Announcement

**Udog** · 10-10-2017, 07:18 AM

Armadillo: Tuesday's six-pack

— Oregon State football coach Gary Anderson walked away from the school Monday, leaving $12.630,555 on the table. Chances are the story is not that simple.

— This is the 7th straight season Oklahoma’s football team lost a game when they were favored by double digits in that game.

— Minnesota Twins smartly gave manager Paul Molitor a 3-year contract extension.

— If I ran baseball for 24 hours, I’d ban coaches/managers from visiting the mound.

— Knicks’ Michael Beasley is 28— Knicks are his 6th NBA team, with 56+ games played at 4 of his other 5 stops.

— ESPN isn’t holding its 24-hour college hoop marathon this year; sounds like a 1-year thing, with the 16-team PK80 event in Oregon a one-time event honoring Nike’s Phil Knight.

**********

Armadillo: Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but……..

13) Connie Hawkins was the first basketball player I can remember palming the ball, just holding it in his hand like it was a softball. He had huge hands and was a great player— the Phoenix Suns jumped from 16-66 in their expansion season to 39-43 in his first NBA season, then 48-34 and 49-33 the next two years.

12) Suns lost a coinflip with the Milwaukee Bucks for the first pick in the 1969 NBA Draft- the Bucks took Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of 3 or 4 best players of all-time. Suns took a center from Florida named Neal Walk with the #2 pick, but the NBA also awarded them to rights to Hawkins, who played a couple years in the ABA after being wrongly banned from the NBA after a point-shaving investigation that never implicated him— he sued the NBA and collected $1.3M from the league, which was a boatload of money in the late 60’s.

11) Hawkins passed away over the weekend at age 75; he was Dr J before Dr J and ESPN— if he played today, he’d have a huge sneaker deal and would be on highlight shows every night. I’m trying to think of a modern comparison to him— Giannis Antetokounmpo comes to mind. Big wingspan, rangy, fun to watch.

As a little kid just learning basketball, Hawkins was great fun to watch. RIP, sir.

Elsewhere in the world……..
10) Alex, I’d like “Career Suicide for $200″, please: Miami Dolphins’ offensive line coach quit Monday after a video was released on social media showing him snorting a white powdery substance. Dolphins have scored three TD’s on 42 drives in their 2-2 start; this genius was making between $2.5M-$3M a year as a freakin’ assistant coach.

25 years as an NFL assistant coach; hope he saved some of that money.

9) Watched the Celtics-76ers preseason game Friday night; Sixers’ TV guys said the goal for Ben Simmons this year was “70% from the foul line.” Say what?

Simmons shot 67% from the line at LSU two years ago; the goal should be 75% or 80%, not 70%; what did he do all last year when he wasn’t playing? Should’ve been working on his shot, yes?

He can really pass the ball, he is a high-level passer, but he has to develop a pull-up jumper to make defenses respect him, which takes a defender out of passing lanes. He picked up at least two charging fouls against the Celtics.

Simmons is still a young guy (21) but if he wants to be a great player, his shooting has to improve.

8) UCLA held a outdoor practice at Venice Beach over the weekend; it is good to live in southern California. UNLV held an outdoor practice in downtown Vegas last year; its a cool gimmick to get the fanbase interested.

I’m curious to see UCLA without Lonzo Ball this year; he made all his teammates a lot better. They’re not going to get as many open looks this year without Ball running the offense.

7) Houston Rockets were sold this summer for $2.2B, thats how profitable NBA teams are now, with the worldwide appeal of the league.

6) Why the Sacramento Kings are almost always bad:

They had the 20th pick in the NBA Draft in June, and took Duke’s Harry Giles, who when he was a 9th grader, was the #1 player in the high school Class of 2016, but then he tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus in his left knee in 2013, then his ACL in his right knee in 2015..

In his one year at Duke, he averaged 3.9 ppg in 11.5 mpg, hardly numbers for a first round draft pick, but the Kings being the Kings, used the 20th pick on him.

Now Sacramento says Giles is out until at least January, to “improve his overall health.” Oy.

5) Sacramento’s record the last 10 years:
33-49, 38-44, 17-65, 25-57, 24-58, 22-44, 28-54 (twice), 29-53, 33-49, 32-50.

4) 76ers gave Joel Embiid a 5-year, $148M contract extension; he played 25.4 mpg in 31 games LY, scoring 20.2 ppg, grabbing 7.8 rpg. Missing 51 games is a red flag, especially after sitting out the previous two years; wonder what kind of games-played incentives are in the contract.

Embiid scored 11.2 ppg in 23.1 mpg in his one season at Kansas, then sat out his first two years in the NBA with injuries- he is 23 years old.

3) Big 14’s conference basketball tournament is leaving the midwest and is headed to Manhattan in March; thats New York City, not Manhattan, Kansas.

Because the Big East has Madison Square Garden in Championship week, the Big 14 agreed to have its tournament a week earlier than normal, which means their teams will all play a couple of conference games the first week in December, to make up for the week the league loses in March due to moving the tournament up.

This is a 5-game stretch of Indiana’s schedule in late November/early December:
Nov 29- Duke, Dec 2- @ Minnesota, Dec 4- Iowa, Dec 9- @ Louisville, Dec 16- Notre Dame. Tough stretch of games for the Hoosiers.

2) Washington State football coach Mike Leach played rugby, not football, in his college days at BYU. He is one of only four I-A head coaches who didn’t play college football.

BYU had great passing teams in those days; Leach credits LaVell Edwards for having a big influence on the Air Raid offense Leach runs now.

1) Baseball playoffs:
Astros 5, Red Sox 4— Houston moves on to ALDS, using Justin Verlander in relief.
Cubs 2, Nationals 1— Chicago takes 2-1 lead in this series.
New York 7, Indians 3– Game 5 is in Cleveland Wednesday.
Los Angeles 3, Arizona 1– Dodgers advance to the NLCS.

**Udog** · 10-10-2017, 07:35 AM

MLB
Dunkel

Tuesday, October 10

Washington @ Chicago Cubs

Game 955-956
October 10, 2017 @ 5:35 pm

Dunkel Rating:
Washington
(Roark) 14.946
Chicago Cubs
(Arrieta) 15.916
Dunkel Team:
Dunkel Line:
Dunkel Total:
Chicago Cubs
by 1
9
Vegas Team:
Vegas Line:
Vegas Total:
Chicago Cubs
-150
7 1/2
Dunkel Pick:
Chicago Cubs
(-150); Over

MLB
Armadillo's Write-Up

Tuesday, October 10

Washington @ Chicago
Nationals are 5-5 against the Cubs this season (over 6-4).

Roark is 0-2, 6.94 in his last two starts; under is 10-2 in his last 12 starts. Washington is 8-7 in his road starts. He is 1-0, 2.84 against the Cubs this season.

Arrieta is 0-2, 7.84 in his last three starts; under is 5-3-1 in his last nine. Chicago is 6-4 in his home starts. He is 0-1, 13.50 vs Washington this year.

Cubs won the World Series LY, their first title since 1908; this is their 3rd year in a row in the playoffs. Washington is in the playoffs for 4th time in six years- they lost in this round the previous three times. Nationals have never been in the World Series.

AL Wild Card
NYY 8-4 Minn -$255, O7.5

NL Wild Card
Ariz 11-8 Colo -$148, O8.5

Hous 8-2 Bos, -$120, O7
Hous 8-2 Bos, -$185, O8.5
Bos 10-3 Hst, +$117, O9.5
Hst 5-4 Bos, -$118, O8
Astros win series, 3-1

Clev 4-0 NYY -$130, U8.5
Clev 9-8 NYY (13), -$210, O7
NYY 1-0 Clev, -$109, U8.5
NYY 7-3 Clev, -$150, O7.5

Cubs 3-0 Wash +$135, U7.5
Wash 6-3, -$117, O8.5
Cubs 2-1, +$105, U7,5

LA 9-4 Ariz -$270, O7.5
LA 8-5 Ariz, -$142, O8
LA 2-1 Ariz, -$115, U8
Dodgers win series, 3-0

MLB

Tuesday, October 10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trend Report
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5:38 PM
WASHINGTON vs. CHI CUBS
Washington is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Washington's last 6 games on the road
Chi Cubs are 6-2 SU in their last 8 games when playing at home against Washington
Chi Cubs are 17-5 SU in their last 22 games

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Udog** · 10-10-2017, 09:03 AM

MLB
Long Sheet

Tuesday, October 10

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON (98 - 67) at CHICAGO CUBS (94 - 71) - 5:35 PM
TANNER ROARK (R) vs. JAKE ARRIETA (R)
Top Trends for this game.
WASHINGTON is 26-30 (-17.6 Units) against the money line in day games this season.
WASHINGTON is 49-61 (-22.1 Units) against the money line in road games after a loss over the last 3 seasons.
WASHINGTON is 50-32 (+13.7 Units) against the money line in road games this season.
WASHINGTON is 39-25 (+10.3 Units) against the money line in road games against right-handed starters this season.
CHICAGO CUBS are 94-71 (-10.4 Units) against the money line in all games this season.
CHICAGO CUBS are 362-303 (-82.7 Units) against the money line as a home favorite of -125 to -175 since 1997.
CHICAGO CUBS are 905-820 (-156.9 Units) against the money line in home games since 1997.
CHICAGO CUBS are 240-276 (-69.0 Units) against the money line when playing on Tuesday since 1997.
CHICAGO CUBS are 38-36 (-19.7 Units) against the money line in day games this season.
CHICAGO CUBS are 73-56 (-11.7 Units) against the money line against right-handed starters this season.
CHICAGO CUBS are 51-42 (-10.5 Units) against the money line after a win this season.
CHICAGO CUBS are 15-17 (-10.6 Units) against the money line in home games when playing against a team with a winning record this season.

Head-to-Head Series History
WASHINGTON is 5-5 (+0.2 Units) against CHICAGO CUBS this season
6 of 8 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL this season . (Under=+3.7 Units)

TANNER ROARK vs. CHICAGO CUBS since 1997
ROARK is 3-2 when starting against CHICAGO CUBS with an ERA of 3.75 and a WHIP of 1.250.
His team's record is 3-3 (-0.1 units) in these starts. The OVER is 3-3. (-0.3 units)

JAKE ARRIETA vs. WASHINGTON since 1997
ARRIETA is 1-2 when starting against WASHINGTON with an ERA of 5.48 and a WHIP of 1.674.
His team's record is 5-4 (+0.8 units) in these starts. The UNDER is 6-3. (+2.6 units)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Udog** · 10-10-2017, 12:00 PM

Tuesday's NLDS playoff betting preview and odds: Nationals at Cubs

Washington Nationals at Chicago Cubs (A: +140, H: -160, Total: 7.5)

Cubs lead series 2-1

The Chicago Cubs gave Jake Arrieta a few extra days to rest his tender hamstring, and now he’s in a position to help get the team back to the National League Championship Series. Arrieta gets the ball in Game 4 of the NL Division Series on Tuesday as the Cubs look to close out the visiting Washington Nationals.

Anthony Rizzo’s bloop single in the eighth inning plated the go-ahead run Monday as the Cubs posted a 2-1 victory in Game 3 to regain the series lead. Arrieta can close it out as he makes his first start since Sept. 26, and the 2015 NL Cy Young Award winner says his nagging right hamstring injury is a “non-issue.” He hopes to follow the rest of Chicago's starting rotation, which has allowed two runs - one earned - in 18 2/3 innings over the first three games of the series. Tanner Roark, who grew up about an hour’s drive from Wrigley Field, makes the start for the Nationals as they trail in the series despite permitting only eight runs.

TV: 5:30 p.m. ET, TBS

INJURY REPORT:

Nationals - S. Drew (Out Indefinitely, Abdominal), LF R. Raburn (Out Indefinitely, Shoulder), SP J. Ross (Out For Season, Elbow), CF A. Eaton (Out For Season, Knee).

Cubs - SP J. Arrieta (Probable, Hamstring), RP K. Uehara (Out Indefinitely, Knee).

WEATHER REPORT:

The forecast does not look good for Wrigley Field for late afternoon and into the evening with a 70-90 percent chance of wet stuff. If they do, somehow, manage to get this game in the wind will be blowing straight in from center field at 16-18 miles per hour.

PITCHING MATCHUP: Nationals RH Tanner Roark (13-11, 4.67 ERA) vs. Cubs RH Jake Arrieta (14-10, 3.53)

Roark made two relief appearances in the 2014 NLDS and received his first postseason start in last year’s NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing two runs and seven hits over 4 1/3 innings in a no-decision. The 31-year-old had a solid second half but finished the regular season on a sour note, losing his last two turns before giving up two runs in one inning of relief on Oct. 1. Roark is 4-2 with a 4.06 ERA in seven career games (six starts) against the Cubs.

Arrieta is 4-2 with a 3.64 ERA in seven starts over the last two postseasons, including a pair of wins in last year’s World Series. The 31-year-old has been outstanding at home throughout his tenure with the Cubs, going 30-14 with a 2.31 ERA in 59 outings. He hasn’t fared as well against the Nationals, however, as he owns a 1-2 record and 5.48 ERA in nine career meetings.

TRENDS:

* Nationals are 1-4 in their last 5 Divisional Playoff games.
* Cubs are 5-0 in their last 5 Divisional Playoff home games.
* Cubs are 13-5 in Arrieta's last 18 starts vs. National League East.
* Under is 10-1 in Roark's last 11 road starts vs. a team with a winning record.
* Under is 5-1 in Cubs' last 6 playoff home games.
* Under is 4-0 in Arrieta's last 4 starts vs. Nationals.

CONSENSUS: The public is siding with the home chalk Cubs at a rate of 73 percent and the Over is picking up 69 percent of the totals action.

Announcement

Tuesday's MLB Trends and Indexes - 10/10

Tuesday's MLB Trends and Indexes - 10/10

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment