Sports Betting

Yes the sweet sounds of the crack of a bat are resonating from cities in Florida and Arizona these days as spring training is in full swing and Rocket Roger Clemens got taken deep early in his throwing session yesterday. In Kissimmee, Florida Roger threw 66 pitches to the some minor leaguers but it was his first one to son Koby that was deposited beyond the fence. The younger Clemens was drafted by Houston last year, while the eldest still hasn’t made up his mind about retirement.
At Jupiter, Fla., Joe Borowski appears to be the leading candidate to replace Jones with the Marlins. Borowski's best season came in 2003, when he had 33 saves and a 2.63 ERA. He missed much of 2004 with a shoulder injury, and then broke a bone in his right forearm in spring training last year.

After the Cubs released him in June, Borowski joined Tampa Bay and set a club record with 21 consecutive scoreless innings. But then he gave up 15 earned runs in his final 14 1-3 innings of the season.
This is one of the stories you like to read about as Borowski was a career minor leaguer riding the buses and just looking to earn a pay check.
My sleeper pick for 2006 the Pittsburgh Pirates received some unsettling news regarding pitched Kip Wells and a blood clot in his arm. Wells did not pitch well last year with an 8-18 and ERA of 4.36 but he logged 182 innings and they are loaded with left handed pitching.
At Dunedin, Fla., Toronto Blue Jays right-handers Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett had opposite outings during the team's first intrasquad game. Halladay needed just seven pitches to retire three hitters. Burnett needed 19, allowing one run and two hits with a strikeout.
Halladay, whose 2005 season ended July 8 when he broke his left leg pitching against Texas, makes his first spring start Thursday against Tampa. Burnett, who signed a five-year, $55 million contract with Toronto in December, is scheduled to make his Blue Jays debut Friday against Team Canada.
The Jays on paper look loaded and are many experts pick as the real challenge to the Yankees, but with all these additions, chemistry becomes an issue!
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NBA Betting

NBA Handicapping
Charlotte Has been A Decent Road BetThe NBA's Southeast Division currently contains three of the worst teams in the entire league - the Orlando Magic, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Charlotte Bobcats. That means being a fan of a Southeast team other than Miami, and to a lesser degree Washington, hasn't been paying off this season. But how well has wagering on a Southeast Division team been paying off this year? Well, handicappers couldn't have made much scratch betting on any of the division's five teams to consistently win or lose this season, as each of their against-the-spread (ATS) records are practically at the .500 mark. Here are the Southeast Division's ATS records through Sunday's games: Team ATS Record
Miami 28-27-0
Washington 25-26-3
Orlando 25-28-2
Atlanta 26-28-0
Charlotte 29-27-1
Looking at the home and road ATS splits, the situation isn't much better for placing bets on any of the five teams. Here are the Southeast Division's home and road against-the-spread records through Sunday's games: Team ATS Home ATS Road
Miami 12-14-0 16-13-0
Washington 13-13-3 12-13-0
Orlando 14-14-0 11-14-2
Atlanta 13-14-0 13-14-0
Charlotte 12-16-0 17-11-1
The Bobcats deviate the farthest from .500 here, sitting four games below that mark against-the-spread at home, and six games above that mark against-the-spread on the road. Consistently placing bets on Charlotte to cover the posted spread on the road has therefore paid off for handicappers to this point. Of course, you'd need to drink a lot of antacid beforehand if you were staking your cash on the Bobcats to win anything, anywhere this season. Charlotte is only 15-42 straight-up on the year, 10-18 at home, and an anemic 5-24 on the road. That means when Charlotte is picking up ATS victories on the road, they're just eking out a cover and rarely winning outright. On the flip slide, Miami is 20-6 straight-up at home, but only 12-14 ATS. That's as good a warning as any to carefully study all the stats before making a wager; blindly betting on the fact that the Heat are dominate on their own court has been a quick way to lose a lot of money through the first half of the season.
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NBA Betting

I’ve finally figured out what my problem is regarding Isaiah Thomas, the guy pulling the strings for the pathetic professional sports franchise known as the New York Knicks. I am jealous! I would like just for a few minutes to be in his shoes, or rather sitting at his desk, pulling the strings on the series of terrible moves this guy has made.
What is it like to have a blank check at your disposal to purchase any player you want? His latest move was in acquiring Stevie Francis from Orlando in exchange for youngster Trevor Ariza and multi-millionaire Penny Hardaway who has been lounging in Florida all year.
Granted Francis is a terrific player who is just a few years removed from being good enough traded to Orlando for one of the games best players Tracy McGrady. Nobody disputes Francis or his new teammate Stephon Marbury’s talent at the guard position, but neither player is capable of stopping even a high school player from scoring.
I thought Knicks coach Larry Brown’s claim to fame, was molding clubs into defensive machines, such as he did in Philadelphia and Detroit? Hardaway began his career as a perennial All-Star in Orlando, but has faded because of knee injuries. Earning $15.8 million this season, he has been working out on his own in Houston and has played in just four games.
Hardaway has long been blamed for Hill's firing in Orlando in 1997 and he won't be playing for him again. "We will have a conversation with Penny Hardaway, but Penny Hardaway will never put on an Orlando Magic uniform," Smith said. So who pays this guy’s hefty check every two weeks?
Next season the Knicks payroll will be over $130 million with the addition of Francis and Jalen Rose to the payroll and the way their player, they could be in line for a high draft pick, which will lead to more dollars being thrown around.
The Knicks may want to have a look at the Phoenix Suns operation, which has no overpaid veterans sitting on their bench with long term contracts on their pocket and a point guard name Steve Nash that understands that TEAM is not spelled with an I!
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