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**Udog** · 10-23-2012, 09:09 AM

Armadillo: Tuesday's six-pack

-- Five teams are starting rookie QBs this year; add 'em up, and they are a combined 1-7 vs spread as favorites, 17-8 as underdogs.

-- According to SI.com, the average 30-second commercial on Sunday Night Football costs $545,142.
-- Buffalo Bills have now lost the game before their last 13 byes.

-- Tigers are an early -$155 favorite to win the World Series.

-- ACC suspended couple of football refs for screwing up the 10-second runoff rule at the end of the half at the Florida State-Miami game.

-- NFL favorites bounced back this week after being 36-54 against spread through six weeks-- they were 8-5 this week.

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

13) In their last three games, Patriots have been outscored 34-6 in the 4th quarter; in the handicapping business, this is known as a red flag.

12) New Mexico Lobos are the first college football team in six years to play at Hawai’i, then play another road game the next Saturday. In handicapping business, this is called bad scheduling.

Lobos lost Saturday to an Air Force team they’re better than. Pick-6 on a swing pass, followed by the QB getting a concussion didn’t help any. That said, Bob Davie is doing good work in Albuquerque.

11) Dwight Howard is wearing #12 for the Lakers; 40 years ago, a backup guard also wore #12 for the Lakers. Wasn’t much of an NBA player, but he turned into a pretty good coach. Guy named Pat Riley.

10) Speaking of Dwight Howard, Orlando fans must really, really hate the Lakers. First Shaq leaves central Florida for LA, now Howard. If LA is going to pillage the Magic’s roster, shouldn’t they have to take JJ Redick and Ish Smith too? It only seems fair.

9) Brandon Roy is trying a comeback with Timberwolves, after having previously retired due to chronic knee problems. So far this fall, he is averaging 11.4 ppg in 21.2 mpg. Before Kevin Love broke his hand doing pushups, the T-wolves were a popular darkhorse pick in the west.

8) Steelers trailed 14-6 Sunday night, scored a TD, went for two to tie the game; in the second quarter. Decision was neither right/wrong (they got the two points) but it was most definitely unusual. Very few coaches go for two there. I’m thinking after a long drive, why not? Defense has to be tired. Teams with QBs who can run should go for two lot more than they do.

7) 20% of A’s 40-man roster (8 guys) is players who came to Oakland directly from the Diamondbacks. Oakland took Chris Young off the Snakes’ hands because Arizona wanted to clear a spot in the lineup for young CF Adam Eaton. Oakland has some more trades in them this winter.

6) So Peyton Manning is watching film on Bucs gaining 513 yards against the Saints’ defense and he’s got to be laughing out loud, yes LOL.

New Orleans is in the Mile High City Sunday night; the NFL finally wised up that they don’t have to back down from the World Series (Game 4), ratings-wise. This should be a fun game.

5) Was watching an Orlando Magic preseason game, and they showed clips from the Magic’s charity golf tournament; turns out that Johnny Damon bats lefty, but golfs righty. Go figure.

4) There is an actual TV program on the SyFy channel called “Drag Me to Hell”. Who watches this?

3) Used to be that fielding punts inside the 10-yard line was a no-no, but lot fewer balls bounce into the end zone on FieldTurf than they did on the old, bouncier Astroturf, plus punters are more adept at killing balls, almost putting backspin on them, so its really the 6 or 7-yard line that’s the stopping point for intelligently fielding a punt.

Seeing too many guys fair-catching balls at the 4 or 5-yard line; at that point, its worth the risk to let the ball bounce, maybe pick up 15 yards of field position.

2) NBA apparently has veto rights over who appears on ESPN’s NBA pre/post-game shows. So when you hear that funnyman writer Bill Simmons is OK to be on the show, but former coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t, that tells you a lot of what you need to know about both the NBA and ESPN. In other words, no way will the show be watchable.

1) Hey, wasn’t that a great debate tonig— OK, I didn’t watch it either. Game 7 of the NLCS, Lions/Bears, couple of NBA exhibition games on. Might watch a replay of the debate after this gets posted, but have to admit, I’d watch pro wrestling before I watched the debate live, and I stopped watching the WWE 10+ years ago.

I’ll read my Twitter feed, see if anything interesting happened, and decide between a replay of the debate and episodes of American Pickers; as of right now, the pickers are an early favorite.

**Udog** · 10-23-2012, 09:09 AM

Pucking the trends: AHL betting news and notes

No NHL. No problem. Check out the latest betting news and notes from the young guns in the AHL.

Hot Team: Norfolk Admirals

A complete roster swap hasn’t slowed Norfolk’s momentum from last season. Now the affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks, the Admirals have won their first four games of the season to push the team’s regular-season winning streak to 32 games.

Led by prospects Kyle Palmieri and Peter Holland up front, the most pleasant surprise for Norfolk this season has been rookie defenseman Sami Vatanen - a fourth-round pick in 2009 who contributed a goal and four assists in wins over Connecticut Friday and Saturday.

Norfolk heads to Newfoundland for its first road trip of the season: A doubleheader against the St. John’s IceCaps this weekend, which will go a long way to showing how much this year’s Admirals resemble last year’s.

Cold Team: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins

With NHL experience dotting the roster, Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate should have more than six goals in its first four games. But after losing at home to Bridgeport and Syracuse on the weekend, the Penguins are the only team in the league yet to register a point in the standings.

Eric Tangradi, who played 39 games with Pittsburgh over the past two seasons, has one goal on 14 shots and needs to be more efficient converting his chances. Benn Ferriero, a veteran of 92 games with the San Jose Sharks, has two assists. Simon Despres, the puck-moving defensive prospect who earned 18 games with Pittsburgh last season, has one assist and five shots.

If Wilkes-Barre/Scranton wants to get out of the basement, players like Tangradi, Ferriero and Despres need to lead the way for rookies like Beau Bennett and Joe Morrow. And that leadership starts on the scoreboard.

Prospect Watch: Bridgeport Sound Tigers

Nino Niederreiter looked lost in the NHL last season, scoring one goal in 55 games with the New York Islanders, but the fifth-overall pick from 2010 is comfortable with Bridgeport.

With three goals and five points in three games -- all of them wins for Bridgeport -- Niederreiter leads a prospect-laden Sound Tigers team that includes first-round picks Brock Nelson and Calvin de Haan, as well as 2008 second-rounder Travis Hamonic, who has 50 points in 135 NHL games as a defenseman.

Rookies John Persson, Johan Sundstrom and Kirill Kabanov each have two points, further tilting the balance of scoring towards Bridgeport’s youth: nine of the team’s 13 goals have been scored by players under 22 years old.

Scoring Leaders: Week 2

Oklahoma City Barons rookie defenseman Justin Schultz scored three goals on the weekend and leads all blueliners with four goals this season. Schultz, the highly touted college free agent of the offseason, was signed by Edmonton and appears to be gelling with the Oilers’ young core of Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the Barons.

Cory Conacher of the Crunch continues to lead the league with nine points, while Marcus Foligno of the Rochester Americans is in a tie for second after a four-point performance against Hershey on Saturday.

Surveying the schedule:

- St. John’s plays host to a pair of doubleheaders this week, facing the Portland Pirates Tuesday and Wednesday and the Norfolk Admirals Saturday and Sunday. After that, the IceCaps head off on a five-game road trip.

- The Adirondack Phantoms’ bus will be all over upstate New York on the weekend, with games in Albany Friday, at home in Glens Falls Saturday, and in Syracuse Sunday. Albany is an hour’s drive from Glens Falls, while Syracuse is around three hours.

**Udog** · 10-23-2012, 09:10 AM

World Series odds: Tigers faves despite Giants' home-field edge

The San Francisco Giants punched their ticket to the Fall Classic once again with a big win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the NLCS Monday night.

The Giants, who won the World Series in 2010, will face the Detroit Tigers, who swept the New York Yankees to win the American League Pennant and return to the World Series for the first time since 2006.

Oddsmakers have tagged the rested Tigers as -160 favorites to win the World Series, with the Giants set at +140.

With the National League winning the MLB All-Star Game back in July, Game 1 goes Wednesday night in San Francisco. Detroit ace Justin Verlander and San Francisco veteran Barry Zito are the expected starters.

**Udog** · 10-23-2012, 09:12 AM

Guys,

With only one college football game on today's schedule, info in this thread will be a little thin. I've got some early World Series info and will add to it as it comes up. I'll add WNBA and CFL, too, if we get any of that info today.

**Udog** · 10-23-2012, 09:14 AM

MLB
Long Sheet

Wednesday, October 24

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DETROIT (95 - 76) at SAN FRANCISCO (101 - 73) - 8:05 PM
JUSTIN VERLANDER (R) vs. BARRY ZITO (L)
There are no Top Trends with records of significance that apply to this game.

Head-to-Head Series History
There were no past matchups in this series during this time period.

JUSTIN VERLANDER vs. SAN FRANCISCO since 1997
VERLANDER is 0-0 when starting against SAN FRANCISCO with an ERA of 3.00 and a WHIP of 1.000.
His team's record is 0-1 (-1.0 units) in these starts. The UNDER is 0-1. (-1.1 units)

BARRY ZITO vs. DETROIT since 1997
ZITO is 8-7 when starting against DETROIT with an ERA of 3.24 and a WHIP of 1.268.
His team's record is 9-8 (-5.3 units) in these starts. The UNDER is 9-7. (+1.3 units)

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MLB

Wednesday, October 24

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Trend Report
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8:07 PM
DETROIT vs. SAN FRANCISCO
Detroit is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games
Detroit is 7-3 SU in its last 10 games on the road
San Francisco is 7-3 SU in its last 10 games
The total has gone OVER in 6 of San Francisco's last 9 games

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Announcement

Tuesday's Trends and Indexes - 10/23 (MLB, CFL, WNBA, Misc.)

Tuesday's Trends and Indexes - 10/23 (MLB, CFL, WNBA, Misc.)

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