Service Plays Sunday 8/22/10

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

The Rx.com Mod Team has created this Service Play sub-forum in order to supply an area for Rx Service Play Posters to expand upon their posting topics without creating a logjam in the main forum where the three principle threads are maintained..

Posters can track services here if they care to but we will need any trackers to do so in an accurate and civil manner. We did not create this area for posters to ridicule or bash any services..

You can also discuss who is hot and who is not. The general state of the pay for plays industry and any other subject or topic related to service plays.

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I will leave this thread open for a month to take questions and do my best to answer them. I will check in daily but am off on Wednesday and Thursday.

I hope this additional Service Play Forum will satisfy those posters that would like to widen the scope of topics relating to service plays and the industry in general to have their own threads. Mods will be liberal as possible regarding topics but this forum was specifically created to allow you more freedom to express your ideas regarding service plays and related subject matter. No off topic threads will be allowed.

Thank you, wilheim




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[Can'tPickaWinner2]

Vikings At 49ers: What Bettors Need To Know

Opening Line And Weather

Oddsmakers opened San Francisco as a 3-point home favorite earlier this week on Monday and the line dropped to -2.5 by Saturday morning. The over/under opened at 34.5 and has risen to 35 in some locations.

The weather looks fantastic on Sunday evening in San Francisco with the temperature in the low 60s with a light wind (9 mph) and a zero percent chance of rain.

Injury Update

Brett Favre has returned to the Vikings, but Minnesota is still shorthanded at the wide receiver position. Receiver and punt returner Percy Harvin is out indefinitely while wideout Sidney Rice is currently on the physically unable to perform list with a hip injury.

The defense is still missing middle linebacker E.J. Henderson and cornerback Cedric Griffin who are both out of the preseason and questionable for the regular season opener at New Orleans on Sept. 9.

San Francisco will probably be without WR Michael Crabtree who is doubtful with a neck injury and star TE Vernon Davis is also doubtful with a knee injury. The team is short at running back after the sudden and unexpected retirement of Glen Coffee last week.

Favre Attack

Guess who’s back? After reversing his retirement for the umpteenth time, Brett Favre returns to quarterback the Minnesota Vikings this season. And he’s suiting right up, as he is expected to start Sunday night’s game against San Francisco.

Despite missing over three weeks of training camp, head coach Brad Childress plans on playing Favre a couple of series after watching him workout over the last couple of days.

“I think he's doing a good job of rounding into form,” Childress said. “He has been throwing the football, there is no question about that. Just conditioning his legs. He's versed in our system and our calls.”

No Respect

After the Favre soap opera played out during the week, numerous stories were written that the Vikings, as a team, have little to no respect for Childress. This issue came to light last season when he and Favre had a heated argument on the sidelines after Childress pulled the quarterback from a game to rest.

And when recently asked if his players respect him, Childress responded with this: “You can ask Brett about that. You don't like it but you deal with it. You sit at the top, everybody knows who they are shooting at. So they can say whatever they want to say and make an argument for it.”

That sounds like a man who knows he’s not respected by his players. And now that Favre is back in the mix, it will be interesting to see which direction the Vikings head going forward. They were impressive in their 28-7 win last week in St. Louis, but that was pre-Favre return.

Keep an eye on the coach-QB relationship over the next few weeks as it may go a long way in deciding how the Vikings season plays out.

Solid Rotation

San Francisco has one of the better preseason quarterback rotations in the league. Starter Alex Smith leads the way and his backup is journeyman David Carr who has started plenty of games in the NFL. Carr was ultra impressive in the 49ers 37-17 waxing of the Colts in Indianapolis. He completed 9-of-11 for 98 yards and a touchdown.

This week, third stringer Nate Davis is expected to see the majority of action under center. Davis was good in preseason games last year, and he played well against the Colts last week as he completed 5 of his 6 passes for 84 yards. Head coach Mike Singletary calls Davis “a work in progress” so his performance on Sunday night against more experienced defensive players will tell us a lot about Davis’ future in the NFL.

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

NFL NEWS AND NOTES
Favre, Vikings Take On San Fran

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, Brett Favre has decided to grace us with his presence once more.

Favre confirmed late last week that he will be back with the Vikings this season. And proving that he has a great sense of timing, he’ll return to the field on NBC’s Sunday Night Football at San Francisco.

Gamblers have kept a keen eye to the line of this game as news started to roll in about everyone’s favorite flip-flopper. The 49ers were installed as three-point home favorites for this contest with a total of 34. They pushed up to 3 ½-points almost immediately after the release of the line. However, news of Favre’s return has helped push the Niners down to 2 ½-point faves. The public even pushed the total around, bumping it up to 35.

For all of those wondering, Brad Childress has confirmed that Favre will start on Sunday night. He’s going to play at least two series against, leaving Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels to handle the rest of the contest.

While fans might want to see No. 4 for longer than the first quarter, bettors can’t complain with the backups. The duo of Jackson and Rosenfels helped propel Minnesota to a 28-7 win as a 2 ½-point road pup against the Rams. Jackson was alright in his brief time on the field in completing 2 of his 4 passes for 11 yards. Rosenfels, on the other hand, was out to impress by connecting on 23 of 34 attempts for 310 yards and three touchdowns.

The Vikings were almost stingy on defense against St. Louis, holding them to just 150 yards. And that doesn’t take into account that they sacked Rams quarterbacks six times for a loss of 35 yards.

San Francisco didn’t have any problems against the Colts last Sunday as they picked up a decisive 37-17 win as a four-point road favorite in its preseason opener.

The QB play wasn’t all that stellar amongst Alex Smith, David Carr and Nate Davis. That trio completed 17 of 26 passes for 219 yards and one score. Anthony Dixon proved to be a quality pickup out of Mississippi State after rushing for 103 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries.

The 49ers’ defense did yield 235 yards to Indy last Sunday afternoon. However, they were better in some big stat categories. San Fran let the Colts covert just four of their 14 third-downs at Lucas Oil Stadium. Plus, they picked off four passes from Indianapolis passers, with Reggie Smith running one of them 91 yards back to the house.

If the Childress Era in Minneapolis has done anything more than have a Gerald McRaney look-alike, it’s his record as a preseason pup. The Vikings have gone 5-3 straight up as road pups since Childress took control of the team in 2006. For our purposes though, Minny has gone a solid 6-2 against the spread.

Mike Singletary guided his club to a 2-0 SU mark in both of their games as home favorites in the preseason in 2009, but failed to cover the number on either occasion. Since 2007, San Fran has gone 3-2 SU and 1-4 ATS as a home “chalk.”

Random Preseason Thoughts…

Home teams have enjoyed a lot of good fortunes so far this preseason, going 12-4 SU and 9-7 ATS through Friday’s Eagles-Bengals clash. Gamblers looking to take favorites only have seen them post a 12-6 SU and 9-9 ATS mark in that same time frame. The only sure-fire wager for us to take advantage of is the ‘over’ as it’s gone 11-7.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t have anywhere near the football acumen of Colts GM Bill Polian. That being said, what the hell is he doing with Curtis Painter as Peyton Manning’s backup? Painter could throw the ball like nobody’s business at Purdue (Joe Tiller had one heck of a system). Yet he barely could beat ranked teams them. The former Boilermaker has done little to make me believe he can play at this level in preseason and late regular season work. God help the Colts if Manning goes down because they’re toast with Painter under center.

Betting on football is about as good as it gets for many of us. Watching preseason football, however, is like sitting through a kindergarten graduation ceremony…you want the kids/players to feel special, but you and everyone else know that it’s a waste of time. I fail to see any reason to keep four games on the exhibition slate; two tests sounds about right to me. Unfortunately that setup won’t happen until the NFL sets up for an 18-game regular season. Please make that happen!

Perhaps it’s the degenerate in me but I enjoyed being able to bet on and watch a game live at 7:00 a.m. during the World Cup. That’s leading into a chance to do more of the same thing this winter with the Barclay’s Premier League going on first thing in the morning to lead into college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday. Not a bad way to start making money on the weekend.

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

MLB NEWS AND NOTES
Sunday's Streaking And Slumping Starting Pitchers

Streaking

Ricky Nolasco (14-8, 4.22 ERA), Florida Marlins

Nolasco is proving to be a solid No. 2 behind Josh Johnson in Florida’s rotation. The former fourth round pick shows first-round talent every time he takes the bump.

The Marlins are 8-2 in his last 10 starts, during which time he’s struck out 79 batters and walked just 12. He’s only pitched six innings in each of his last two appearances but he left both games with the opposition held scoreless.

Dallas Braden (8-8, 3.44 ERA), Oakland Athletics

Braden has already reached his single game, pitching pinnacle but he’s working hard to prove he’s not a one-hit wonder.

He battled through some adversity following his perfect game early this season and has really come on at the tail end of the campaign.

He’s 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA over his last six starts and the A’s are 5-1 during that stretch.

Slumping

Manny Parra (3-9, 5.36 ERA), Milwaukee Brewers

There isn’t much good a pitcher like Manny Parra can do for a staff. You’d think the one thing he could do to help out his team is eat up some innings.

Brewers manager Ken Macha would love for that to happen but Parra averages way too many pitches per inning to give the bullpen any type of relief.

Parra has pitched six innings or more just once in his last 10 starts. Oh yeah, Milwaukee is 2-8 over that period.

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

Baseball Crusher

BOS (-145) over TOR

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

RW Sports 105-108.5-19.5 (4-4)

newcastle - aston villa, over 2.25 goals, 1.96 @ pinnacle

fulham - man utd, man utd -1, 2.08 @ bet365

fulham - man utd, 1st half draw, 2.30 @ bet365

 

[ugk]

HOT LINES

Sunday’s Best MLB Bets

New York Mets at Pittsburgh Pirates (+160, 7.5)

Like so many MLB teams this season, the New York Mets’ offense came to life as soon as the team stepped up to the dish in Pittsburgh. New York scored three runs in the first inning during Game 1 of this series and cruised to a 7-2 victory. It was the first time the Mets had scored more than three runs in seven games.

Now the look to Johan Santana to finish off the Pirates as he goes up against Zach Duke, who hasn’t won in four starts and is now just 5-12 on the season. Duke was working on four scoreless innings against the Florida Marlins before the wheels came off. He allowed four earned runs in the fifth.

"It was tough," Duke told reporters. "I started leaving the ball up and they made me pay. I'm just going to try to erase that one from my memory."

Pick: Under

Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox (-145, 8.5)

If there’s one thing you have to respect about Shaun Marcum, it’s that he may get knocked around, but you know he’ll come back swinging – or more literally in his case, dealing from the rubber.

He gave up four homers and eight earned runs over just four innings of work against the BoSox last week. It was an ugly sight.

So all he did was take a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Oakland A’s the next time he took the mound and finished with a complete-game one-hitter with five strikeouts. He’ll be looking for payback against Boston on Sunday.

Pick: Toronto Blue Jays

 

[ugk]

WNBA NEWS AND NOTES
WNBA Betting Preview


Mercury-Silver Stars Preview

Having already secured the Western Conference’s second seed, the Phoenix Mercury know they’ll be hosting a first-round playoff game this week.

The San Antonio Silver Stars have a chance to be the opponent.

In a possible playoff preview, the Silver Stars try to clinch the West’s third seed when they conclude the regular season Sunday against the Mercury.

While Phoenix (15-18) locked up second place with a 90-84 win at Los Angeles on Tuesday, San Antonio’s playoff fate is still uncertain.

The Silver Stars (13-20) have clinched a postseason spot and will be seeded either third or fourth. A victory, or a loss coupled with a loss by Minnesota would secure third place. If San Antonio, Los Angeles and Minnesota all finish 13-21, the Silver Stars would be the fourth seed.

“It’s getting close to the end,” Sophia Young said after Friday’s 75-61 win over the Fever. “It’s either win, or go home. We’re trying to secure the playoffs and get there. We’re done talking, now we have to do something.”

Young scored a game-high 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting, while Becky Hammon and Edwige Lawson-Wade combined for 19 fourth-quarter points. The Silver Stars outscored Indiana 28-14 in the final period to win for the first time in three games.

“We had a really good game, but we’ll wait and see what happens,” San Antonio coach Sandy Brondello said. “Our focus is on Sunday, if we can go in and win that game it solidifies us in the playoffs.

“By no means are we relaxing thinking we are in it, because we don’t know what’s going to happen yet. It’s not over yet.”

The Silver Stars won at Phoenix 108-105 on June 18, but were outscored by an average of 13.5 points while losing both ends of a home-and-home series with the Mercury earlier this month. The high-powered Mercury, the league leader in scoring at 94.2 points, averaged 103.0 on 60.0 percent shooting in the victories.

Phoenix might not be playing with the same sense of urgency on offense in this matchup, however.

With their playoff seeding set, the Mercury sat Diana Taurasi, the league’s leading scorer with an average of 22.6 points, and Candice Dupree and Penny Taylor each played fewer than 10 minutes in Friday’s 78-73 loss to Seattle.

It’s uncertain how much coach Corey Gaines will play his starters Sunday.

“One thing we are doing is concentrating on us,” guard Temeka Johnson said. “We’re not really concerned with what other people are doing. We know we control our own destiny and that is our mindset.”

Mystics-Dream Preview

The Washington Mystics are in position to make history. All that is standing in their way is the slumping Atlanta Dream.

Washington can head into the playoffs for the first time as Eastern Conference champions with a win over postseason-bound Atlanta on the final day of the regular season Sunday afternoon.

The Mystics are coming off a 75-74 win over New York on Friday as Lindsey Harding hit the go-ahead layup with 8.8 seconds to play. That ended the Liberty's 10-game winning streak and pushed Washington (21-12) into a tie with New York and Indiana for the conference lead.

New York faces Connecticut and Indiana - which finished atop the East last year - meets Minnesota later Sunday. Washington won the season series over the Liberty and holds the tiebreaker over the Fever.

"It's crazy how the East is," Mystics forward Crystal Langhorne said. "We're just going to keep fighting. We have another game against Atlanta and we just want to take care of business on Sunday."

The Mystics, who have never finished higher than third, can clinch home-court advantage with a victory at Philips Arena. Washington has taken two straight from the Dream after losing in overtime June 5.

Langhorne would like to come up with another big game against Atlanta. In three matchups, she is averaging 20.7 points and 11.7 rebounds.

Atlanta (19-14), which is locked in as the fourth seed in the East, will be returning to the playoffs for the second straight year and could face Washington in the semifinals starting Wednesday.

However, the Dream have dropped five of six, falling 84-79 to Chicago on Tuesday. Atlanta is 10-6 at home with half of those losses coming against the Sky, who are out of the playoff mix.

"We just didn't have it," coach Marynell Meadors said. "We didn't run our offense. Just a lack of focus, for whatever reason. We should be building momentum going into the playoffs."

Iziane Castro Marques led Atlanta with 19 points, while Angel McCoughtry added 16 and Yelena Leuchanka came off the bench to pull down 11 rebounds.

Like Langhorne for Washington, McCoughtry is looking to continue her solid play in these matchups. The 2009 rookie of the year averaged 25.3 points in three games against the Mystics this season.

McCoughtry is third in the WNBA with 21.2 points per game.

Sun-Liberty Preview

The New York Liberty appeared to be headed for the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs for the first time in eight years. They may have to settle for second.

New York will try to rebound from its first loss in nearly a month Sunday when it concludes the regular season against the Connecticut Sun at Madison Square Garden.

The Liberty (21-12) were on the inside track to finishing the regular season atop the East, but saw their franchise-record 10-game winning streak halted with a dramatic 75-74 loss at Washington on Friday. The game featured three lead changes in the final 22.3 seconds before the Mystics' Lindsey Harding made the clinching layup with 8.8 to play.

New York is in a three-way tie for first with Washington and defending conference champion Indiana.

The Liberty can still claim the No. 1 seed for the first time since 2002 by beating the Sun (17-16) while Washington loses at Atlanta. New York holds the tiebreaker on the Fever, who host Minnesota. However, if New York, Washington and Indiana all win Sunday, then the Mystics will finish atop the East on tiebreakers.

"We're not done with what we came to do this season," said Liberty guard Cappie Pondexter, second in the WNBA with 21.2 points per game. "We have a goal and we are going to keep trying to reach it."

The Liberty are 3-1 this season against Connecticut (17-16), winning twice at MSG. They took the most recent matchup there, 71-67 on Aug. 1 behind 24 points from Pondexter.

Connecticut has been eliminated from playoff contention for the second consecutive year, but will be trying to close out the season with a season high-tying third straight win.

The Sun ended a four-game road losing streak Friday by beating Chicago 78-71 as guard Renee Montgomery scored 20 points. She tallied 22 in Connecticut's home finale, a 90-62 win over league-worst Tulsa on Tuesday.

"I don't care if the game isn't going to get us to the playoffs, the game isn't going to do anything, but it's still about to pride," Montgomery said Friday. "We are out there, people are coming to see you play and you need to perform."

Montgomery is second on the team with an average of 13.2 points and first with 4.1 assists. However, she's averaging 21.2 points and 5.0 assists over the last five road games.

Lynx-Fever Preview

The Indiana Fever have a chance to claim the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the upcoming playoffs. The Minnesota Lynx, meanwhile, have nothing to play for after seeing their playoff hopes dashed.

The Fever try to conclude the season in strong fashion Sunday when they host a Lynx team with nothing to play for in its season finale.

Indiana (21-12) has already clinched a playoff spot but consecutive losses have put it in difficult position to finish atop the East.

A win over Minnesota (12-21) combined with Washington losing at Atlanta and New York falling to Connecticut would give the Fever the top seed. However, if all three teams win, Indiana will finish third since it's conceded all of the tiebreakers to the Mystics and Liberty.

The Fever, who reached the WNBA finals last year, will have a better understanding of what they're playing for during their game Sunday, as Washington and New York have earlier starts.

The Lynx's bid for their first playoff spot since 2004 ended Saturday with the Los Angeles Sparks losing to the Seattle Storm on Saturday. Even with a victory, Minnesota does not hold any tiebreakers against San Antonio and Los Angeles if all three teams finish with 13-21 records.

Minnesota lost 89-51 at home to Indiana on June 6.

"We have to go in there and play with intensity," said guard Lindsay Whalen, who is averaging 19.0 points and 8.0 assists over the last three games. "We've been playing hard and we've been playing well. We just haven't been finding the right answers at the end of games."

Whalen had 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds as the Lynx lost 98-91 at Los Angeles on Friday.

The Fever didn't do Minnesota any favors by losing 75-61 at San Antonio on Friday, as Tamika Catchings struggled by shooting 5 for 18.

The forward is among the league leaders with an average of 18.2 points while her 2.3 steals per game rank first. Despite her performance against the Silver Stars, Catchings is averaging 23.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists over the last four games.

She scored 27 against the Lynx in June, while Whalen missed the game with an illness.

 

[ugk]

LADY LUCK

Sunday’s best WNBA bets

Phoenix Mercury at San Antonio Silver Stars (-6, 173)

The Phoenix Mercury have taken two of three from the Silver Stars in the season series, but Phoenix has had its share of problems lately. The Mercury have lost five of their last six heading into this one and are scoring only 80.8 points per game over their last five, which is down considerably from their season average of 94.2.

None of their starters managed 10 points in their last outing against Seattle since the Storm lead the division by a landslide, so Diana Taurasi took the night off and the rest of the team’s starters barely got their feet wet.

Expect more of the same as Phoenix closes out the season Sunday against San Antonio. This one might be pretty ugly.

Pick: Under


Minnesota Lynx at Indiana Fever (-9, 150.5)

At the time of this writing, the Indiana Fever were still locked in a three-way tie for first place in the Western Conference, but all that could change tomorrow afternoon.

The reality is they’ll really be looking to snap a two-game skid at home against a Lynx team they should handle easily. What you have to be worried about is if they get out to a big league early and start sitting their starters down, leaving the door open to a backdoor cover.

Pick: Over

 

[ugk]

BETTORS' TIPS AND NOTES
Bettors’ Best Friend (BFF): Sunday’s Wagering Tips


Lines to keep an eye on

Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers – This line is down to San Francisco -2.5 at some books from the open of -3. The total sits at 35 at most shops, up from the 34-point open.

Weather to watch

Mariners at Yankees – Scattered thunderstorms, probability of precipitation (POP) 60 percent.
Nationals at Phillies – Thunderstorms, POP 80 percent.
Rangers at Orioles – Thunderstorms, POP 70 percent.

Who’s hot

New York Yankees are 82-32 in their last 114 home games
Philadelphia Phillies are 21-6 over last 27 games
San Diego Padres are 10-2 over last 12 games
Cincinnati Reds are 13-3 in last 16 road games
Minnesota Twins are 22-6 in last 28 games overall

Who’s not

Cleveland Indians are 3-13 in their last 16 games vs. Detroit
Houston Astros are 1-9 over last 10 in Florida
St. Louis Cardinals have lost five straight games
Chicago Cubs are 6-20 over their last 26 games

Key stat

4 errors - Michael Cuddyer has just four errors in 117 games at four positions: center, right, first and third. He also was hitting .342 with seven RBIs in the 10 games before Thursday's loss to Chicago.

Injury that should not be overlooked

Alex Rodriguez did not play in Saturday’s game and is on his way to the 15-day DL with a left calf strain.

Game of the day

Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers

Notable quotable

“I was just trying to get out there and help us win. I’ve got to make sure I’m OK. If I hurt myself bad, it could mess me up for next year and it could mess me up for my career. Hopefully, I don’t do that.

“I’m not excited. I want to be out there like everyone. I want to be out there and help us win. I think that was part of my problem, getting out there and hurting myself, I guess.’’

-Boston’s Dustin Pedroia on returning to the DL just two games after coming off the shelf.

 

[ugk]

GREEK SPORTS PICKS

MLB PREMIUM PLAYS
10 UNIT SD Padres
5 UNIT LA Dodgers
4 UNIT Oakland Athletics

NFL PREMIUM PLAYS
4 UNIT Minnesota Vikings +2.5

 

[ugk]

THE ASIAN EXECUTIVE
7 UNITS [429] Minnesota Vikings +3.5

 

[BrockLanders]

John Harrison

Nationals/Phillies OVER 8.5 (2 UNITs)

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

The War Report (not root)

White Sox +100 pod
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[Can'tPickaWinner2]

SPORTGENIUS

PREMIUM PLAYS
Detroit Tigers under 8
SD Padres ML

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

Dave Eckstein

NFLX Minnesota / SF 1st Half UNDER 17.5

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

Idbetting

Roger Federer - Mardy Fish pick: Federer 2-0 odd: 1.781 stake 5/10 Pinnaclesports GMT 16.00
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[Can'tPickaWinner2]

Craig masters

White sox

 

[Can'tPickaWinner2]

CAPPERS ACCESS
Vikings
Brewers
A's
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[Can'tPickaWinner2]

GAMBLERS DATA
Padres -120