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06/15/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's amazing how baseball works with the mix of streaks, slumps and so on. For the Atlanta Braves, a three-game sweep by the Minnesota Twins still has them in the thick of a tight race for NL East supremacy.
It was only the second time this season Atlanta was swept in a set (Philadelphia -- May 25-27).
Bobby Cox's club has just three wins over the last 12 contests, but his team is only 2 1/2 games behind the division-leading New York Mets. The Mets have struggled as of late which is a big reason for Atlanta's current spot in the standings. Philadelphia has been playing good ball and sits two games back.
I'm sure Cox thought his team would get a lift with the return of star third baseman Chipper Jones, who missed almost three weeks (19 games) due to bone bruises on both of his hands. Jones hadn't played since a loss to the Mets on May 23 and returned from the disabled list in a setback to Minnesota on Wednesday, going 3-for-4 as a designated hitter. He went 1-for-2 with two walks in last night's loss in the series finale at the Metrodome.
"We're at a pretty frustrating part of our season," Jones said following Wednesday's loss in the second test of the Minnesota series.
Jones is right, but with the Mets scheduled to visit the red-hot Yankees this weekend in the Bronx and the Phillies hosting the defending AL champion Detroit Tigers, the Braves have a chance to gain more ground or even take over the NL East with an upcoming set against the Cleveland Indians. Atlanta will receive a tremendous boost when veteran pitcher John Smoltz returns to the mound on Saturday.
Smoltz hasn't toed the rubber since the Florida Marlins handed him his third loss of the season on June 5 because of a sore right shoulder. Smoltz, who was reached for two runs and three hits in six innings, went 5-1 in nine previous starts before the setback. His shoulder should be ready tomorrow versus the Tribe.
In order to stop their June swoon, the Braves have to take at least two of three games from Cleveland this weekend at Jacobs Field. Atlanta is 5-9 so far this month after going 14-14 in May and 16-9 during April.
The Braves and Indians will be playing a rematch of the 1995 World Series won by Atlanta in six games. Jones, Smoltz and current bullpen coach Eddie Perez were on that championship team. Cleveland won two of three games against the Braves in 2004 at Turner Field.
WHO'S HOT
Right-handed relief pitcher Rafael Soriano has been lights out over his last 21 trips to the mound. Soriano owns a 0.42 earned run average in 21 1/3 innings with four saves over that span.
Rookie catcher/first baseman Jarrod Saltalamacchia, whose 14-letter last name is the longest in major league history, made his first start in the infield last night against the Twins at the Metrodome.
Nicknamed "Salty", the youngster has been a pleasant surprise with every chance he gets and is batting .302 with two homers and eight RBI in 22 games this season. He has nine hits, including a home run, and three runs batted in over his last seven games.
WHO'S NOT
Even in his contract year, Braves All-Star center fielder Andruw Jones is batting just .163 through 14 games this month. Jones, who has nine hits in 55 at-bats in June, is batting .215 with 11 homers and 42 RBI this season.
I thought contract years meant ballplayers go out and play their best. So far Jones is looking much like my older and less-athletic sister did when she was a softball player for Notre Dame High School in Easton, PA.
No offense, Kelly.
You have to admit he is still drawing fans and has been a staple in center for many years, and yet he is only 30. Jones can still knock the ball out of the park, but consistency has been his Achilles' heel in 2007.
Starting pitcher Tim Hudson is just 1-3 over his last six starts with a 6.14 ERA and the Braves are 2-4 during that stretch.
In Thursday's loss to the Twins, Hudson was reached for two hits over 7 1/3 innings for the no decision. The right-hander was 5-1 over the first nine starts of the 2007 campaign.
ON DECK
After the Braves complete a six-game road trip with three tests against the Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field, they will open a nine-game homestand.
Atlanta will host the Boston Red Sox for three games before the Detroit Tigers pay a visit to Turner Field for three more. The club will then close out the stand with a three-game set versus the National League East-rival Washington Nationals.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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