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04/27/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Between April and October, the proverbial injury bug is bound to strike at any time.
Happens to every team, every season, and with no forewarning.
For the Oakland Athletics, the injury bug has reared its ugly head in the season's very first month. And yet, Oakland currently sits atop the American League West Division with a 12-8 record.
Let's look at some of the walking wounded, starting with the day-to-day bunch.
Pitcher Brett Anderson left after six innings of Saturday's start with left forearm tightness. He is scheduled to throw today, but considering it's an injury that initially surfaced last spring training, the team will likely play it safe and skip Anderson's next start on Friday. He had pitched well leading up to the injury, scattering just three hits and one run over six frames.
"It's one of those things where we really won't know much until he throws again," manager Bob Geren said on Sunday. "It's not something that affects him when he's doing everyday things, so he'll receive treatment and we'll go from there."
Moving along the infirmary, first baseman Daric Barton broke his right middle finger during Sunday's 11-0 win over Cleveland. No news yet on whether Barton will miss any time. The break is a small one along his right middle finger, and Monday's off day afforded Barton some recovery time. He has shrugged off quite a few minor injuries this year and is one of only two A's players to start all 19 games.
Catcher Kurt Suzuki missed two straight starts over the weekend due to some soreness along the left side of his back. However, Sunday's scratch was mostly for precautionary measures, as Suzuki plans on returning to the lineup tonight in Tampa. Elsewhere, third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff was also scratched from Saturday's lineup after taking a foul ball off his left foot the previous night. Fortunately, he was back in the lineup on Sunday.
Now, on to the more serious injuries. Second baseman Mark Ellis joined an already crowded disabled list last Wednesday with a strained left hamstring, which is expected to sideline him until at least early-May. That is roughly the same timeline as right fielder Travis Buck, who is nursing a strained right oblique and is eligible to be activated May 6.
Center fielder Coco Crisp, who has yet to play this season since being acquired from Kansas City, is also slated to return in mid-May from a fractured left pinkie finger. Upon Crisp's return, Rajai Davis is expected to slide over to left field.
Meanwhile, the bullpen has been without Joey Devine and Michael Wuertz. Devine was expected to share the closer's role last season, but wound up undergoing Tommy John surgery in April and didn't pitch an inning in 2009. His recovery was sidetracked in March due to right elbow tendinitis, though he has began throwing off a mound. Wuertz is already making his way back from a bout with shoulder tendinitis and could return as early as this week.
So, how have the A's managed to stay afloat in the wake of so many injuries? Look no further than their starting rotation, which has surrendered just five runs over the last five games. The starters have allowed three runs or less in 17 of the 20 games this season, combining for a 9-3 record along with a Major League-best 2.65 ERA.
M'S LOOKING TO IMPROVE HOME-AWAY SPLITS
The Seattle Mariners entered the season as a darkhorse contender to finally snatch the AL West reigns away from the Angels. But in order to climb the standings, they are going to have to find a way to win some games on the road.
At the moment, seven of the Mariners' nine wins have come at Safeco Field. Elsewhere, they are a Major League-worst 2-9 on the road. On their current six-game road trip through Chicago and Kansas City, Seattle has gotten off to an 0-4 start after dropping last night's series opener to the Royals. Kansas City starter Kyle Davies had a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and the M's wound up with only one run on six hits for the game. Seattle hit just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Manager Don Wakamatsu conceded his team seems to be dealing with some confidence issues on the road. "When you look at the record, it sure looks that way," he said. "There are things we have to continue to work on. But we're a team that if the offense isn't functional, we can't afford to make any mistakes."
While the offense looks to get things figured out, the pitching staff is anxiously awaiting the debut of prized offseason acquisition of Cliff Lee. The southpaw tossed six scoreless innings for Triple-A Tacoma on Sunday and is scheduled to join the Mariners on Friday when they return home to face Texas. Lee suffered a lower abdominal strain on March 26.
ANGELS' MORALES A STAR IN THE MAKING
Angels' slugger Kendry Morales is not yet a household name to casual baseball fans, but it's only a matter of time before that changes.
Following up from his breakout season last year, Morales was recently named AL Player of the Week. In a stretch of seven games over the last week, Morales hit a staggering .542 with three homers and 10 RBIs
With runners on first and second and two outs in the seventh inning of Sunday's showdown with the Yankees, manager New York manager Joe Girardi considered intentionally walking Morales. But after Damaso Marte issued the first ball, Girardi changed his mind and opted to go after Morales, a decision which proved costly. With the count 3-0, Morales launched a 3-0 offering into the mock-mountain range beyond the wall in left-center, propelling the Halos to an 8-4 triumph.
The switch-hitting Morales burst onto the scene in 2009, his first full season in the majors, by hitting .306 with 34 home runs and 108 RBIs despite platooning with Robb Quinlan for the first month of the season. Morales has worked to improve his hitting from the right side and, despite his hot start this year, says he is humbled that opposing managers would even consider walking him with first base occupied.
"I don't have enough years in this league for someone to walk me with a man on first base," Morales told the Los Angeles Times. "So, I was quite surprised."
Manager Mike Scioscia credits Morales' dedication to putting in the extra work, as well as his improved bat discipline to work into hitter's counts. Thanks in no small part to Morales' contributions, the Angels have won two straight to improve to 11-10 and move to within 1 1/2 games of the division- leading A's.
SHORT-HANDED RANGERS HOPING FOR GOOD NEWS ON THE INJURY FRONT
At 8-11, the Texas Rangers continue to hold down the bottom spot in the AL West standings. Of course, the competition level factors into that. The Rangers just wrapped up a 10-game stretch that saw them go 3-7 against the Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers.
In addition, Texas has had some injury woes. All-Star second baseman Ian Kinsler has been on the DL with a high right ankle sprain. He began a rehab assignment on Monday, which marked his first actual game action since March 12. If all goes well, he will rejoin the team as early as Friday.
Kinsler said his ankle is between 80 and 90 percent right now, and conceded it will probably bother him to some degree throughout the season.
"I know it's not going to be 100 percent healthy," he told the Star-Telegram. "Everything is kind of limited. It's not really holding me back. It's still there. It's not completely healthy. It's not like my left foot."
Upon Kinsler's return, manager Ron Washington said he plans to plug his second baseman into the No. 5 spot in the lineup, bumping right fielder Nelson Cruz to the No. 6 hole. Of course, that plan hinges on the health of Cruz, who left Monday's game with some nagging right hamstring tightness and is considered day-to-day. He had to leave games in Boston last Tuesday and Wednesday because of the same hamstring. Any potential prolonged absence would be a big blow to the Rangers' offense, considering Cruz is hitting .323 on the year out of that fifth spot in the lineup.
<< Poti out for Game 7 with eye injury
Arlington, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Capitals will play Game 7 of
their Eastern Conference quarterfinal against Montreal on Wednesday without
defenseman Tom Poti.
Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau said Tuesday that Poti
<< Dynamo's Cameron out for season with knee injury
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Dynamo midfielder Geoff Cameron injured
the PCL in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season, the MLS club
announced Monday.
Cameron was injured in Saturday's match against Chicago, and will
<< Beckham expects to miss entire MLS season
Carson, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham
confirmed Monday night he will miss the entire Major League Soccer season
because of an Achilles tendon injury suffered in March.
Beckham, 34, saw his Wor
<< Redskins ink Scott
Ashburn, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Redskins have signed free agent
defensive end Darrion Scott. No terms of the contract were disclosed.
Scott played last season for the Florida Tuskers in the United Football League
under Jim Has
NL West: Unlikeliest of Johnsons thriving in AZ >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Legendary boxer Jack Johnson, NBA Hall of Famer Magic
Johnson, 400-game winner Walter Johnson and current NFL superstar Chris
Johnson clearly all share the same surname and have made or are making
strides
Blind Luck tops Kentucky Oaks, Rachel Alexandra in La Troienne >>
Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fantasy Stakes winner Blind Luck has been
made the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Friday's $500,000 Kentucky Oaks at
Churchill Downs. The race for three-year-old fillies has attracted a full
field o
The future's so bright >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The best player on the LPGA Tour retired
prematurely.
Again.
Just a few years after Annika Sorenstam walked away from the game, Lorena
Ochoa followed suit.
When Sorenstam retired, she left the tour i
Hawks' Crawford wins Sixth Man Award >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford has been
selected as the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year.
Crawford received 580 of a possible 610 points, including 110 first-place
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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
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