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Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Milo Hamilton, who has been the voice of the Houston Astros since 1985, announced on Wednesday that he intends to retire following the upcoming season. Hamilton will close the books on a career which spanned more than 60 years, dating back to his start in Davenport, Iowa in 1950. Prior to arriving in Houston, he presided over broadcasts for the Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox and Pirates.
Hamilton, who has mostly called home games since 2006, will continue his involvement with the Astros after their move to the American League in 2013.
The 30-year-old Illinois native has spent the last three seasons with the Pirates after appearing in 31 games for Minnesota in 2007. He slugged 21 homers in each of his first two seasons in Pittsburgh and has 60 career home runs with 193 RBI and a .254 batting average.
McGehee was acquired from Milwaukee earlier this offseason in a deal that sent pitcher Jose Veras to the Brewers. He became expendable in Milwaukee when the Brewers signed former Pirate Aramis Ramirez as a free agent.
After a pair of promising seasons, including a 23-homer, 104-RBI campaign in 2010, McGehee hit just .223 with 13 home runs and 67 RBI in 155 games last year. He also batted .301 in 2009, his first season with the Brewers.
Over five major league seasons with the Yankees and Bucs, the 29-year-old Texan is 14-28 with a 4.77 ERA in 95 games (64 starts).
The BoSox extended spring training invites to the following players: pitchers Jesse Carlson, Rich Hill and Justin Thomas, Scott Atchison, Aaron Cook, Brandon Duckworth, Justin Germano, Will Inman, Doug Mathis, Vicente Padilla, Tony Pena Jr., Carlos Silva, Chorye Spoone and Alex Wilson; catchers Daniel Butler and Max St. Pierre; outfielders Alex Hassan, Josh Kroeger, Juan Carlos Linares and Jason Repko; infielders Pedro Ciriaco and Nate Spears.
On the other hand, Philadelphia does not have to defeat the kinds of teams the top AL clubs have to face in order to reach to the World Series. And since getting there is half the battle, the Phillies' odds are lower than all of the AL teams that might have more overall talent.
The difference between Philadelphia and the second- and third-ranked NL squads (Miami and San Francisco) in terms of odds to even reach the Fall Classic is around to 5-1. Over in the American League, the Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers are not only all lumped together, but also all interchangeable depending on the sportsbook. Furthermore, all five teams are between 3-1 to 5-1 odds to even win the AL pennant.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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