Cubs welcome Reds to Wrigley

Baseball Betting Lines

08/19/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Worst visits first tonight at Wrigley Field when a pair of National League Central rivals get together for the first of a three-game series.

The front-running Chicago Cubs - holders of a 5 1/2-game bulge in the six-team loop - look to extend that lead at home against the Cincinnati Reds, who've tumbled from the fringes of contention to the back of the pack since the All- Star break.

Taking the mound for the Cubs will be recent acquisition Rich Harden, who's made six starts since coming over from the American League's Oakland Athletics. He's 2-1 with a 1.80 earned run average in 35 innings with Chicago, allowing 24 hits and seven earned runs with 14 walks and 49 strikeouts.

In his last start, on Wednesday at Atlanta, he allowed two hits over five scoreless innings of an 8-0 Cubs win.

He was 5-1 in 13 starts with a 2.34 ERA for the Athletics before the trade.

Harden won his lone career start against the Reds after giving up six hits and four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings.

For the Reds, rookie right-hander Johnny Cueto can make it two wins in a row.

The 22-year-old Dominican had gone six starts without a win between July 9 and Aug. 8 before rebounding with a 3-1 defeat of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.

The first start of the winless string came against the Cubs, when Cueto dropped a 5-1 decision after allowing four earned runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.

He's faced the Cubs twice in 2008, splitting two decisions and giving up a combined 14 hits and seven earned runs in 12 2/3 innings.

On Sunday in Cincinnati, Edinson Volquez hurled seven innings of shutout ball and the Reds salvaged the final contest of a three-game series with a 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Volquez (15-5) put together his second consecutive strong start, allowing just three hits and four walks with four strikeouts.

Brandon Phillips hit a three- run homer while Chris Dickerson and Edwin Encarnacion had three-hit games with a run scored each. Jay Bruce added two hits and an RBI for Cincinnati, which won for just the fourth time in their last 16 games.

In Miami, Reed Johnson's three-run double highlighted an eight-run seventh inning, as the Cubs pounded the Florida Marlins, 9-2, in the rubber match of a three-game set from Dolphin Stadium.

Johnson finished 4-for-5 and scored a run for the Cubs, who have won nine of their last 11 games. Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano each drove in two runs.

Ryan Dempster (14-5) gave up two runs on five hits and struck out 10 batters over six innings to pick up the win. The 31-year-old is one victory shy of tying his career-high set in 2001 with Florida.

Chicago has won five of its nine meetings with the Reds this season.

Vagesinsider Baseball Betting News

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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.








SPORTS BETTING

NFL Football Betting Online

In terms of sports wagering, the NFL is "the most popular game in town." The explanation behind that is easy.

It is called the "pointspread."

Many years ago, NFL games, as well as the more popular college games, used straight odds as a vehicle for betting. For example, if the Bears were playing the Giants, and it shaped up as a competitive contest, the Bears might be, say, a 7/5 favorite. If they were playing an also-ran, it might be 10/1. Well, there is a point where a line becomes prohibitive, as far as betting the favorite. And who would waste money betting an underdog that has virtually no chance? Such a setup did not contribute to promoting betting action.

But in modern sports betting, a "pointspread" is used.

A NFL pointspreads are exactly that, a pre-established point difference between the two sides that will, for all intents and purposes, create a handicap that evens things out, and in doing so, produces comparable wagering activity on both sides of that proposition. So in lieu of a odds figure in which to bet the team to win outright, the Bears might be a three-point favorite over the New York Giants, and a 17-point favorite over the also-ran. Now that the team that is the underdog can "get" points, there can be equal action on both sides.

In sportsbooks, this is usually done with efficiency by charging the losing bettors 10% extra - in effect, bettors are laying 11/10 on those games. So they are actually betting $110 to win $100. If they lose, they pay the "vig." If they win, they simply collect.

The establishment of the pointspread as the corner stone around which team sports like football can be wagered upon was truly what brought gridiron betting into the stratosphere.

Don't believe it? Just take a look at what happens around the Super Bowl.

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