Braves try for another outburst against Cubs

Baseball Betting Lines

04/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Regarded as one of the top prospects in all of baseball, Atlanta's Jason Heyward lived up the hype for a least one day.

Heyward will try to help the Braves open the season with two straight wins for the second year in a row this evening, when they host the Chicago Cubs in the second contest of a three-game set from Turner Field.

Expectations have risen steadily for Heyward since the Braves took the Atlanta resident 14th overall in the 2007 draft. He hasn't disappointed yet, as he turned window-smashing homers in spring training into an Opening Day start on Monday versus the Cubs. It didn't take long for the 20-year-old to make an impact, as he crushed a three-run homer with his first major league swing in the first inning of his first big-league game, helping Atlanta to a 16-5 victory over Chicago.

Heyward was the fifth Brave to homer in his first at-bat and helped Atlanta claim its biggest Opening Day victory since a 21-6 defeat of the Orioles way back in 1896.

"It was loud, for sure," said Heyward about the noise after his blast. "The home run put the team ahead and that's what it felt like."

Heyward finished with four RBI, and his homer was part of a six-run first inning for the Braves that erased an early 3-0 deficit. The Cubs' Marlon Byrd had put his club ahead with a three-run homer in the top of the inning.

Yunel Escobar had two hits and drove in a career-high five runs for the Braves, while Brian McCann connected on a solo homer. That helped give Derek Lowe (1-0) the win in his second straight Opening Day start for Atlanta, despite allowing five runs over six innings.

Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano (0-1) wasn't as lucky. He matched the shortest outing of his career by yielding eight runs over 1 1/3 frames of work. Jeff Samardzija gave up another six runs (4 earned) in relief for a Chicago team that led the majors in the spring with four shutouts to go along with a team earned run average of 4.24.

"It's just one game," said Aramis Ramirez, who also homered for the Cubs. "Hopefully they'll pick it up and they will. It was just one of those days where they hit everything."

The Cubs will next try to solve 24-year-old Braves starter Jair Jurrjens, who is coming off an excellent 2009 season in which he went 14-10 with the NL's third-lowest ERA at 2.60.

Jurrjens, who battled right shoulder inflammation in the spring, went 4-0 with a 0.97 ERA in his final five starts in 2009, a season in which he held opponents to a pair of runs or less in 26 of his 34 starts.

The right-hander did lose his only other career start versus Chicago, giving up four runs on seven hits over six innings of a July 6 loss. The Cubs' Derek Lee connected on a two-run homer in the first inning of that meeting.

The Cubs counter with Ryan Dempster, who saved 85 games with Chicago from 2005-07 but enters his third straight season as a full-time starter for the club.

The 32-year-old righty started off slow in 2009, going 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in his first five starts. However, he was 5-2 with a 2.27 ERA in his last nine outings of last season, helping him post season totals of 11-9 with a 3.65 ERA.

Dempster is 2-11 with a pair of saves and a 5.14 ERA in 26 career games versus the Braves, 15 of those starts.

Atlanta won four of the six 2009 meetings between these teams and took two of three from the Cubs in Chicago's lone visit to Turner Field.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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2007 NFL Football Betting Preview


“You play to win the game!”

Those are the words of notoriously intense head coach Herman Edwards. Unfortunately, from a bettors’ perspective, most coaches don’t feel that way about the NFL preseason. August is a time to evaluate young players, finalize the depth chart and pray your star players stay healthy.

The trick to making money during the exhibition schedule is identifying coaches – like Edwards – who can’t stand losing even when there's nothing on the line.

The New York Jets betting won 15 of 21 preseason games and went 14-7 against the spread (ATS) during Edwards’s five-year tenure with the club. In his first season as the Kansas City Chiefs field boss, the team improved from 0-4 to 2-2.

Identifying win-a-holics like Edwards is a good start if you plan betting the preseason – even though most say you shouldn’t ... but what the hell do they know anyway?

Here’s a brief rundown of two teams that have a habit of winning during the second-stringers’ season, and another club that has a good chance of exceeding this year.

New York Giants betting lines

Playing in the media hub of North America can be stressful but the press can’t write anything negative about the way Tom Coughlin’s boys play in the preseason. The Giants won and covered all four games last summer, improving their record to 7-1 both straight up (SU) and against the spread over the last two years.

Coughlin has shown he’s not afraid to give his starters more time in the second preseason game than most of his colleagues, no doubt one of the reasons his team has been so dominant.

Dallas Cowboys betting lines

Bettors can count on America’s team early on. The Cowboys are 14-6 both SU and ATS since 2002 in warm-up contests. Former coach Bill Parcells, the coach of the team the last four years, has an intimidating, in-your-face presence – surely a reason Dallas has had so much early success.

The Big Tuna won’t be strolling the sidelines with looks of disgust, but new coach Wade Phillips will be anxious to make a good first impression for owner Jerry Jones.

Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos before things get serious. They then face the Houston Texans in their third contest (the game starters see most game time) and finish off with the Minnesota Vikings.

Expect a Dallas team able to walk away with another 3-1 preseason record.

Oakland Raiders betting lines

This team scored a league-worst 12 offensive touchdowns last season, so the rookies and veterans each have something to prove. There’s a bounty of first-unit jobs up for grabs and plenty of bodies competing for those slots.

First-time head coach Lane Kiffin will be eager to impress an owner who employs the philosophy, “Just win, baby!”

The 32-year-old Kiffin has to command respect from a locker room full of players older than him. All of these factors should lead to purpose in preseason. 

Don’t forget: before playing like a team that belonged in NFL Europe, Oakland went 4-1 (both SU and ATS) in exhibition games.

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