Astros try to remain hot in Chicago

Baseball Betting Lines

09/06/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Recently red-hot lefty Wandy Rodriguez and his similarly streaking Houston teammates try to make it three straight wins when the Astros head to Wrigley Field today for the first of three consecutive games with the host Chicago Cubs.

A 31-year-old Dominican, Rodriguez was 6-11 on the season after a 4-2 loss to St. Louis on July 11, but has since won five of seven decisions over nine starts while lowering his earned run average more than a run, from 4.97 to 3.71.

The first start in that stretch came against the Cubs on July 19, when Rodriguez allowed eight hits and five runs in six innings to get the win in Houston's 11-5 rout at Wrigley. The victory moved him to 5-4 in 15 lifetime starts against Chicago.

The Astros come into this series after winning two of three against Arizona and five of six overall. Hunter Pence's three-run home run in the first inning stood up as the deciding hit as Houston won, 3-2, over the Diamondbacks Sunday at Chase Field.

Pence finished 2-for-4 and Jeff Keppinger added a hit and a run scored for the Astros.

J.A. Happ (6-2) continued his fine pitching since being acquired from Philadelphia, as he yielded two runs on six hits while walking two and striking out seven over seven frames to grab the win. Astros closer Brandon Lyon worked around a one-out double in the ninth to register his 13th save.

The Cubs counter Rodriguez with rookie right-hander Casey Coleman, a 2008 draft pick who'll start for the fourth time in his eighth major-league appearance.

The Fort Myers, FL native, a product of the fledgling program at Florida Gulf Coast University, debuted in the majors with 2 1/2 innings of relief against Milwaukee on Aug. 2. He made all seven career appearances in the month, including a 9-1 win at Washington on Aug. 23 in which he allowed three hits and a run in 6 1/3 innings.

One start since yielded a no-decision in Cincinnati, where Coleman allowed eight hits and four runs in six innings of the Cubs' 7-5 loss on Aug. 29

In 25 overall innings, Coleman has given up 27 hits and 16 runs. He has never faced the Astros.

The Cubs will be trying to bounce back from Sunday's lopsided loss to the Mets, in which Ike Davis finished a triple shy of the cycle, drove in three runs and scored three times as New York Mets dominated Chicago, 18-5, at Wrigley.

Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer and knocked in a total of three runs for Chicago, which saw a three-game win streak come to an end. Geovany Soto also homered in the loss.

Cubs starter Ryan Dempster (12-10) got rocked over 4 2/3 frames, giving up seven runs -- three earned -- on nine hits to suffer his second straight loss. He fanned five batters and walked four.

Houston has got the better of the Cubs for much of this season, having taken eight of 12 previous meetings between the clubs in 2010. The Astros have won four of the six matchups held at Wrigley Field as well.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.

MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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