2016 MLB Over/Unders
A tradition like many, many others. Each year Pat and I attempt to pick 10 teams to exceed or elude their published Vegas win total with varying degrees of success. Winner gets a pub crawl that will likely never happen in reality. We need to change the prize to a good bottle of whiskey or something. Confidence scoring. Forward.
10 Points – Oakland OVER 75.5
9) Pittsburgh UNDER 86.5
8) Baltimore UNDER 79.5
7) Seattle OVER 82.5
6) Cleveland OVER 85.5
5) Miami OVER 78.5
4) LA Dodgers OVER 88.5
3) St. Louis UNDER 87.5
2) Tampa OVER 82.5
1) San Diego UNDER 73.5
If I was doing tiers, we would have Oakland and Pittsburgh in tier 1, Baltimore and Seattle in 2, Cleveland, Miami and the Dodgers in 3 and everyone else in tier 4. I think the AL West will be a bloodbath with all five teams having a legitimate chance to win the division, kind of like the AL East in recent seasons only without the pervasive mediocrity. Cubs seem likely to run away with the Central but I was scared off of their move from 90 to 93.5 on the totals so I’m being somewhat derivative with unders on PIT and STL. Miami gets on partly due to getting 40 games versus the Phillies and Braves.
Division Winner Guesses:
AL East – Toronto
AL Central – Cleveland
AL West – Oakland
NL East – Miami
NL Central – Chicago
NL West – Los Angeles
We’ve Gone Minimalist
I’ll see if I can add the MGM Sportsbook header back though
NCAA Saturday
UConn +8
UVA/Butler Under 131
TEASER: Duke -6.5 and Arkansas Little Rock +6.5
NBA Special: Golden State +3 (they have been an underdog twice this year, and are 2-0 ATS).
UFC BONUS: Mark Hunt -140
NCAA Friday
Holy Cross +23
Stephen F. Austin +7.5
Hawaii +5 and ML +170
TEASER: IOWA -7 and Holy Cross +23
Hockey Plays
Loss and push on our return to action recently. Let’s keep rolling.
Plays @ 14
Maple Leafs +138
Predators -138
Bank 986 Units
Holy Cross: Paying the Rent for over 15 Years
Went 2-1 last night (1-1 on here and took Wichita St -3 EVEN 2H) so good start so far in this tourney.
Onto my big play for tonight:
Holy Cross +2.5 (now +3) vs Southern U in a battle of 16 seeds. Also taking the ML at +120.
Holy Cross has a big linkage to my sports betting history. Actually, it was them (and the 2002 Tampa Bay Bucs) that helped pay a even more broke-than-usual unemployed Sean pay rent in 2002 when they covered a +22 spread as a #16 seed vs Kansas, and actually leading for most of the game until they ran out of gas.
In 2001 as a #2 seed, they covered vs Kentucky in a pretty exciting game, as well as vs a Dwayne Wade led Marquette in 2003. Even when they didn’t cover vs Southern Illinois, they still chopped the 10 point spread losing 61-51.
Holy Cross, a Catholic school based out of Worcester, has a rich basketball history. Celtics greats’ Tommy Heinsohn and Bob Cousy went there. Bill Simmons is an alum. Old coach Ralph Willard (who coached the 2001-2005 teams above) is considered one of the best coaches in the Patriot League’s history and it up there in all time D1 NCAA wins. And this team is no exception; despite being the 9th seed in their tournament, they ran the table and beat #1 Lehigh in their own building despite being a +10 point underdog (which I of course took; I wish Bovada also offered the ML which other online books had at +2800!). I am 4-0-1 taking this team in its history; I might as well keep firing on them until it breaks.
I fully expect them to win tonight, and then cover vs Oregon in the next game. I mean, they have the power of Jesus behind them. And if anyone out there loves a miracle (cover), it would be Jesus fucking Christ.
I’ll be posting my tournament picks b/t here and on my twitter feed, @Seanismoney. The picks will come on fast and furious like a 3-on-2 fast break. This might be the year a #16 seed wins as I find that two of the #1’s, Virginia and Kansas (who has a history of choking in this tournament despite great teams), are overrated….and this is Oregon’s first time as a #1, so it will be interesting to see how they handle it. For those wondering:
Odds for lower seeds to win at least one game (via 5Dimes)
16-seed: +1125
15-seed: +243
14-seed: -105
13-seed: -155
12-seed: -155— Action Labs (@ActionLabs_HQ) March 16, 2016
Also taking Michigan -2
