12/03/2008 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Cardinals signed left-handed reliever Trever Miller to a one-year contract on Wednesday. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
The 35-year-old Miller appeared in 68 games last season for the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays, going 2-0 with a 4.15 earned run average. However, he held left-handed hitters to a .209 average and struck out 30 of the 91 he faced.
Tampa Bay chose Miller's $400,000 buyout earlier this month rather than pick up his $2 million option.
Miller broke into the majors as a starter with the Detroit Tigers in 1996, but has spent the majority of his career coming out of the bullpen. In 519 games (five starts), Miller has amassed a 14-14 mark to go along with 10 saves and a 4.43 ERA, while pitching for the Tigers, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays and Rays.
<< Trio leads PGA Tour Q School
La Quinta, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major Manning, Craig Kanada and Joey Lamielle
each fired rounds of seven-under 65 on Wednesday to share the opening-round
lead of the Final Stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School.
Mark Brooks, the 1996 PGA Ch
<< Southern Miss accepts bid to New Orleans Bowl
Hattiesburg, MS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Southern Mississippi
accepted a bid to the New Orleans Bowl on Wednesday.
The Golden Eagles, who finished the season with a 6-6 record, will face the
Sun Belt champion -- either
<< Rays P Percival undergoes back surgery
St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Rays closer Troy Percival
underwent back surgery this week and is expected to be ready by opening day
for the American League champions.
The procedure was performed by Dr. Robert Watkin
<< Clemson accepts invite to Gator Bowl
Clemson, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Clemson accepted an invitation to the Gator
Bowl on Wednesday, having parlayed a strong end of the season into a New
Year's Day appearance.
The Tigers went 4-1 over the final five games of the season,
Avery issues apology for Tuesday's comments >>
Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery issued an
apology Wednesday for derogatory comments made the previous day about
his ex-girlfriends dating other players in the league.
The comments led to an ind
Former Indiana guard Crawford denied waiver request >>
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NCAA has denied guard Jordan Crawford,
who transferred from Indiana to Xavier, the waiver request to play this
season.
Due to the decision, Crawford will not be eligible to compete at Xavier un
Tuberville era ends at Auburn >>
Auburn, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tommy Tuberville has resigned as head football
coach at Auburn.
Tuberville guided the Tigers, who entered the season ranked 10th in the
nation, to a paltry 5-7 record. It concluded with a 36-0 drub
Blair paces Pitt to rout of Duquesne >>
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - DeJuan Blair had his way in the paint with
14 points and 17 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end, as the No. 3
Pittsburgh Panthers came away with a 78-51 victory in the 77th meeting with
city ri
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch
Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.
Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.
"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.
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