All-Star rosters revealed

Baseball Betting Lines

07/06/2008 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Major League Baseball has announced the rosters for the 2008 All-Star Game, and the squads are filled with familiar names as well as seven first-time starters.

The 79th Mid-Summer Classic will be played July 15 at Yankee Stadium, and a member of the Bronx Bombers finished as the leading vote-getter in fan balloting.

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will make his 12th All-Star appearance and 10th start for the American League after earning the most votes from the fans with 3,934,518.

Teammate Derek Jeter will join Rodriguez on the left side of the American League infield at shortstop, while four members of the arch-rival Boston Red Sox also earned starting berths for the AL.

Boston first baseman Kevin Youkilis and second baseman Dustin Pedroia will each make their initial All-Star appearances, while Manny Ramirez will start in the outfield in his 12th All-Star Game. David Ortiz was selected as the designated hitter, but will not play because of a wrist injury.

The remainder of the American League starters are Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer, Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton and Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. Hamilton is also a first-time All-Star.

Philadelphia second baseman Chase Utley was the leading vote-getter for all National League players, garnering 3,889,602 tallies. He will be joined in the NL infield by Houston first baseman Lance Berkman, Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez and Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones.

The Senior Circuit outfield will consist of Milwaukee's Ryan Braun and a pair of Chicago Cubs in Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome. The NL catcher will be Cubs rookie Geovany Soto.

Soto, Fukudome, Braun and Ramirez will be making their first appearances in the All-Star Game.

The Cubs have seven players on the National League squad, as third baseman Aramis Ramirez was selected as a reserve and Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood were chosen for the pitching staff.

The other NL reserves are catchers Russell Martin of the Dodgers and Brian McCann of the Braves; first basemen Albert Pujols of St. Louis and Adrian Gonzalez of San Diego; second baseman Dan Uggla of Florida; shortstops Cristian Guzman of Washington and Miguel Tejada of Houston; and outfielders Matt Holliday of Colorado, Ryan Ludwick of St. Louis and Nate McLouth of Pittsburgh.

Joining the three Cubs pitchers will be Colorado's Aaron Cook, Arizona's Dan Haren and Brandon Webb, Philadelphia's Brad Lidge, San Francisco's Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson, Milwaukee's Ben Sheets, Cincinnati's Edinson Volquez and Billy Wagner of the New York Mets.

The American League pitching staff will consist of Oakland's Justin Duchscherer, Toronto's Roy Halladay, Tampa Bay's Scott Kazmir, Cleveland's Cliff Lee, Minnesota's Joe Nathan, Boston's Jonathan Papelbon, Baltimore's George Sherrill, Kansas City's Joakim Soria, Mariano Rivera of the Yankees and three Angels -- Francisco Rodriguez, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders.

Reserves for the AL will be catchers Dioner Navarro of Tampa Bay and Jason Varitek of Boston; first baseman Justin Morneau of Minnesota; second baseman Ian Kinsler of Texas; shortstop Michael Young of the Rangers; third basemen Joe Crede of the White Sox and Carlos Guillen of Detroit; outfielders J.D. Drew of Boston, Carlos Quentin of the White Sox and Grady Sizemore of Cleveland; and Texas designated hitter Milton Bradley.

Each team will have an additional player, as voted again by the fans.

The American League choices for the final player are Tampa Bay rookie Evan Longoria, Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, Baltimore second baseman Brian Roberts, White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye and Royals outfielder Jose Guillen.

The five National League choices are Mets third baseman David Wright, Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell, Milwaukee's Corey Hart, Giants outfielder Aaron Rowand and Astros slugger Carlos Lee.

Balloting for the final player began Sunday and will continue through 5 p.m. (et) on Thursday July 10.

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Betting Football

NFL Football Betting Online

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.








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.