Betting news, trends, odds and predictions from various handicappers and websites for Monday 7/1/19
Monday's List of 13: Happy Canada Day, everyone……
13) On Thursday, Nate Lashley was the #353 golfer in the world rankings; he was the last guy in the field in Detroit this week. Then he shot 25-under for the week and won $1,314,000 and a two-year exemption on Tour. Pretty good week.
In 2004, Lashley lost his parents and girlfriend in a plane crash; seven years later, he almost quit golf to become a real estate agent. The guy deserves some good stuff to happen.
12) Brooklyn Nets made the biggest splash in NBA free agency, throwing $164M at Kevin Durant, plus signing Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.
Durant has a torn achilles and is over 30; no guarantees they won’t look foolish pretty soon.
11) Knicks didn’t offer Durant a max contract, which actually makes sense; its the Knicks doing a sensible thing that doesn’t make sense.
10) Darren Collison has earned $43,343,141 in his NBA career, playing for five different teams in nine years, but he suddenly retired this week at age 31, citing religious reasons. He would’ve probably earned a contract of $10-12M for this season.
9) 76ers lost Jimmy Butler to Miami, JJ Redick to New Orleans, then gave Tobias Harris $180M over five years, which is astounding. Harris’ agent must still be drinking champagne.
8) Minnesota Twins are 53-30, have two All-Stars.
New York Mets are 38-47, have three All-Stars. Go figure.
7) Baseball stuff:
— Oakland put OF Stephen Piscotty (knee) on the IL.
— Braves put P Anthony Swarzak (shoulder) on the IL.
6) This is when you know a fan base is 100% spoiled: Red Sox’ GM Dave Dombrowski was getting roasted pretty good this weekend on social media, thanks to the failure of the Boston bullpen this season.
Red Sox made the playoffs last three years, won 108 games and World Series LY, you might want to take a deep breath and appreciate the four World Series you’ve won since 2004.
5) Biggest differential, NL home vs. road ERA
1. Dodgers 1.72 lower at home
2. Padres 1.55
4) Seattle Mariners got only one All-Star; Daniel Vogelbach over Domingo Santana is an odd choice, seeing how Santana has 14 more RBI and 28 more hits; Vogelbach has 22 more walks.
3) Neither Bryce Harper or Manny Machado is an All-Star, except on payday.
2) There are 31 first-time All-Stars, the most since 2016.
1) Happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the north.
Monday's six-pack
Spreads for football games on August 30/31:
— Purdue (-9) vs Nevada
— Memphis (-6) vs Ole Miss
— Eastern Michigan (-5) vs Coastal Carolina
— South Carolina (-7.5) vs North Carolina
— Virginia Tech (-2.5) vs Boston College
— Florida State (-4.5) vs Boise State