Marlins rout Reds behind Uggla's offense

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2007 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dan Uggla went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI as the Florida Marlins pounded the Cincinnati Reds, 10-2, in game two of a four-game series.

Scott Olsen (8-7), who had served a two-game suspension laid down by Marlins general manager Fredi Gonzalez for insubordination and conduct detrimental to the team, got the win as he gave up just two runs on four hits in seven innings.

The penalty stemmed from an incident occurring after Olsen argued with the manager when he was lifted from his last start, a 5-3 defeat of Washington on July 15.

Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run home run and drove in three, Miguel Olivo added a two-run homer and Hanley Ramirez had three hits and drove in a pair for the Marlins, who had lost three of four.

Jeff Conine and Brandon Phillips each hit homers while Kyle Lohse (5-12) got pounded for seven runs -- four earned -- on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings for the Reds, who had a season-high four-game winning streak stopped.

The Marlins took a 3-0 lead in the third. Alfredo Amezaga started off the inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Olsen. Ramirez then brought home Amezaga with a double to right. After Uggla lined out, Cabrera blasted a shot into the left field stands.

The Reds got one back in the fourth as Conine hit a two-out home run to left and make it a 3-1 game.

Uggla gave Florida a 4-1 lead in the sixth as he led off the frame with his 18th homer of the year. Cabrera followed with a shot to right that Norris Hopper appeared to have a beat on, but a fan reached over the wall and grabbed the ball. The umpires ruled Cabrera out on the play.

Cincinnati got the run back in the seventh as Phillips hit a home run into the left field stands.

Florida, though, plated three more runners in the bottom of the seventh for a five-run lead. Uggla punched a two-out double to center to score Olivo and Amezaga. After Jared Burton took the mound, Cabrera punched a single to center to plate Uggla for a 7-2 advantage.

The Marlins continued to punish Cincinnati's pitchers in the eighth inning. Olivo hit a two-run home run, a batter later Todd Linden hit a triple off the center field wall and Ramirez followed with an RBI double.

Game Notes

Florida outhit Cincinnati, 12-6...Before the game, the Reds activated pitcher Bill Bray from the 15-day disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A Louisville...Florida outrighted pitcher Wes Obermueller to Triple-A Albuquerque...Cabrera has 69 RBI on the season...Attendance was 15,313.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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