Successful Baseball Betting Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

Successful Baseball Betting

The Major League Baseball season is long one because each team has to play 162 games.  This means that there are many opportunities to bet on games.  In fact, a good bettor invariably makes a healthy profit during the MLB season.

Baseball betting is rather easy and picking winners is done by selecting winning or losing wagers. There is no point spread in Major League Baseball betting.  However, baseball bettors can use the run line to minimize the money line amounts.

However, in order to select a win or lose wager, a bettor must have knowledge to make the correct choice.  A baseball bettor should know that in the long run, it is the pitchers who help teams win.  A good pitcher can end up controlling a game and make an ordinary team into a formidable one.  A baseball bettor should not indulge in name bet.  A name bet is betting based on the name of a team and reputation of its pitchers.  Here the statistics are not taken into consideration.

There is no player more dominant in the game of baseball than the pitcher.  The pitcher is without a doubt the most important player in a game.  They control the pace of the game, and are the ones that will ultimately determine whether or not their team has a chance of winning the game.  If a pitcher gives up too many runs, then the team has to work harder to makeup for that deficit, but if the pitchers doesn't give up any runs, the pitcher allows the players/team to stay in the game by keeping it close

A baseball bettor should take time to find out the pitcher’s record against the opposing team.  Also find out what is the team’s record, when the pitcher pitches in a game.  Also, the venue of the game plays an important role in pitching.  Find out how well the pitcher pitches when playing at that particular location and how many innings does he normally pitch.  Also, take time to find out whether the pitcher has had any injuries recently and how can those affect his pitching.

Now this information should be compared with opposing team’s pitcher and the baseball bettor should be placed on a team that has the best pitcher because he would be the deciding factor ultimately.

In addition, good starting pitchers who have a solid bullpen to back them will have better records than those who have a sub par bullpen.  If an excellent pitcher who has a 1.00 ERA (earned run average) is backed by a bad bullpen, such a pitcher will almost always lose games.  Therefore, it is necessary to isolate teams with excellent bullpens.

Thus, when betting in the MLB most baseball bettors should consider the bullpen when making their bets.  Although they make up 1/3 of the game, people for some reason do not readily consider the bullpen as part of their bet.  The bullpen comes into the game usually at the 6th inning mark or later if the starting pitcher is doing well.  The main job of the bullpen is to take care of the lead, or if the team is loosing, to prevent any more scoring from happening.  A good bullpen is invaluable.  Remember, teams who go far and deep into the playoffs are those teams that have solid bullpens.

Generally, in terms of betting, if two teams with excellent bullpens face each other, the under will be a good bet.  This under bet will become stronger if both teams are struggling offensively.  Good pitching and bad hitting is a good formula for a solid under bet.

On the flip side, bad bullpens are usually conducive to overs.  Betting on the over in games that feature bad bullpens can be quite lucrative.  If both teams have sub par bullpens and have excellent offensive prowess, then the over bet can be quite profitable.  The totals line might be high, but is warranted in this situation.

The dynamics of how a bullpen is used throughout the long 162 game season is actually quite important when you bet on certain games of a series.  There is a large number of games during the baseball season that end up in a 1-run difference.

The odds of a game are generally created with too much emphasis on starting pitching.  This is because it is hard to predict the use of a bullpen in a game.  Therefore, most baseball bettors just place bets based solely on what they know.  But, the reality is if a team has been "saving" their bullpen, they will be more likely to use the bullpen when things get a little rough.  Specifically this happens in tough games that are necessary for a team to win.

In closing, the bullpen is one angle most baseball bettors ignore; but if used in part of the capping process, betting on the better bullpen in a game will show profits in the long term.  Thus, do not be afraid of a poor starting pitcher if the manager has already made it clear that he saved the bullpen for this game.