw even with ailing Yanks
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The injury-riddled New York Yankees gun for their sixth win in a row today, when they resume a three-game set with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Despite playing without catcher Jorge Posada and outfielder Curtis Grand

<< Bayern seals title in style
Berlin, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich officially clinched its 22nd Bundesliga title on Saturday as they recorded a 3-1 win over Hertha Berlin at the Olympiastadion. Bayern had all but secured the crown last weekend as they ent

Angels attempt to pin eighth straight loss on Mariners >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The struggling Seattle Mariners will try to snap out of their rut tonight as they host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the middle bout of a three-game set at Safeco Field. After last night's 8-0 setback to the Angels,

Rockies' youngster to try to knock off improving Dodgers >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Dodgers set their sights on a third consecutive victory when the reigning National League West champions host the Colorado Rockies tonight in the second test of a three-game series between 2009 postseason part

Braves' bats hope to break out in middle test with Phils >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Injuries to a number of key regulars have rendered the Atlanta Braves' offense punchless over the last few games, a trend the slumping club would like to end in this afternoon's divisional showdown with the National League Ea

Rolling Rangers set sights on another win over Royals >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Texas Rangers take aim at a third straight win over the Kansas City Royals tonight, when the teams lock up in the third test of a four-game series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. On Friday, C.J. Wilson gave up one ru

Kentucky's Orton, Bledsoe staying in NBA Draft >>
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -Kentucky freshmen Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton are choosing to remain in the NBA Draft.Orton and Bledsoe announced Saturday they will not return to school for their sophomore seasons. They'll join fellow underclassmen John Wall

Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds.