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05/07/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - For the Detroit Tigers, Thursday's off day could not have come at a better time.
For starters, the team had just wrapped up a stretch of 20 straight games -- through five cities -- with no rest. That journey came to a halt Wednesday at Minnesota's new Target Field, where the Twins put the final touches on a three-game sweep of the Tigers.
On Tuesday, catcher Gerald Laird drilled a foul ball off his shin. Laird was already scheduled to be rested for Wednesday's afternoon game, and with an extra day to heal up, he is expected to be back in the lineup on Friday when Detroit (16-13) begins a weekend series with Cleveland.
Also on the injury front, outfielder Johnny Damon left in the fourth inning of Wednesday's game with a right calf spasm. Thanks to Thursday's break in the action, he is also expected to be available for Friday's series opener.
While Thursday's idle date afforded some much needed rest for the players, it also allowed the city of Detroit to mourn the passing of Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, who died Tuesday after an eight-month battle with bile duct cancer. Harwell, who spent 42 of his 92 years on this Earth as the Tigers' broadcaster, was posthumously awarded the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in sports broadcasting Wednesday night. On Thursday, Tigers fans packed Comerica Park to bid farewell to their beloved broadcaster.
It was Harwell's genuine enthusiasm for the game and deep-rooted connection with Tigers fans that endeared himself to the city of Detroit. Though he stopped broadcasting about eight years ago, his bubbly personality remained a fixture at Comerica Park and throughout the Motor City, and he would embrace his impending death with tremendous grace and strength, even planning the details of his own public viewing with team officials.
"I've got a great attitude. I just look forward to a new adventure," Harwell told the Detroit Free Press when he disclosed his illness. "God gives us so many adventures, and I've had some great ones. It's been a terrific life."
As for the Tigers, they can take a lesson from Ernie and put the Minnesota series behind them, and look forward to tomorrow.
TRIBE BANKING ON WESTBROOK, HAFNER TO RETURN TO FORM
While the Cleveland Indians (10-17) have gotten significantly younger over the last few seasons, two of their key veterans remain in Travis Hafner and Jake Westbrook. However, it has been quite a while since either of those players have been productive on a consistent basis. Compounding the frustration is the fact that Hafner and Westbrook are the Tribe's two highest paid players.
Hafner, who turns 33 in less than a month, signed the largest contract in team history during the 2007 All-Star break: four years and $57 million. He is making a team-high $11.5 million this season and his salary jumps to $13 million in 2011 and 2012. Since signing that contract Hafner has missed a combined 173 games in 2008 and 2009, totaling just 21 home runs while batting .245 during those two seasons. He is hitting just .213 so far this season, though Wednesday's mammoth shot into the right-center field seats provided a glimmer of hope.
"I had a good spring and was hoping to get off to a good start," said Hafner, whose past shoulder injuries have led to some bad habits at the plate. "That hasn't happened. But you can't really worry about it. You've got to continue to work hard every day. I hope to get going soon and be a big part of the offense."
As for the 32-year-old Westbrook, he is in the final year of a three-year, $33 million contract. Since posting back-to-back 15-win seasons in 2005 and 2006, Westbrook has tallied just seven wins for the Tribe. He is now trying to resurrect his career after Tommy John surgery cost him most of 2008 and all of the 2009 season. But so far, the results have been anything but promising, as Westbrook is off to an 0-2 start with a 5.74 ERA. In 34 2/3 innings, he has issued 17 walks and thrown four wild pitches, as he's struggled to regain his feel.
Pitching coach Tim Belcher spoke with Dr. Lewis Yocum, who performed the ligament replacement surgery in June 2008.
"(Yocum) said most of his patients with that Tommy John don't really get their command back until the second year," Belcher said on the team's website. "Hopefully it comes a little bit quicker for him."
TWINS STAYING HOT WITHOUT MAUER
The Minnesota Twins (19-10) enjoy a three-game lead in the AL Central standings as they resume their homestand Friday against Baltimore. They were able to build that cushion thanks to a three-game sweep over the second-place Tigers earlier this week.
And they've managed to do so without reigning AL MVP Joe Mauer in the lineup for the last six games. Mauer suffered a deep soft tissue bruise in his left heel last Friday. He took some batting practice on Thursday but is still not able to run. A timetable has not been set for his return.
"He feels good swinging, but he's not ready to run yet," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He's feeling better every day. We are going to let Joe tell me when he is ready to play. I just want to make sure we get through this thing without re-injuring it."
Meanwhile, the Twins twice left the bases loaded in Thursday's series-opening 2-0 loss to the Orioles, snapping Minnesota's three-game win streak. It also snapped a six-game streak in which the Twins scored at least two runs in the first inning. Still, they'll look to build on their division lead as Francisco Liriano (4-0, 1.50) takes the hill Friday to try and improve upon his impressive start.
SOX WAITING FOR THE REAL MARK BUEHRLE TO SHOW UP
For White Sox (12-17) ace Mark Buehrle, none of his last four starts have remotely resembled the same man who has four All-Star nods, a no-hitter and a perfect game on his resume. Buehrle has allowed at least four runs in each of his last four outings, posting an 0-4 record, a 7.25 ERA and a .345 opponents batting average over that period.
What's most puzzling to Buehrle is that he feels great after an offseason conditioning program aimed at strengthening his throwing shoulder.
"That's why I'm surprised at the numbers I have," he said. "The way I feel like I've thrown and the way I feel when I'm throwing, I feel way too good for having the numbers I have. Obviously everybody's kind of joking around saying, 'You should have sat on your butt and not done anything this offseason,' but I feel as strong right now as I have in a while."
Having made eight Opening Day starts for Chicago, logic suggests he'll get it going sooner or later. The team hopes the resurrection begins Friday when he takes the hill against the Toronto Blue Jays. Of course, Buehrle's struggles have magnified a starting rotation which ranks fourth-worst in the AL with a combined 5.02 ERA. Jake Peavy (1-2, 6.31), Gavin Floyd (1-3, 6.89) and Freddy Garcia (1-2, 5.28) seem to have followed Buehrle's lead.
ROYALS ISSUING TOO MANY FREE PASSES
Royals pitching coach Bob McClure had seen enough.
With his staff leading the majors with 126 walks, he called a pitcher's meeting prior to the team's series opener with the Texas Rangers on Thursday. The message was clear: "get ahead of the hitters, have confidence in your stuff, and be aggressive in the strike zone."
McClure believes throwing strikes can be contagious. Only now, it's up to the Royals (11-18) hurlers to execute. But that's easier said than done for a staff that led the AL with 600 free passes last year.
"I'd rather watch them bang balls off the bullpen fence than keep giving up walks," manager Trey Hillman told the Kansas City Star on Wednesday. "I can watch losing baseball, but not bad baseball."
The one player who has no problem attacking the strike zone, reigning AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke, takes the mound Friday against Texas. Remarkably, Greinke has yet to notch a win after six starts. His 2.27 ERA is the lowest of any qualifying starter in baseball without a victory. If Greinke is to break that mold, he could certainly use more than the 2.6 runs of support he has gotten from his offense thus far.
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Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American League pitchers and a nagging back
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The first baseman's production didn't suffer last season while Mau
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Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lipscomb University forward Adnan Hodzic has
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"By
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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The 2009 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year odds have been released and Denver Broncos' running back Knowshon Moreno has been made the opening favorite.
Moreno was selected in the first round of April's NFL draft and is expected to carry the rushing load for the Broncos this season. And with Jay Cutler now in Chicago, Moreno might be expected to be Denver's entire offense.
Betting Lines from sports betting lines have made Moreno a 5/2 favorite to win this year's Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. Fellow running back Chris “Beanie” Wells (Arizona Cardinals) is right behind Moreno at 7/2, while Donald Brown (Indianapolis Colts) and receiver Michael Crabtree (San Francisco 49ers) are 5/1 to win. Quarterbacks Mark Sanchez (New York Jets) and Matthew Stafford (Detroit Lions) are 7/1 and 8/1, respectively.
A couple of players who present some value are Josh Freeman, Shonn Green and Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Freeman needs to beat out Byron Leftwich to become the starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but if he does, he has a lot or raw talent and could use the weapons around him (i.e. Kellen Winslow Jr. and Antonio Bryant) to be very successful in his first season.
Green enters a crowded backfield in New York, but considering both Thomas Jones and Leon Washington are unhappy about their contract situations and might holdout, the former Iowa product could become the Jets' primary back.
Everyone was shocked when Al Davis took Heyward-Bey with the eighth overall pick in April's draft, but the kid has a tremendous amount of talent and if quarterback JaMarcus Russell takes the next step this year, the former Maryland product could blossom. Plus, Heyward-Bey will be looking to prove the people wrong who said Oakland should have taken Michael Crabtree with the No. 8 pick.
And if you're looking for a deep sleeper, check out Pat White at 30/1. He enters the Miami Dolphins vaunted “Wild Cat” offense and could be a big time playmaker.
For complete odds on the 2009 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year odds, see below.
2009 AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Odds to Win
Ramses Barden (NYG) 40/1
Andre Brown (NYG) 20/1
Donald Brown (IND) 5/1
Kenny Britt (TEN) 20/1
Glenn Coffee (SFO) 30/1
Chase Coffman (CIN) 50/1
Michael Crabtree (SFO) 5/1
Josh Freeman (TB) 14/1
Shonn Green (NYJ) 14/1
Percy Harvin (MIN) 10/1
Darrius Heyward-Bay (OAK) 18/1
Juaquan Iglesias (CHI) 30/1
Cornelius Ingram (PHI) 50/1
Rashad Jennings (JAC) 30/1
Johnny Knox (CHI) 40/1
Jeremy Maclin (PHI) 18/1
Mohamed Massaquoi (CLE) 30/1
LeSean McCoy (PHI) 12/1
Knowshon Moreno (DEN) 5/2
Hakeem Nicks (NYG) 18/1
Brandon Pettigrew (DET) 30/1
Brian Robiskie (CLE) 20/1
Mark Sanchez (NYJ) 7/1
Matthew Stafford (DET) 8/1
Jason Smith (STL) 40/1
Mike Thomas (JAC) 25/1
Patrick Turner (MIA) 50/1
Mike Wallace (PIT) 50/1
Chris Wells (ARI) 7/2
Pat White (MIA) 30/1
Field (Any Other Player) 9/1
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