Betting news, trends, odds and predictions from various handicappers and websites for Monday 8/12/19
Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend…….
13) The definition of worlds colliding is Nick Saban bringing Mike Tyson in to talk to his Alabama football team Thursday night. Tyson urged players to love themselves and manage their anger in a healthy way, and advised them on how to deal with success.
Saban, and a lot of coaches, bring in speakers to talk to their teams, believing that kids need to hear different voices along the way. When you have unlimited resources, you can afford to bring in someone as prominent as Mike Tyson.
12) Cincinnati Reds’ rookie OF Aristides Aquino hit seven home runs in his first 10 major league games, instantly putting him on the national map as a prospect, but he also hit a combined .227 in AA ball in 2017-18, so I need a little more evidence before I proclaim him to be the second coming of Yordan Alvarez.
11) My unpopular opinion of the day: Little League games shouldn’t be on national TV.
10) Steelers 30, Buccaneers 28— Tampa Bay ran 83 plays from scrimmage, Steelers only 57. Buccaneers threw the ball 57 times, were sacked four times- thats 61 dropbacks. Bruce Arians likes to throw the football; Jameis Winston should have a big season.
9) kenpom.com is a really good college basketball website that is statistically oriented; he posted a new metric recently, ranking all 353 college hoop programs for what they’ve accomplished, going back to 1997.
Top three programs who haven’t made the NCAA’s since 1997:
#102 Rutgers, #129 Louisiana Tech, #136 Toledo.
Top three programs who made the NCAA’s only once since ’97:
#85 Northwestern, #95 Oregon State, #99 Boise State.
8) Dodgers went over 3,000,000 fans Saturday night for the 8th consecutive year; this is the earliest they have reached the 3,000,000 mark in a season.
7) Baseball stuff:
— Red Sox brought 2B Chris Owings up from AAA.
— Dodgers activated P Hyun-Jin Ryu from the IL.
— Angels put C Kevan Smith (back) on IL.
6) Detroit Lions signed QB Josh Johnson after Tom Savage got a concussion in Thursday’s loss to New England. David Fales is the Lions’ only other backup behind Matthew Stafford. Detroit is Johnson’s 13th NFL team.
5) When the new domed stadium opens in Las Vegas next year, the Raiders will play on natural grass that will be on portable trays; UNLV will play on an artificial turf field that’ll be located on the stadium floor.
4) Bad Beat of the Week; Under 8 in the Atlanta-Miami game Saturday; game was scoreless in the 8th inning, winds up 7-6 Miami, with both bullpens going full arson squad.
3) According to former Mets’ GM Steve Phillips, the last three World Series champs had a combined 33 pitchers who appeared in the World Series- only three of them were homegrown. Winning teams are developing position players and finding pitching where they can.
2) QB’s who started a Super Bowl in their second year in the NFL:
— Dan Marino, Miami
— Kurt Warner, Rams
— Tom Brady, NE
— Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt
— Colin Kaepernick, SF
— Russell Wilson, Sea
1) QB’s who started a Super Bowl in their third year in the NFL:
— Joe Kapp, Minn (played 9 years in CFL before that)
— Roger Staubach, Dal
— Vince Ferragamo, Rams
— Joe Montana, SF
— David Woodley, Miami
— Tony Eason, NE
— Jake Delhomme, Caro (played for NO in ’99,’02, Panthers in ’03)
— Jared Goff, Rams
Armadillo