Report: Garland headed to Cleveland
Baseball Betting Lines
02/13/2012 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians have reportedly agreed to a minor league contract with veteran pitcher Jon Garland.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the pact includes an invitation to spring training if the 32-year-old right-hander can pass a physical.
Garland made just nine starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season because of injuries and is coming off rotator cuff surgery. He began the 2011 season battling a left oblique strain and posted a record of just 1-5 with a 4.33 earned run average before undergoing the surgical procedure on July 11.
The Indians are in need of depth in the rotation with the status of the former Fausto Carmona unknown. Carmona, whose real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia, is still dealing with legal and visa issues in his native Dominican Republic after being arrested last month for double identity.
Garland is familiar with the American League Central, having spent the first eight seasons of his 12-year career with the Chicago White Sox. He was an All- Star in 2005 for the Sox and helped the club to the World Series title that year.
After his time in Chicago, the California native pitched for the Angels in 2008, the Diamondbacks and Dodgers in 2009 and the Padres in 2010 before returning to the Dodgers last year. He had never been on the disabled list prior to last season.
In 353 career games, including 330 starts, Garland owns a mark of 132-119 with a 4.32 ERA.
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Randy Moss is apparently planning a comeback. Moss decided to retire last August after 13 NFL seasons and told an audience on UStream.tv Monday about trying to return for 2012. He just turned 35
<< Speir completes Western Carolina coaching staff
Cullowhee, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Western Carolina first-year head football
coach Mark Speir has completed his coaching staff by adding defensive
coordinator responsibilities to linebackers coach Curtis Walker and naming
Steve Sisa the defensive
<< Packers make changes to offensive staff
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy
announced a few changes to the club's offensive staff on Monday.
Jerry Fontenot will move from running backs coach to tight ends coach for
2012, while Ben
<< Revs add French forward Sene
Foxborough, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New England Revolution announced on
Monday that the club has acquired forward Saer Sene on a free transfer from
Bayern Munich.
Sene has spent the past two-and-a-half years playing with Bayern
<< Rounding Third: Linsanity would never happen in MLB
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The whole sports world seems to be
enamored with what's going on with the New York Knicks and Jeremy Lin. It's
become a story that has transcended not only the National Basketball
Association, but all of spor
Wolverhampton, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Wolverhampton sacked manager Mick McCarthy on Monday after the club's 5-1 defeat to West Bromwich over the weekend left Wolves in the relegation zone. The move brings to an end McCarthy's
Jaguars name Mark Lamping team president >>
Jacksonville, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars have named Mark
Lamping team president, new owner Shahid Khan announced Monday.
Lamping, who has served as president and CEO of MetLife Stadium since 2008,
will oversee all no
Ortiz agrees to one-year deal with BoSox >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Red Sox and designated hitter David
Ortiz have avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year contract.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Boston Globe reported the deal to
be worth $
Rangers on the verge of administration >>
Glasgow, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending Scottish Premier League
champions Rangers confirmed on Monday that the club has filed a notice of
intention to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to appoint administrators.
The club
Villa's Dunne to miss two months >>
Birmingham, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aston Villa defender Richard Dunne is
set to spend the next two months on the sidelines after sustaining a broken
shoulder in Sunday's 1-0 defeat against Manchester City.
Dunne suffered the injury
Big 12 Conference betting odds
Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State
Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.
Work left to do:
Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.
Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.
Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.
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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