Ortiz agrees to one-year deal with BoSox
Baseball Betting Lines
02/13/2012 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox and designated hitter David Ortiz have avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year contract.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Boston Globe reported the deal to be worth $14.575 million. The two sides were set for an arbitration hearing on Monday, with the Sox offering $12.65 million and Ortiz requesting $16.5 million.
Ortiz has played for the Red Sox since 2003 and was an integral part of their two World Series championship teams in 2004 and '07. Nowhere near the feared hitter he once was, Ortiz still batted .309, hit 29 homers and drove in 96 runs last season.
It was the eighth time that he reached the 25-homer plateau in a Boston uniform, surpassing Jim Rice for second-most in franchise history. Only Ted Williams has more with 14.
Ortiz is fifth all-time in Red Sox annals with 320 homers and sixth in RBI with 1,028.
A seven-time All-Star, Ortiz spent his first six seasons with the Twins and is a career .283 hitter with 378 homers, 1,266 runs batted in and a .544 slugging percentage in 1,742 big league games.
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars have named Mark Lamping team president, new owner Shahid Khan announced Monday. Lamping, who has served as president and CEO of MetLife Stadium since 2008, will oversee all no
<< McCarthy axed by Wolves
Wolverhampton, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolverhampton sacked manager Mick
McCarthy on Monday after the club's 5-1 defeat to West Bromwich over the
weekend left Wolves in the relegation zone.
The move brings to an end McCarthy's
<< Report: Garland headed to Cleveland
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians have reportedly agreed
to a minor league contract with veteran pitcher Jon Garland.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the pact includes an invitation to
spring training if the
<< Randy Moss apparently planning a comeback
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Moss is apparently planning a
comeback.
Moss decided to retire last August after 13 NFL seasons and told an audience
on UStream.tv Monday about trying to return for 2012. He just turned 35
<< Speir completes Western Carolina coaching staff
Cullowhee, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Western Carolina first-year head football
coach Mark Speir has completed his coaching staff by adding defensive
coordinator responsibilities to linebackers coach Curtis Walker and naming
Steve Sisa the defensive
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending Scottish Premier League champions Rangers confirmed on Monday that the club has filed a notice of intention to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to appoint administrators. The club
Villa's Dunne to miss two months >>
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne is
set to spend the next two months on the sidelines after sustaining a broken
shoulder in Sunday's 1-0 defeat against Manchester City.
Dunne suffered the injury
Udinese suffers double injury blow >>
Udine, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Udinese confirmed on Monday that midfielder
Mauricio Isla and striker Antonio Di Natale will both miss the next few weeks
after sustaining injuries in the club's 2-1 win over AC Milan.
Isla has tallied t
Sandusky can have contact with grandchildren >>
Bellefonte, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry
Sandusky can have contact with most of his grandchildren and will have a local
jury when his child sex abuse trial begins in May.
Sandusky is under electronic m
Benfica's Garcia out for Zenit match >>
Lisbon, Portugal (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia has been
ruled out for the first leg of the club's Champions League round of 16
encounter with Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday.
Garcia missed the club's 4-1 wi
College Football Betting Tips From a Pro
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.