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06/11/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Houston Astros and the Cubs will take a break from interleague play tonight, as the two clubs will stop in Chicago to make up a postponed game at Wrigley Field.
The two clubs were supposed to wrap a three-game set on April 11, but the game was postponed due to snow and rain. Houston took the first two games of that set in mid-April to snap a four-game losing streak to the Cubs, who won eight of 15 versus the Astros in 2006.
The Cubs have yet to begin the second stage of their interleague schedule, as they played the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. Chicago took the first two contests of the four-game set before dropping the final two, including Sunday's 5-4 loss.
The series got testy on Saturday, when Atlanta starter Tim Hudson hit Alfonso Soriano in the first inning. Soriano had homered three times the day before versus Atlanta.
Chicago's Sunday starter, Ted Lilly, then hit Edgar Renteria in the first inning yesterday, and was warned by home plate umpire Jim Wolf as the benches began to empty. No punches were thrown, but Wolf decided to eject Lilly after all.
The Cubs' bullpen did the best it could, but Ryan Dempster (1-3) gave up three runs in an inning of relief to take the loss. Michael Barrett and Mike Fontenot homered for the Cubs, who have dropped two straight after winning five of six. Chicago is six games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central, and will host Seattle on Tuesday to continue what is now a seven-game homestand.
Chicago remained without Aramis Ramirez, who is sidelined with left patella tendinitis, though the slugging third baseman was available to pinch-hit.
Carlos Zambrano will try to follow up on an excellent outing last time out. In his first start since his dugout incident with Barrett, Zambrano allowed two runs on five hits and three walks in 6 2/3 innings against the Brewers on Wednesday. He also struck out nine in the 6-2 victory that improved the right- hander to 6-5 on the year with a 5.38 earned run average.
Barrett did not catch Zambrano last week, and is not expected to do so tonight either.
Zambrano, who has alternated wins and loses over his last seven starts, is 8-5 in 19 games (17 starts) versus the Astros with a 2.57 ERA.
Woody Williams will try to get back on track when he starts against the Cubs tonight. Williams pitched well to close out May, besting the Reds 10-2, but was then pummeled at Colorado on Wednesday. The right-hander was tagged for six runs on 10 hits over six innings in an 8-7 loss to the Rockies, falling to 2-8 on the year with a 5.79 ERA.
Williams, who has lost three of his last four starts, is 3-8 in 17 games (16 starts) against the Cubs with a 4.55 ERA.
Houston fell to 3-3 on what is now a seven-game road trip with Sunday's 6-3 loss to the White Sox. Mark Lamb hit a solo homer for Houston, which had its brief two-game winning streak snapped.
Wandy Rodriguez (3-6) was ineffective in the loss, giving up five runs -- four earned -- on seven hits. He struck out three and walked one for Houston, which is 7 1/2 games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. The club next hosts Oakland.
<< Mariners try to clip Byrd at the Jake
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners will play the
second of four makeup games this evening from a series that was postponed
entirely by severe weather conditions back in early April.
Cleveland already defeat
<< Run-deprived Giants host Jays by the Bay
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco Giants hope to put a run on the board for
the first time in three games this evening when they open a three-game
interleague set with the Toronto Blue Jays at AT&T Park.
The Giants enter this s
<< Phillies welcome White Sox in Thome's return to Philly
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jim Thome makes his return to Philadelphia this evening and
will lead the Chicago White Sox in the first of three interleague games
against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Thome signed a big free agent contract with th
<< San Lorenzo bags Clausura title
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Lorenzo captured its first
league title since 2001 with a 4-2 win against Arsenal at Pedro Bidegain on
Sunday.
Second-placed Boca Juniors earned a 1-0 victory over Belgrano earlier in
Niners nab Rayburn >>
Santa Clara, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Francisco 49ers signed free agent
defensive tackle Sam Rayburn on Monday. Terms of the contract were not
disclosed.
Rayburn spent all four of his NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles
Lightning re-sign pair of players >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Lightning re-signed center Nick
Tarnasky and right wing Kyle Wanvig on Monday.
Tarnasky inked a three-year deal, while Wanvig signed a one-year, two-way
contract.
The 6-foot-2, 233-pou
107th U.S. Open Championship Preview >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In a practice round at Oakmont Country
Club two months ago, Tiger Woods debated hitting driver into the wind at the
288-yard eighth hole.
But because the world's best golfer has a self-imposed r
Lions' Rogers being investigated for sex crime >>
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Detroit Lions star defensive tackle Shaun
Rogers is reportedly being investigated for an alleged sex crime.
The Detroit Free Press said that police are investigating the former Texas
star for an incid
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.
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.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
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