Sports betting

Baseball Gambling, MLB Baseball Betting, MLB Betting Lines & Odds

by Kevin Taylor | June 16 2009

Baseball Betting:
By this point of the baseball season there are a few certainties that for those who follow the sport that have become as reliable as a fastball in a 3-and-0 count. The Nationals, for example, have secured a stranglehold on the bottom of the NL East. Toronto's multi-million dollar relief man BJ Ryan is stationed comfortably on the DL and the New York Yankees are smack dab in the middle of a couple new controversies that have very little to do with the actual game itself.

Pass me the peanuts and crackerjacks.

Betting on baseball muffles all that background clatter and adds a dimension to the game that allows true fans of the sport to focus on picking winners, predicting "Overs" and "Unders", and settling props such as what team will hit the first dinger on the night; important stuff.

The baseball moneyline cuts through all the fog and says, "Yeah, everyone knows his win-loss record and where they sit in the standings. How much are you willing to bet that they can win tonight?"

Confident fav bettors will cut the juice that an online sportsbook is looking for and play the run line. And then there is the other side of the coin that knows even favorites often win by only a single run.

Sports Betting Trends:
So with the first month of the regular season in the books, sports bettors have had a good chance to get a feel for most Major League squads. Every team other than the Arizona Diamondbacks has played into the double-digits both home and away and the pitching rotation has made its rounds at least five times. Dramatic comebacks have also been hitting at a record pace and it has forced oddsmakers to make adjustments to the totals because the way things are going, no lead is safe.

Going forward, here are a few handicapping strategies to keep in mind that look past the standings and dig a little deeper into the realm of picking winners.

- Baseball Handicapping:
Value is very important at this time of year and finding good odds can be an excellent starting point when researching the card. Games with a bona fide ace chucking for one side or the other demand a high price but one bad start can put a big dent in your account. String a few losses together where you paid upwards of -175 on the moneyline and it starts to hurt.

- Avoid streaks. If either team in the matchup you are considering comes in riding a three-plus game winning or losing streak, look elsewhere. There could be something going on that will factor more heavily into the outcome than anyone without an inside connection to the ballclub knows about. Better just to let it play out.

- Look at the schedule… then look again! When handicapping a ballgame it's fairly common for bettors to glance at the monthly sked and note the length of a team's current road trip or how many more games are remaining in a home stand. At this point we have the luxury, though, of easily being able to go through any team's entire schedule and piece together how they've arrived at their current state. That doesn't mean reading every single recap or analyzing box scores one by one, but a team that looked to be slumping mid-April when it was swept by the Kansas City Royals may not actually be that bad.

As a sports bettor it's important to remember that while one month of ball can be a good indicator to where the season is going, the standings are still likely to take on a much different shape before the dog days of summer set in. If you're down a little on the year, there is plenty of time to get back up and if you've been strong out of the gate, congratulations! Keep up the good work.

Author: Kevin Taylor is a veteran sports handicapper and student of the sports betting world. He has written for several media outlets, focusing on sports, sports betting and online poker.