Two
key research tools for the serious baseball
bettor have arrived at Gambler's Book Shop this week-Baseball
Insight Annual (2001), a 200-page spiralbound book ($32.95)
and Pitching Aces,148 pages, also spiralbound ($22.95). Published
by Phil Erwin of Parrish Publications, each book addresses commonly
asked questions that can be invaluable to those who are looking
for patterns of past performance that might help end up isolating
situations for this season.
The annual is
the best place to find opening money lines and totals for every
regular season game played in 2000. You look up the team then find
the date the game was played, the opponent, who the starters were,
who won the game, the final score, how far the starter went for
the home team, how many earned runs he allowed, what kind of bullpen
support he got, whether the game was on grass or turf or day or
night, who the home plate umpire was, and whether either pitcher
was a leftie.
Then, in summary
form, Erwin has provided a three-year history of how teams have
done in a variety of situations like the average number of runs
scored at home or away, in day or night games, versus southpaws,
with a quality start, against flyball or groundball pitchers, and
how often a team went over or under in similar situations.
Another section
examines most starters and tells you their record home vs. away,
day or night, on grass or turf, and what their earned run averages
were last season against opponents.
Back to umpires
again, Erwin provides a look at how home plate umpires may have
influenced a game in regard to totals for last season or the past
three seasons and the average number of runs per game scored when
that umpire was calling the pitches. For example, When Eddings was
behind the plate in 2000, his games went under in 24 of 33 instances.
Pitching
Aces is for those bettors who want to see how often a pitcher
won as a favorite or dog in the past three years. Here you'll find
for example how Brad Radke of the Twins did against every other
team since 1998. It won't list the date of the start, but you can
see if he won the game, whether the game was home or away, the final
score, the number of innings he pitched, earned runs allowed versus
each opponent, the money line, and what the total was.
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