A-Rod, Vlad share AL weekly honor

Baseball Betting Lines

04/09/2007 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sluggers Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees and Vladimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim shared the honor as the initial American League Player of the Week for the 2007 season.

Rodriguez batted .381 with a 1.095 slugging percentage, as he clubbed four homers and doubled three times among his eight hits. He also drove in 11 runs on the way to his 11th career weekly award.

The two-time AL MVP had a banner series this past weekend against Baltimore, going 5-for-11 with three homers. He had a two-homer game on Saturday, which included a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that lifted New York to a 10-7 victory.

Guerrero batted .440 with a slugging percentage of .880. He belted three homers and added a pair of doubles among his 11 hits and knocked in 10 runs.

The 2004 AL MVP picked up his 10th career weekly award and third in the American League.

Other candidates for the first honor of the season included Minnesota pitcher Johan Santana, who was 2-0 with a 2.77 earned run average and 15 strikeouts in 13 innings; Angels pitcher John Lackey, who was 2-0 with an ERA of 0.75 and 11 strikeouts in 12 innings; and Cleveland's Grady Sizemore, who played only three games because of snow and batted .429 with three homers and four runs batted in.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.