Author: lou
Wednesday
We were in fact 2-1 yesterday though not without some drama as both Glen Perkins and Joe Nathan blew saves as Minnesota ended up winning 4-3 in extras. Two leans in Minnesota and Houston but no plays today.
40-39 +3.61 for the season to date. NFL is 2-2 -0.25
Tuesday
Cubs were a 1-0 winner last night on an Anthony Rizzo HR. Arizona would have been a play and a 6-2 winner last night had I not been preoccupied. Three plays tonight which is a record for the season. Hopefully we will go 2-1.
Dodgers (Haren) @ Rockies (Maztek) +111
Giants (Peavy) @ Arizona (Collmenter) +108
and the worst one Tigers (Porcello) @ Twins (Nolasco) +113
Monday
Late posting. I am on the Cubs tonight Reds (Simon) @Cubs (Wood) -117. There may be an additional west coast game to follow
NFL Sunday
I’ll get a summary up here in the next few days. When I went to sleep last night, I was near certain I’d be taking San Diego this afternoon, but their line has dropped two points in the interim and that’s too much of a line move to deal with. Same thing with Minnesota, where +3 turned into +6 with the Peterson thing and it’s now back to +3.5. One day I will have the confidence to make those kinds of plays during the week, but for now I am slumming it on Sunday morning with the rest of the degenerates in America.
Browns +5 and Giants -1 are my plays for the 1:00 games. Giants are a leaner in baseball but Kershaw is involved :(
Tuesday
0-2 yesterday with a pass on the Arizona game that also would have been a loser. Not only were we 0-2, but neither team he had scored a run. That’s 18 innings of futility to go with the 13 from Saturday when Sean and I were at Wrigley and it’s very apparent that this baseball season needs to end soon. There’s an article here describing the expansion of (or return to) the rulebook defined strike zone and how it’s led to a significant reduction in scoring along with fewer steroids and shifting defenses.
The lower strike zone explains one-third to two-fifths of the offensive decrease over the last five years.
I’m not longing for the days of futility infielders hitting 30 home runs a year, but I’d like to see a run scored every so often, even if I’m gambling on and watching some of the worst offenses in the league.
No plays tonight.
Monday
We went pushy-pushy here as Atlanta came back to tie and then win against New Orleans in OT while Jacksonville set their game on fire in Philadelphia and was miracle covered at the end. It was an excellent day for Sportsbooks all around as Chicago, New England, New Orleans, Denver and Pittsburgh all failed to cover and/or lost outright and all had over 70% exposure with the Eagles being the only +70 team to cover. I mentioned to Sean and Pat yesterday that I really should have taken Buffalo as well but cest la vie and all that.
Two baseball plays tonight:
Cardinals (Miller) @ Reds (Axelrod) +112
Orioles (Gonzalez) @ Red Sox (Kelly) -110
One interesting game tonight in the NFL and it’s the late one with the Cardinals moving from -3 to -2.5. Since it’s before week 3, I’m free to ignore the public numbers not being quite to my liking :) We’ll see if I take the game or not.
Sunday
Two.NFL plays and I am too hungover to look at baseball:
Jacksonville +10.5 -115
Atlanta +3 -103
Friday
No baseball again tonight. Not much in the way of leaners either. Line moves are much more subtle now that a lot of folks are back onto football. I’ll post my annual public service announcement here for NFL which is that any public numbers or metrics are no good until week 3, and week 1 regardless of what anyone says is mostly a crapshoot. Tread lightly…or not
NFL Season Picks
First off, thanks to Sean for a much more elaborate post than I have here. Sean and I had a chat last week which really should have been our first ever Miracle Covers podcast, and we’re in agreement on most of my plays that I have below. We could really shorten the first two to say that having Blaine Gabbert as your QB makes winning football games approximately as likely as winning a poker hand with 2-7.
San Francisco UNDER 10.5 -165
I would take Under 10 and Under 9.5 as well on this team. You have a coach that will be elsewhere in a year’s time, a defense where most of the superstar players are injured or suspended and an offense incapable of carrying the team, mimicking what happens in Baltimore when their defense stopped being excellent and reverted to average or worse. Also Gabbert is their backup.
Jacksonville OVER 5 EVEN, To WIN AFC South +2600
I was solidly in the +2100 range on the AFC South portion of this bet but got some more action down today at +3400 which was a bad line that seems to have not been cancelled yet. So I’m averaging out to +2600 overall. Does Jacksonville have a better than 1:25 chance to win this division? Absolutely. They have upgraded at QB and have a chance to significantly upgrade if Blake Bortles is any good. They also have some depth especially at receiver and their secondary and the worst division in football, so 8-8 might be good enough. They won 4 games last year and Pinnacle has their Over 4.5 juice well over -200.
Philadelphia to win NFC East -112
I’m unconvinced of the other teams in this division and 9-7 (The Eagles total is 9) or 10-6 will get this done.
Top 5 Confidence Scoring
5) San Francisco UNDER 10.5
4) Jacksonville OVER 4.5
3) Kansas City UNDER 8.5
2) Atlanta UNDER 8.5
1) New Orleans OVER 9.5
Thursday Baseball
For anyone wondering, I am recovering from being sick for a week, so no baseball plays during that time unfortunately. I looked but there’s nothing really doing tonight. Texas is a leaner at home to Seattle.
