Cubs avoid arbitration with Garza

Baseball Betting Lines

02/03/2012 - Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Cubs avoided arbitration with Matt Garza on Friday, signing the starter to a one-year contract.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Chicago Tribune reported the settlement to be for $9.5 million. Garza had requested $12.5 million, while the Cubs had offered $7.95 million.

The 28-year-old righty posted a 10-10 record with a career-best 3.32 earned run average in 31 starts for the Cubs in 2011. His 197 strikeouts were a team high.

Garza has compiled a 52-54 record with a 3.83 ERA in 152 games, including 149 starts, during his six-year major league career.

The former first-round draft pick (25th overall) by the Twins played two major league seasons with Minnesota and three with Tampa Bay before joining the Cubs in an eight-player trade in January 2011. In two postseasons with the Rays, 2008 and 2010, Garza was 2-1 with a 3.48 ERA.

Intercaisno Baseball Betting News


<< Three-year-olds take spotlight at Tampa Bay
Oldsmar, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday gets solidly onto the Kentucky Derby trail with the running of the $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes. The 32nd edition of the 1 1/16-mile race has attracted a field of 11 three- year-ol

<< Italians set to face Ukraine in Fed Cup QFs
Biella, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Italy, which has won three of the last six Fed Cup titles, will host Ukraine this weekend in a best-of-five World Group quarterfinal. First up on Saturday in Biella, Italian Sara Errani will face

<< Jankovic will open for Serbs against Belgium
Charleroi, Belgium (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2012 Fed Cup quarterfinal between Serbia and host Belgium will get underway Saturday with a singles match between the visitors' former world No. 1 star Jelena Jankovic and Kirsten Flipken

<< Kvitova ready for Fed Cup action against Germany
Stuttgart, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Petra Kvitova will play in Saturday's second opening singles rubber in the Fed Cup quarterfinal between her reigning champion Czech Republic team and a host German squad. Saturday's first singles bo

<< Irsay: Manning not yet cleared by Colts
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said early Friday morning that quarterback Peyton Manning has not yet been cleared to play by the team. Reports on Thursday indicated that Manning has been cleared by

U.S. men to face Canada in June friendly >>
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The U.S. men's national team will be renewing its rivalry with Canada on June 3 when the two sides meet up at BMO Field in Toronto for a friendly. The game will be part of the Centenary celebrations fo

Wizards visit ACC to take on Raptors >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors try to avoid a third straight loss this evening when they welcome the woeful Washington Wizards north of the border to the Air Canada Centre. With star forward Andrea Bargnani sidelined with a calf inj

Nuggets entertain Lakers at Pepsi Center >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets shoot for a two-day sweep of Los Angeles when they welcome a Lakers team that has struggled on the road this season to the Rocky Mountains. The Nuggets were in the City of Angels on Thursday and summari

Jennings, Bucks visit lowly Pistons >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Fear the deer. Opposing teams are beginning to build some trepidation for Milwaukee Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings too. Jennings and the resurgent Bucks will hit the road tonight to take on the lowly Detroit Pistons an

Nets entertain improved Wolves >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Improved play on the road has kept the Minnesota Timberwolves respectable this season and they'll try for a third straight victory as the guest tonight against the New Jersey Nets. Minnesota is 5-4 away from the Twin Citie

Sportsbook betting odds favor Europe in Ryder Cup

September 19, – Despite holding a decided edge in the all-time series, with 24 wins, 2 ties and 10 losses, Team USA is the underdog again heading into the Ryder Cup in Kidare, Ireland this weekend, according to MySportsbook.com.  The Europeans have captured four of the past five editions, including their largest victory ever, an 18 ½ to 9 ½ thumping in Michigan in 2004. Current Ryder Cup betting odds favor the Europeans to continue their winning ways; they are a 4-5 bet to take the title, compared to 6-5 for the Americans. 

Despite being knocked out in the first round of World Match play by Shaun Micheel, Tiger Woods is predicted to lead the US charge and be their highest point scorer for the week, with odds listed at 9-4 that he outpoints all other American players, including Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco to  name a  few.  Team USA has four relatively unknown players on the roster but all four are 2007 tournament winners and have posted some of season’s best performances, each earning over $1.5 million on the PGA TOUR.  They include Zach Johnson, Vaughan Taylor, JJ Henry and Brett Wetterich.

The experienced European squad includes the likes of Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Jose Maria Olazabal and Darren Clarke, who’s emotions will be tested after the passing of his wife to a battle with cancer.  Donald and Garcia are in particularly good form and each is a 5-1 bet to lead the European squad in the points race. Donald has proven he can go head to head with Woods at a major event after a run for the $1.2 million purse at the PGA Championship. Garcia’s Ryder Cup credentials prove he’s ready for battle too.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your golf sportsbook needs.

Ryder Cup Odds

Europe
Tie
USA
4-5
10-1
6-5


Ryder Cup Top US point scorer
Tiger Woods
Jim Furyk
Phil Mickelson
Chris DiMarco
David Toms
Stewart Cink
Chad Campbell
Scott Verplank
Zach Johnson
Vaughan Taylor
JJ Henry
Brett Wetterich
9-4
4-1
5-1
7-1
8-1
12-1
15-1
15-1
25-1
30-1
30-1
50-1


Ryder Cup Top European scorer
Sergio Garcia
Luke Donald
Padraig Harrington
Colin Montgomerie
Darren Clarke
David Howell
Lee Westwood
Paul Casey
Henrik Stenson
Jose Maria Olazabal
Paul McGinley
Robert Karlsson
5-1
5-1
6-1
13-2
8-1
9-1
9-1
11-1
12-1
12-1
20-1
25-1

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com

FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.