Orioles, Nationals open set at Camden Yards

Baseball Betting Lines

06/25/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The woeful Baltimore Orioles enter the weekend with momentum - sort of - when they begin a three-game interleague series with the nearby Washington Nationals tonight at Camden Yards.

Baltimore, which has five fewer wins than any team in the majors and has won just 12 times in 35 home games, picked up a rare 'W' on Thursday night when it downed Florida, 11-5, to wrap up a three-game series.

Miguel Tejada hit a three-run homer and finished with four RBI and three runs scored as the Orioles avoided a sweep.

Craig Tatum posted three hits, two runs scored and an RBI while Julio Lugo scored twice with an RBI for the Orioles, who put the brakes on a three-game skid. Adam Jones homered and Luke Scott drove in two runs in the victory.

Kevin Millwood (2-8) started for Baltimore and picked up the win after he tossed five innings and allowed four runs on eight hits.

Precocious right-hander Jake Arrieta, who turned 24 in March, makes the fourth start of his brief major-league career for the Orioles, who trail the first- place New York Yankees by 25 games in the American League's East Division.

A fifth-round draft pick in 2007 out of Texas Christian, Arrieta debuted on June 10 against the Yankees and picked up a 4-3 win after allowing four hits and three runs in six innings.

He made it two straight with an interleague road win at San Francisco five days later, before losing for the first time on June 20 at San Diego after allowing five hits and six runs in just three innings.

Overall, in 16 big-league innings, Arrieta has walked nine and struck out nine while surrendering 12 hits and nine earned runs.

Washington, which has won 13 times in 37 road tries, counters with 27-year-old righty J.D. Martin, who made 15 starts as a rookie last season and is still seeking win No. 1 in 2010.

The California native was 5-4 with a 4.44 earned run average in his 2009 unveiling, allowing an opposition batting average of .279 and striking out 37 batters in 77 innings.

He reached the rotation this season on May 29 against San Diego and dropped a 4-2 verdict, and has since lost two of three with a no-decision in spite of allowing only 10 earned runs in 25 1/3 innings and walking one batter with 18 strikeouts.

Martin, who's been charged with two road losses in three starts, has never faced the Orioles.

On Wednesday, Jose Guillen's single in the fifth inning scored David DeJesus with the only run of the game, as the Kansas City Royals defeated Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals, 1-0, in the finale of a three-game interleague series.

Adam Dunn had two of the six hits for the Nationals, who despite winning the series, have dropped seven of nine.

Strasburg (2-1) was saddled with his first major league loss in his fourth career start. The rookie right-hander worked six innings, allowing one run on nine hits and fanning nine without issuing a walk. He threw 95 pitches, 75 for strikes.

The former No. 1 overall pick lowered his earned run average to 1.78 and has now struck out 41 batters in 25 1/3 innings this season.

Washington took two of three from the O's earlier in the year.

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Brandon Roy Favorite to Win 2007 NBA Rookie of the Year

Portland TrailBlazer’s guard, Brandon Roy, is MySportsbook.com’s overwhelming favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year odds.

Despite missing 20 games due to an injury earlier this season, Roy has definitely put up the best numbers of his 1st year peers. In 32 games, Roy is averaging 15.3 PPG, 4.2 boards and 3.5 assists in over 33 minutes of play per game. While most rookies breakdown as the season progresses (see Morrison), Roy is only getting stronger as his playing time and scoring average has increased each month.

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Adam Morrison, of the Charlotte Bobcats, was the favorite early on in the season after averaging 15+ PPG through the first month of the season. Ever since his torrid start, Morrison’s point production has declined each month. This really isn’t surprising, considering at 6’8” he only weighs 205 lbs. Obviously he will need to hit the weights big time during the off-season in order to keep from breaking down in the future.

Be sure to log on to MySportsbook.com to bet on the NBA. With the regular season about to hit the homestretch, it is important to point out that MySportsbook.com has the highest credit card acceptance rate in the industry.

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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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