Brewers ready brooms for skidding Bucs

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07/11/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Veteran lefty Randy Wolf pitches for the sweep when the Milwaukee Brewers host the Pittsburgh Pirates today in the finale of their three-game series at Miller Park.

Milwaukee has taken one-run verdicts in each of the first two games of the series, including a 4-3 triumph on Saturday, when Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder hit back-to-back home runs to support 6 1/3 strong innings from Dave Bush.

Bush (4-6) gave up two runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Braun also doubled and scored three times, while Casey McGehee drove in a run and had two hits for Milwaukee.

Brewers rookie right-hander John Axford recorded his 10th save in as many opportunities despite serving up a homer to Ryan Doumit in the ninth.

The Brewers won Friday, 5-4, after Braun came through with the game-winning hit and Fielder had another home run.

Garrett Jones smacked his 11th homer of the year for the Pirates, who have now lost five in a row. Starter Jeff Karstens (2-4) allowed four runs on five hits with a season-high six walks in five innings.

Wolf, a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1997, was an 11-game winner for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season before coming to the Brewers as a free agent and winning six of his initial 14 decisions. He downed St. Louis on July 1 for his last win, then subsequently dropped a 6-1 verdict to San Francisco on Tuesday despite allowing four hits and one earned run in seven innings.

He took just his second loss in 15 career starts against the Pirates May 19 in Pittsburgh, allowing 10 hits and six runs in 6 1/3 innings. Lifetime against Pittsburgh, Wolf is 8-2 with a 3.42 earned run average across exactly 100 innings.

The Pirates counter with Texas-born rookie right-hander Brad Lincoln, who was just 12 years old when Wolf debuted in the minors.

Lincoln was a 6-2 loser at Houston his last time out after allowing seven hits and five runs in five innings. He'd earned his lone major-league win one start earlier with a 2-0 triumph at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs on June 30.

In 36 big-league innings over six starts, Lincoln has given up 40 hits and 21 earned runs with 10 walks and 14 strikeouts.

Milwaukee has won seven of its 10 matchups with the Pirates this season and is 30-9 against the Bucs since the start of the 2008 campaign.

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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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