Re-loaded Angels to begin series with Red Sox

Baseball Betting Lines

07/26/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In danger of falling out of the race for the American League West crown, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim made a big and bold move in acquiring ace pitcher Dan Haren on Sunday.

While it is unknown when Haren can contribute on the field, Los Angeles will hope his acquisition will provide a different kind of lift when the club begins a three-game series versus the Boston Red Sox tonight at Angel Stadium.

Shortly before Sunday's finale of a four-game finale with division-rival Texas, Los Angeles acquired Haren from Arizona for pitcher Joe Saunders and three prospects, one to be named later. Haren gives the Angels a solid 1-2 punch in the rotation along with Jered Weaver, and the move can be viewed as Los Angeles' counter of the Rangers getting former Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee.

The Angels, though, dropped a 6-4 decision on the field and lost three of four to the first-place Rangers to fall seven games back of first place. Los Angeles has also lost five of its last seven overall.

"They did what they had to do," Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said of Texas. "We came to their house and they held it down."

Hunter and Hideki Matsui each homered in the loss, while Trevor Bell gave up four runs over just 3 1/3 innings in his first start of the season.

Haren, who grew up in California, was scheduled to start on Tuesday for Arizona, but it is unknown when he will make his Angels debut. What is known is that Joel Pineiro will take the hill tonight for Los Angeles and will be looking to rebound after having a string of seven straight winning decisions end last time out.

The 31-year-old righty was beaten by the Yankees on Wednesday, giving up six runs on 11 hits over six innings. Pineiro fell to 10-7 with a 4.18 earned run average on the season, but is an excellent 7-2 with a 2.37 ERA in 11 home starts.

Pineiro lost to the Red Sox, 3-1, on May 5 even though he allowed just two runs over six innings. He fell to 3-6 lifetime versus them with a 5.94 ERA in 11 starts.

Boston will send out a 10-game winner of its own in Clay Buchholz, who makes his second start since returning from a strained left hamstring suffered on June 26.

The right-hander won seven of eight starts before his injury, but was dealt a loss in his return on Wednesday after getting hammered for five runs on six hits and three walks over just four innings of work versus Oakland. Buchholz fell to 10-5 with a 2.81 ERA on the season.

Buchholz, who is 5-2 with a 2.53 ERA in eight road starts this year, recorded a win over the Angels on May 3 despite yielding four runs and eight hits over 5 2/3 innings. He got plenty of support in a 17-8 win and is 2-2 with a 6.35 ERA in his career versus Los Angeles.

While the Angels were able to acquire Haren prior to this Saturday's non- waiver trade deadline, the Red Sox are set to get back their prize pickup before last year's deadline, catcher Victor Martinez.

Martinez has been out since suffering a fractured left thumb on June 27 and is hitting .289 with nine homers and 38 RBI in 66 games.

"I actually think he's probably going to be ready," Red Sox manager Terry Francona told his team's website before Sunday's game versus Seattle. "It seems kind of silly to make the decision [Sunday]. He's going to catch some more guys and if he comes in and says, 'Hey, I'm hurting,' we're not going to do it. I think all things point to him being ready to go."

The Red Sox could use Martinez, given that they have scored just five runs in their last three games. They dropped a 4-2 decision to Seattle on Sunday, their fourth loss in six games.

Kevin Youkilis and Adrian Beltre each knocked in a run for the Red Sox, who won the first two tests of the four-game set before dropping the last two. Boston is now 3-4 on a 10-game road trip and eight games back of first-place New York in the AL East. It also trails Tampa Bay by five games for the Wild Card spot.

The Red Sox swept a four-game home set over the Angels from May 3-6, but have lost seven of their last nine at Anaheim.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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