Iannetta, Cook help Rockies avoid sweep

Baseball Betting Lines

07/18/2010 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Iannetta's solo home run in the sixth allowed seven strong innings by Aaron Cook to hold up in a 1-0 Rockies win against the Reds to avert a three-game sweep at Great American Ball Park.

Cook (4-5) gave up six hits, fanned five and walked one to pick up an elusive first road win to the 2010 season. He was winless in nine previous road starts having gone 0-5 in that stretch.

Iannetta had one of three multi-hit efforts in Sunday's pitchers' duel with the Reds' Orlando Cabrera and Drew Stubbs collecting the other two.

Cincinnati's Travis Wood (0-1) again pitched well with nothing to show for it. The 23-year-old is still seeking his first big-league win through four starts after holding Colorado to three hits and a run over six innings.

The rookie hurler walked four and struck out six coming off a near perfect game broken up in the ninth of an eventual 1-0, 11-inning loss to the Phillies.

The Reds had a chance to tie it in the ninth after Stubbs singled off Huston Street with one away and Ryan Hanigan fisted a pinch-hit single into shallow center to leave runners at the corners.

Chris Heisey chased a slider off the plate for the second out and Street retired Brandon Phillips on three effective sliders to end the dramatics and stay perfect on the year in save chances with his sixth.

Wood's only mistake came in the sixth with two out as Iannetta pulled a 2-2 changeup over the left-field wall to break a scoreless tie. Cook retired 11 of the final 12 batters he faced before giving way to Joe Beimel in the eighth.

Beimel got Joey Votto to ground out and Rafael Betancourt came on for the final two outs, inducing a pop fly from Laynce Nix to end the inning after an 11-pitch at-bat.

The Reds bullpen kept them in the game for a chance to tie the game in the later innings as Nick Masset and Arthur Rhodes fired a pair of clean frames in relief of Wood. Logan Ondrusek gave up a two-out single to Clint Barmes in the ninth, but Bill Bray entered and got pinch-hitter Seth Smith to foul out behind home plate.

Cincinnati had runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings but failed to get a run home.

Nix struck out with runners at first and third in the first inning and Wood grounded out to strand a runner at third in the second. The Reds loaded the bases with two outs in their next at-bat, but Miguel Cairo grounded out to end the threat. Cook got another ground ball out from Phillips in the fourth to leave a runner at second.

Game Notes

Cook is 3-0 in nine lifetime meetings with the Reds...Wood lowered his earned run average to 2.02 in his first appearance in Cincinnati...The Rockies broke a three-game losing streak...The Reds have lost five of seven games overall...A pair of Rockies' hitting streaks went by the wayside Sunday with Jonathan Herrera's ending at 13 games and Carlos Gonzalez's snapped at 10 games...Reds third baseman Scott Rolen sat for a second straight game due to illness. In addition, outfielder Jay Bruce was given the day off...Cincinnati finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

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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.”

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Barry Bonds Watch: Giants Slugger Says He'll Be Back

With only 21 home runs standing between him and Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds is indeed planning on coming back for more in 2007. At least, that's what his agent told the Los Angeles Times.

"Barry's going to play in 2007," Jeff Borris of Beverly Hills Sports Council told the Times on Tuesday. "I've had many discussions with Barry and he's going to play. My intentions are to see to it he's in a big-league uniform next season. Those are my marching orders."

Contract negotiations could get started as early as next week. Let's see which team has the deeper pockets. Will MLB baseball betting lines despite allegations of steroid use? Bet On It at www.MySportsbook.com .

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