Red Sox sign Ohlendorf, Gomez to minor league deals
Baseball Betting Lines
02/16/2012 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox inked pitcher Ross Ohlendorf and first baseman Mauro Gomez to minor league deals with invitations to spring training on Thursday.
Ohlendorf went 1-3 with an 8.15 earned run average in nine starts for the Pirates in 2011, a season shortened due to a lengthy stay on the disabled list thanks to a right shoulder posterior strain.
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).
Gomez spent all of last season with Atlanta's Triple-A affiliate, hitting .304, clubbing 24 homers, 34 doubles and driving in 90 runs over 135 contests.
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.
Marseille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Marseille striker Loic Remy suffered a hamstring injury in Wednesday's Coupe de France win over Bourg-Peronnas and will be sidelined three weeks, the Ligue 1 club said Thursday. The 25-year-old Remy
<< Dortmund's Kagawa tears ankle ligament
Dortmund, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Borussia Dortmund's Japanese midfielder
Shinji Kagawa tore a ligament in his left ankle in training and will be out at
least two weeks, the Bundesliga club announced Thursday.
The 22-year-old was injur
<< Jones back for 3-point contest; Howard, Durant to coach celebs
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami's James Jones will defend his All-Star
three-point title at this year's festivities, while Orlando's Dwight Howard
and Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant will be coaches for the celebrity game.
Joining J
<< Sorenstam turns down Solheim Cup captaincy
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - While making her weekly appearance on Golf
Channel's "Morning Drive," Annika Sorenstam announced she would not accept an
offer to be the European Solheim Cup captain in 2013.
"I've given it some thought
<< Phillies the early World Series favorite
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With pitchers and catchers all set to
head out to Florida and Arizona, it is apparent Major League Baseball is
ready to fill some of the void in the sports world left by the end of the
National Football Leagu
Houston, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brian Ching's stay in Montreal is over before he even played a match for the expansion Impact. Just three months after losing him in the expansion draft, the Houston Dynamo reacquired the forward Thursday f
Hornets ink Thomas to another 10-day contract >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Hornets rewarded forward
Lance Thomas with another 10-day contract on Thursday.
Thomas has posted averages of 2.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in seven appearances
for the club this season.
Four to compete for All-Star dunk title >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indiana's Paul George, Minnesota's Derrick
Williams, Houston's Chase Budinger and Iman Shumpert of the Knicks will vie
for the dunk title as part of festivities at the 2012 All-Star weekend.
The Slam D
Berdych lands in Rotterdam quarters >>
Rotterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former Wimbledon runner-up
Tomas Berdych reached the quarterfinals at the $1.6 million ABN AMRO World
Tennis Tournament.
The second-seeded Berdych, fresh off his title in Montpellier, France two
Vancouver signs Scotland midfielder Robson as DP >>
Vancouver, BC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Vancouver Whitecaps FC's second season in MLS
should be much better than their expansion year.
Vancouver acquired Scotland international midfielder Barry Robson on Thursday
as the club's newest Designated P
SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting
NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.
That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.
A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."
It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.
The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.
So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."
Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.
Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Seriously.
The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.
The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.
Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."
The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
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