Orioles sending out rookie to start series with Twins

Baseball Betting Lines

06/03/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Without Erik Bedard, many thought that pitching would be a problem for the Baltimore Orioles this season. The team shuffles its rotation tonight in the opener of a three-game series with the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.

Baltimore's team earned run average of 4.16 ranks eighth in the American League, while its starters have posted a 4.67 ERA thus far. That ranks eighth in the league as well.

Tonight marks Steve Trachsel's turn in the rotation, but the right-hander was used for five innings in relief on Sunday after having his start in the rotation skipped over due to his 2-5 record and now 8.15 ERA.

Instead, the Orioles while shift the ineffective Trachsel to the bullpen for now while giving a start to prospect Radhames Liz tonight. Liz, recalled from Triple-A Norfolk on Monday, went 0-2 with a 6.93 ERA in nine games (4 starts) last year with Baltimore.

The right-hander, who turns 25 next Saturday, was 1-5 with a 4.05 ERA in 11 starts with Norfolk this year. He did make a start against the Twins last year, getting tagged for five runs on four hits and three walks while striking out five over six innings in his major league debut.

Though they could probably use Bedard right about now, the Orioles are at least getting an immediate return on the deal that sent the lefty out of town to Seattle. Adam Jones and George Sherrill were two of the five players the O's acquired in the Bedard deal, and both factored into Monday's win over Boston that ended a four-game losing streak.

Trailing by one, the Orioles' Kevin Millar lifted a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth to even things at 3-3. Baltimore later reloaded the bases before Jones stroked a bases-clearing double to left, pushing the Orioles to a 6-3 victory that saw Sherrill post his 18th save of the season.

Baltimore begins a nine-game road trip tonight and has lost its last five as the visitor. The Orioles have also lost their last nine matchups with the Twins, including defeats in all seven meetings last year.

The Orioles haven't won a game in Minnesota since June 10, 2006.

Baltimore gets its first-ever look tonight at Minnesota's Kevin Slowey, who is coming off his first career complete game. Slowey went the distance on Thursday versus the Royals, yielding just one run on six hits without a walk and six strikeouts.

The right-hander, who has made his last three starts on the road, won his second straight outing while improving to 2-4 on the season with a 3.38 ERA.

Minnesota won the last two of its four-game series with the New York Yankees and earned a split of the set after Monday's 6-5 win. Delmon Young came through with a trio of RBI doubles in the game, including the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth frame.

Michael Cuddyer went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored for the Twins, who have won six of eight overall. Joe Mauer went 2-for-4 with a solo home run, his first long ball of the season. That helped push the Twins to just a half-game back of the Chicago White Sox for first place in AL Central.

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2007 online football betting Preview

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.

2007 College Football Betting Preview

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.

Las Vegas Sports Lines

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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