05/12/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jair Jurrjens seeks a fifth straight start without a loss today, when the Atlanta Braves enter PNC Park for the third and fourth games of a weather-interrupted series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Sunday's scheduled game was postponed by rain, prompting today's series-ending doubleheader.
Jurrjens, an undrafted free agent from the Netherlands, was 3-1 in seven big- league starts with the Detroit Tigers in 2007 before heading to Atlanta. He lost two of his first three starts in the NL, but has since rebounded to go 3-0 with a no-decision in four outings since mid-April.
He began the streak with a 6-1 defeat of the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 20, and has since allowed just 11 hits and five runs in 19 innings against the New York Mets, Washington and San Diego.
The win against the Padres on May 6 featured six innings of seven-hit, one-run ball in which Jurrjens struck out eight batters and walked one. He defeated the Pirates on April 2, allowing seven hits and two runs in 5 1/3 innings of a 10-2 triumph.
Lefty Phil Dumatrait makes his third start of the season for Pittsburgh. He earned his first major-league victory in his most recent outing on May 7, allowing three hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings in a 3-1 Pirates victory.
Previously, he had made 10 relief appearances and one start in 2008, and was winless in 17 overall big-league appearances. Dumatrait lost his lone career start against the Braves in 2007 while with the Cincinnati Reds, allowing seven hits and eight runs in just two innings.
Veteran righty Tim Hudson gets the call for the Braves in game two and seeks a third straight victory. He has been durable and effective in his last two outings, allowing nine hits and two runs in 16 innings in defeats against San Diego and Cincinnati.
In those games, Hudson, a 32-year-old Georgia native, has walked three and struck out 13 batters. Hudson is 3-3 in seven lifetime starts against Pittsburgh with a 3.23 ERA in 47 1/3 innings.
Former first-round draft pick John Van Benschoten seeks his first win since 2004 for the Pirates in the second game.
The eighth overall pick in 2001 has made three relief appearances so far in 2008, allowing four hits and two runs in 3 2/3 innings.
He was 0-7 in 11 appearances -- nine starts -- with the Pirates last season, and hasn't won since going 1-3 in six appearances for the team in 2004. Overall, he has given up 92 hits and 68 earned runs in 71 1/3 innings.
Atlanta has lost the first two matchups of this series. In Saturday's 5-2 setback, Mark Teixeira belted a two-run homer to highlight his 2-for-3 effort at the plate, while Omar Infante tallied three hits for the Braves, who have dropped two straight following a six-game winning streak.
Chuck James (2-2) was called up from Triple-A Richmond to start for Atlanta, but the left-hander was rudely welcomed back to the big leagues, surrendering five runs on five hits and four walks in his six innings of work.
Jason Bay homered, scored two runs and knocked in a pair of runs, while Ronny Paulino had three RBI for the Pirates, who have won a season-high five straight contests.
Starter Tom Gorzelanny (3-3) was solid in 7 1/3 innings, scattering seven hits and two runs while striking out four. Matt Capps pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his ninth save for the victors.
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Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
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