AL West: A's won't go down without a fight

Baseball Betting Lines

07/20/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When it comes to predicting the American League West in recent years, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have done their best to eliminate any uncertainty by monopolizing the division for the past few seasons.

Last year, the Halos won the West by a 10-game margin. In 2008, the cushion was a whopping 21 games. The year before, six games. Although a lot can happen over the next couple of months, this year's race is shaking out quite differently.

There are the Texas Rangers (54-39), perched atop the division standings with a five-game cushion, and a newly acquired ace in former Cy Young winner Cliff Lee. The Angels (50-45) have battled some key injuries, but they've captured five of the last six AL West titles and are once again in the hunt.

While the Angels and Rangers currently hold the top two spots, the Oakland Athletics (46-47) have joined the hunt to make it a three-team race. It's worth noting that Oakland is the team that broke up the Angels' string by winning the AL West crown in 2006.

Make no mistake, with an eight-game deficit to make up, the A's have their work cut out for them. But there is certainly hope in the Bay Area, and that hope has been fostered by the team's season-high five-game win streak, which came to a halt Monday night against Boston.

Oakland's recent surge has somewhat changed the landscape in the division -- or at least, sent a message to Texas and L.A. that the A's don't plan on bowing out of contention any time soon. As of Monday, they sat at .500 for the first time since June 15.

"Everyone's hitting and we're putting it all together," said Vin Mazzaro, who pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in Sunday's 9-6 win over Kansas City. "We're doing great, making great plays. We're on a good streak right now going to face Boston. Going in with a lot of confidence and playing good is the key."

However, the road is about to get much tougher for the A's. On tap through the next few weeks are series with Boston (53-40), Chicago (51-41), Texas and then Chicago again. Chicago and Texas currently lead their respective divisions, while Boston is in the playoff hunt in the ultra-competitive AL East. That daunting stretch winds through the July 31 trade deadline.

In other words, we'll know by then whether Oakland is a contender or not. How the team navigates these next few series will ultimately impact general manager Billy Beane's decision to be a buyer, seller, or neither at the trade deadline.

The A's need a power hitter like BP needs its oil well cap to work. Their 61 home runs on the season is the second-lowest mark in the American League. Then again, the recipe for run production may be as simple as stealing more bases.

According to the Oakland Tribune, the A's are 32-15 in games when they steal a base, and 14-32 in games when they do not. They rank fifth in the AL with 72 stolen bases, and their 80-percent success rate leads the majors.

ANGELS EYEING TOUGH ROAD AHEAD

The Oakland Athletics aren't alone in their upcoming stretch against some of the toughest opponents the American League has to offer. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will play their next dozen games against the Yankees, Red Sox and Rangers.

In addition, they'll be a bit shorthanded with starting pitcher Scott Kazmir being placed on the disabled list with left shoulder fatigue following Sunday's 2-1 loss to Seattle. Granted, Kazmir has struggled mightily in his first season in Anaheim, posting a 6.92 ERA to go along with a 7-9 record. He was in line to start Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, but that turn will now go to either Sean O'Sullivan or Trevor Bell, both of whom were on their way from Triple-A Salt Lake. As of Tuesday morning, no announcement had been made.

In the meantime, all eyes are on general manager Tony Reagins to swing a deal to improve the ballclub before the trade deadline. Reagins' task is to bridge the five-game gap from the first-place Rangers, who have a payroll of about $50 million less than the Angels. Ideally, he would like to find another big bat in the middle of the lineup to replace injured first baseman Kendry Morales.

"It would be nice if we could go get another Kendry Morales - get that same stroke - that would be great," All-Star outfielder Torii Hunter told the OC Register. "If nothing happens, then all of us have to do it. I have faith in this team and this franchise. We can still do this."

HUNTER THE UNHERALDED STAR OF THE RANGERS' ROTATION

Over the past couple of weeks, any mention of the Texas Rangers' starting rotation has pretty much started and ended with new addition Cliff Lee. However, right-hander Tommy Hunter has been as big a sparkplug as any to the team's pitching staff.

Hunter, in only his second big league season, is the first Texas starter to begin a season 6-0 since Esteban Loaiza in 1999. He'll try to improve to 7-0 when he takes the hill Tuesday night opposite Tigers' starter Armando Galarraga.

Since being called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City in early-June, Hunter has held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in all but one of his eight starts, with the lone exception being an injury-shortened outing June 14 at Florida. He has already set a team record by winning five straight home starts to begin the season.

"The more opportunities he gets to pitch he just gains more confidence," second baseman Ian Kinsler recently said of his 24-year-old teammate. "He attacks the zone with all his pitches. When he's doing that, he's keeping hitters off-balance. That's basically what it comes down to. He's not scared and he trusts his stuff."

MARINERS HAVEN'T CAPITALIZED ON CLOSE GAMES

At 21 games below .500 entering Tuesday, obviously not a whole lot has gone according to plan for the Seattle Mariners. Most notably, the offense has remained in slumber mode since the very beginning of the season.

However, a closer look at the numbers outlines an ongoing issue: and that is, an inability to come through in tight situations. Entering Tuesday, the Mariners have had 47 of their 93 games -- or, exactly half -- decided by two runs or fewer. Monday's 6-1 setback to the Chicago White Sox broke a string of three straight one-run games for Seattle.

In those 47 games, the Mariners have a record of 20-27. In general, that has been the result of an offense that consistently struggles to come up with timely hits. But lately, an increasing amount of baserunning blunders have further hindered Seattle's run production. For manager Don Wakamatsu, the concern is that veteran players are making mental mistakes. In the 10th inning of Sunday's game, Ichiro Suzuki got himself caught in a rundown between second and third base, taking the potential go-ahead run off the basepath.

"Once it happens, the veteran players know it's a mistake, but yeah, we address it in our pregame meetings," Wakamatsu said. "We know it is something we have talked about for the last couple of months. One mistake can cost us a ballgame, and we don't have any room to do that."

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MySportsbook.com and Kentucky Derby Offer Bonuses
The 2008 Kentucky Derby has announced a $1-million bonus for this weekend’s 134th ‘Run for the Roses’ and MySportsbook.com is doing the same.

Well, not quite $1 million, but MySportsbook.com is offering a 75% rebate for Kentucky Derby lines. Check out the exclusive horse racing bonus for all the details.

According to MySportsbook.com, the favorites for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky are: Curlin (+250); Street Sense (+500); Scat Daddy (+700); Circular Quay (+750); and Nobiz Like Shobiz (+800).

Derby organizers announced this week that there will be a $1-million bonus at the 2007 Kentucky Derby odds if the first-place horse wins by more than 6 1/2 lengths – the margin of Barbaro's victory last year. The bonus would be divided Saturday among the winning trainer, jockey, owner and a charity, with each receiving 25 percent. The designated charity is the Barbaro Memorial Fund.

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Meanwhile, the Derby favorite – Curlin – is going against the odds this year. It's been 125 years since Apollo won after skipping his 2-year-old season, and not since Regret in 1915 has such a lightly seasoned horse worn the blanket of red roses.

Arkansas Derby winner Curlin – unbeaten in three career races – tries to overcome both those obstacles in Saturday's 133rd Derby.

''We're not running against history,'' trainer Steve Asmussen said Monday. ''We're running against who they load up.''

Six other horses have run in the Derby without benefit of 2-year-old races and with three or fewer starts. The best any of them managed was a sixth-place finish by Showing Up last year.
   
Asmussen dismissed suggestions that Curlin's lack of racing experience could keep him from the winner's circle.

”He exudes confidence and he's got a great presence about him,'' the trainer said. ''I feel great about the position we're in. He's not worried about anything, why should you be?''
   
The Kentucky Derby is at 4:04 p.m., ET Saturday.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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