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06/25/2010 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Morrow appears to be doing his best Roy Halladay impression of late. Though you could argue that the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander is simply, finally, being himself.
The 6'3" Morrow has been coming into his own, most recently propelling the Blue Jays to a 5-0 win on Thursday night over the St. Louis Cardinals, helping his ballclub avoid a three-game sweep. Morrow lasted eight innings, while striking out eight and issuing only one walk.
Morrow improved to 5-1 at the Rogers Centre in Thursday's win, where he sports a 2.82 ERA in 51 innings. The youngster has struggled at times on the road, with a 0-4 record on the road and 7.09 ERA in 33 innings away from Canada, but a thaw has been detected in that ice as well.
Over his last six starts, Morrow has not allowed more than three runs in any outing and has lowered his ERA by more than two runs. While overall, his stats (5-5, 4.50) still might not look spectacular, performances like Thursday's make it obvious why the Jays were set on making him a part of the rotation. Whether Morrow's success has registered with the casual fan or not, it is safe to say that his exploits have not gone unnoticed by those wearing Blue Jays colors.
"This kid is just going to get better all the time," Jays manager Cito Gaston told the Associated Press. "We're talking No. 1 or 2 starter one of these days, as far as rotation. He's got that kind of stuff."
Apart from his first two starts of the season, where he struggled against the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox, Morrow has thrown only two poor outings, both in unfriendly environments. He allowed six runs each in road starts during May against the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Red Sox can give any pitcher trouble - just ask Roy Halladay - and Arizona hitters have a slugging percentage of .485 at home, good for second in all of baseball.
Morrow is sitting sixth in the American League with 92 strikeouts and has thrown nine quality starts this season. For comparison's sake, that is more quality starts - a much better indicator of a pitcher's success than wins and losses because of the role bullpens can play - than the Yankees' young pitching stud Phil Hughes, who boasts a record of 10-1.
Recently, Morrow has shut down nothing but worthy opponents. His last six starts dating back to May 26 have been against the Los Angeles Angels, Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and Cardinals. All of those teams have better records than the Jays, aside from the Rockies, and are all playing above .500 ball.
"When he's able to locate and throw strikes, he has as good as stuff as anybody," Vernon Wells said of Morrow.
The 25-year-old seems to have really found his place and role in Toronto. It is all on Morrow, however. The talent is certainly there, but he will have to drastically cut down his walk rate in order to even think of becoming the anchor of this rotation. The 42 free passes Morrow has issued this year are second among American League pitchers.
There is no doubt that the Blue Jays won the offseason deal, which saw them ship Brandon League to the Mariners. Morrow was the fifth overall draft selection in 2006 for a reason, and has been showing the Blue Jays glimpses of that throughout the season. Consider this the first fleecing Alex Anthopoulos has made since taking over as GM for Toronto.
LOOKING AHEAD
Unfortunately for Toronto, the team will not be able to ride the home momentum they've received from Morrow because of the G20 summit taking place in Toronto this weekend, which forced the series to switch cities to Philadelphia.
It would have made for quite the emotional return for Roy Halladay, who was the former ace of the Blue Jays pitching staff. The uber-talented "Doctor" - slated to the open the series in Philadelphia Friday night - threw 49 complete games over his 12 years with Toronto. The Phillies shipped highly-touted prospects Kyle Drabek, Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Taylor to Toronto for the former Cy-Young winner. The Jays then immediately shipped Taylor to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Wallace, a power-hitter who has excelled at every stop on his journey towards the big leagues.
To this point, both the Phillies and Blue Jays can be content with the return they received from the deal. Halladay is the ace of a Phillies team that has won the National League pennant two years running, tossing a perfect game in May and leading the NL in innings pitched (115) and complete games with five. The Jays, on the other hand, are enjoying the development of three young players, who the club envisions as having a big stake in the team's future. So far, albeit at the minor league level, none have disappointed.
Drabek has jumped out to a 7-7 record with a 3.26 ERA for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Jays' Double-A affiliate. Wallace is batting .297 with 14 HR and 42 RBI in Triple-A for the Las Vegas 51's and is a Lyle Overbay trade away from getting the call-up. Meanwhile, d'Arnaud, the 21-year old backstop, is sporting a .276-5-28 stat line at the Class A advanced level for the Dunedin Blue Jays.
<< High Sierra golf is as good as it gets
Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Twenty-five years and one wife ago, I first
discovered the Reno-Lake Tahoe area and was taken by the beauty of the desert,
mountains and pine trees. I was also impressed with the variety of golf
courses in the region
<< Federer, Djokovic, Hewitt reach fourth round at Wimbledon
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Roger Federer, third-seeded
Novak Djokovic and former champion Lleyton Hewitt were straight-set winners in
third-round action Friday at Wimbledon.
The six-time Wimbledon champion Federer
<< NCAA upholds sanctions against former SEMO hoops coach
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - An NCAA appeals committee has upheld the
sanctions levied by the governing body against former Southeast Missouri men's
basketball coach Scott Edgar.
The NCAA penalized Southeast Missouri's men's and wo
<< Ghana carries the weight of a continent
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Teams from the African continent have made steady progress
on the sport's biggest stage starting since 1990, when Cameroon became the
first team from Africa to reach the quarterfinals.
Nigeria followed up by advancing to
USC appeals NCAA ruling >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Southern California has
filed an appeal with the NCAA seeking a reduction of the sanctions imposed on
its football program earlier this month.
USC was given a two-year bowl ban, as wel
Horn signs and retires with Saints >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Veteran wide receiver Joe Horn signed
with the New Orleans Saints so he could announce his retirement as a member of
the club with whom he starred for seven seasons.
The 38-year-old Horn joined the
Spain topples Chile, but both teams advance >>
Pretoria, South Africa (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Spain used first-half goals from
David Villa and Andres Iniesta to down Chile, 2-1, at Loftus Versfeld Stadium
on Friday in the final Group H match for both teams.
Villa opened the scoring after
Mariners activate Fister, disable Kelley >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Seattle Mariners have activated right-
handed pitcher Doug Fister from the 15-day disabled list.
Fister had been sidelined because of right shoulder fatigue and last pitched
in the big leagues on May
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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined
Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.
"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."
Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)
According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.
As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).
Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.
Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at
17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.
*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007
New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers
By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.
"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."
While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."
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