Athletics' Piazza reinstated from DL

Baseball Betting Lines

07/21/2007 - Oakland, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Oakland Athletics Friday reinstated designated hitter Mike Piazza from the 15-day disabled list where he had been placed with a sprained right shoulder.

Piazza suffered a sprained AC joint in his right shoulder at Boston on May 2 during a sixth-inning collision with Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell.

Piazza was sent to Sacramento on a rehab assignment on July 13 and went 7- for-17 over three games at the DH spot. On Tuesday, he got transferred to Single-A Stockton and went 3-for-9 with a pair of homers in three games, again as the DH.

This is Piazza's first season in the American League, where he is hitting .282 with one homer and eight RBI in 103 at-bats as a designated hitter.

Over 15 major league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets and San Diego Padres, Piazza became the best hitting catcher in big league history with a .309 career batting average, 420 home runs and 1,299 RBI.

Also, Oakland optioned right-handed pitcher Shane Komine to Triple-A Sacramento.

Gamblig Baseball Betting News

<< Astros' Oswalt exits early in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt left Friday's game against Pittsburgh in the seventh inning with a chest injury. After Oswalt gave up a lead-off double to Ronny Paulino in the seventh, he complained of che

<< Chakvetadze into Cincinnati semifinals
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze gained a spot in the semifinals at the Western & Southern Financial Open after her opponent, sixth seed Elena Vesnina, retired in the third set due to a strained right s

<< FBI investigating NBA ref who allegedly bet games
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly betting on and fixing games that he worked during the past two seasons, in a gambling scam that reporte

<< Nationals place Simontacchi on DL
Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals placed pitcher Jason Simontacchi on the 15-day disabled list Friday with right elbow tendinitis. The move is retroactive to July 16. Smontacchi's last start came on

<< Packers CEO resigns
Green Bay, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Green Bay Packers' executive committee accepted the resignation of chief executive owner John Jones Friday. Jones departs the organization after an eight-year career that began in Febr

Marlins rout Reds behind Uggla's offense >>
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Dan Uggla went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI as the Florida Marlins pounded the Cincinnati Reds, 10-2, in game two of a four-game series. Scott Olsen (8-7), who had served a two-game suspension laid do

Beltre's blast helps Mariners past Toronto >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adrian Beltre's two-run homer in the fourth inning gave Seattle the lead for good and the Mariners went on to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2, in the opener of a three-game set at Rogers Centre. Jose G

Beckett wins No. 13, Crisp slams BoSox over ChiSox >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Beckett struck out 10 over six innings and Boston drilled the Chicago White Sox, 10-3 in a game that saw a home run call blown, leading to the ejection of Red Sox manager Terry Francona in the first inning.

Cook pitches Rockies past Nats >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Aaron Cook tossed seven scoreless innings, and Todd Helton drove in two runs as the Colorado Rockies beat the Washington Nationals, 3-1, in the second of four games at RFK Stadium. Cook (6-6) had a stro

Beckett wins No. 13, Lugo slams BoSox over ChiSox >>
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Josh Beckett struck out 10 over six innings and Boston drilled the Chicago White Sox, 10-3 in a game that saw a home run call blown, leading to the ejection of Red Sox manager Terry Francona in the first inning.

FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.

Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.