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This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z

by - 5/6/2015

Chris Paul Los Angeles Clippers

A. American Pharoah . Last Saturday's Kentucky Derby was a three-horse race from start to finish, and the favorite-American Pharoah-won it. The highlight may have been the down-the-stretch reaction by Bode Baffert, the 10-year-old son of winning trainer Bob Baffert. The kid was going positively nuts as Pharoah pulled ahead toward the finish line, almost as if he was at the Tokyo airport when Taylor Swift arrived. Pharoah is +250 at GT Bets to win the Triple Crown.

B. Brewers . Ron Roenicke was at his highest point of the season on Sunday-and then he promptly got fired for his efforts. Of course, it's not a good thing when your high point is a two-game winning streak. Milwaukee was still 7-18 (worst record in the majors) after coming out on top of back-to-back contests for the first time all year, and Roenicke got the boot as a result. The Brewers wasted no time finding their next manager, hiring Craig Counsell less than 24 hours later.

C. Chris Paul . Despite playing with one hamstring (to the extent that he was unable to play in Game 1 against the Houston Rockets two days later), Paul drained a last-second runner in Game 7 against the San Antonio Spurs last Saturday as the L.A. Clippers won 111-109 to survive an epic first-round series. Just when you thought Saturday could not get any better…well, you were right-because the Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao snooze-fest immediately followed Clippers-Spurs. L.A. is a +7 road underdog against Houston on Wednesday, per BookMaker.

D. Duncan Keith . One series that probably isn't going the distance is the Chicago Blackhawks vs. the Minnesota Wild. Chicago has a 3-0 lead in the conference semifinals after shutting out Minnesota 1-0 on Tuesday. Keith, who scored the winning goal in Game 6 of the first round at the Nashville Predators' expense, has three assists and a +5 plus-minus rating through three contests. In nine playoff games he has two goals, eight assists, and is +8 plus-minus. The Blackhawks are +105 road underdogs on Thursday, according to WagerWeb.

E. Earnhardt, Dale . It was a great weekend for Junior, because his Washington Redskins had an impressive draft-at least according to Mel Kiper, whose A-minus grade for the 'Skins was the best he gave to anyone (tied with four other teams). Oh, and in other news Earnhardt picked up his first Sprint Cup win of the season and his first at Talladega since 2004.

F. Florida . Florida is looking for a new basketball coach after Billy Donovan jumped ship to the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder last week. Donovan had 30,000,002 reasons to do so-that's 30,000,000 dollars plus Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

G. Gregg Popovich . The only thing better than Popovich sideline interviews may be Popovich post-loss parties. San Antonio's head coach reportedly paid for everything at a Saturday night dinner at Mastros in Beverly Hills following his team's playoff ouster. He then hired a party bus to chauffer his players to Project Club L.A. Aron Baynes, for one, later had to be chauffeured back to the bus in the form of being dragged by Tim Duncan.

H. Hurt hand . The Washington Wizards have stolen home-court advantage from the Atlanta Hawks, but they also have an injured point guard. John Wall got hurt during a Game 1 victory and spent Tuesday's Game 2 on the bench in a sizable cast as Atlanta evened the series with a closer-than-it-looks 106-90 win.

I. Irvin, Bruce . Irvin went nuts on Twitter on Monday after the Seattle Seahawks declined to pick up his fifth-year option for 2016. Intermixed with a flurry of expletives, Irvin indicated that he would remain a Seahawk for at least one more season. Seattle is a +550 favorite to win the Super Bowl (Bovada Sportsbook).

J. Jimenez, Miguel Angel . The most interesting golfer in the world delivered yet again last week, when he got into a heated, face-to-face argument with Keegan Bradley during their match-play battle. At one point it almost looked like they would come to blows. In other words, it directly resembled Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.

K. Kim Sears . It has been a productive last three weeks for Andy Murray. The Scot married Sears in mid-April then returned to tennis and promptly captured a title on the clay courts Munich. Not bad for guy whom Sears temporarily broke up with because he played too much Mario Kart! Murray is +1400 at BetOnline Sportsbook to win the French Open; Novak Djokovic is a -105 favorite.

L. Liverpool . Normally a date with Chelsea on the schedule is daunting, but the Blues wrapped up the English Premier League title last week and may still be hung over (literally, quite possibly). Liverpool will try to take advantage of Chelsea on Sunday as the Reds look to overtake Manchester United for fourth place on the table and secure a spot in the 2015-16 Champions League.

M. McIlroy, Rory . We need a McIlory vs. Jordan Spieth head-to-head showdown, and we need it now-preferably this Sunday on the back nine at The Players Championship. Spieth, the No. 2 player in the world, dominated the Masters last month. The top-ranked McIlroy answered by winning last week's match-play championship, a run highlighted by a 44-foot eagle bomb to beat Jim Furyk on the 18th hole of their semifinal showdown. BookMaker has McIlroy as a +790 second choice to win The Players Championship.

N. No. 1 . Jameis Winston went first overall in last week's NFL Draft and thus gets to stay in Florida with the Tampa Bay Bucs. Who cares that Tampa is home to a dreadful franchise; it's in Florida, so it must have a good crab legs.

O. Outstanding Studio Host . Ernie Johnson Jr. won the award on Tuesday night and on the spot gave his Sports Emmy to Stuart Scott's daughters, whom he called up to the stage. Awesome.

P. Pacquiao, Manny . Pacquiao apparently fought with a significant tear in his right rotator cuff last Saturday night. People seem to forget that Pacquiao is left-handed. Of course, it's easy to forget which hand either fighter uses since almost no punches were thrown. The Pac-Man is set to undergo surgery that will likely keep him out for a year.

Q. Quentin, Carlos . The 32-year-old outfielder retired last week while toiling away in the minor leagues with the Seattle Mariners. Quentin played nine big-league seasons with three different teams and hit 154 home runs.

R. Royal Baby . The second one was born last Saturday. Her name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, but according to authorities that's "Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge" to you!

S. Stephen Curry . Curry responded to his NBA MVP with an outstanding speech. Unfortunately for the Golden State Warriors, he also responded with a game that was unusually far from outstanding. The Memphis Grizzlies evened the series on Tuesday night as Curry (2-for-11) and Klay Thompson (1-for-6) threw up brick after brick from long range. Bovada Sportsbook has Golden State as a +110 favorite to win the NBA title.

T. Tatge, Barbara . Tatge is random woman who was dared by her daughter to kiss a random male fan on the lips during her run in the Boston Marathon. She came through…and so did the Internet, as the identities of both the man and his wife were discovered. Fortunately, the wife took the whole thing in stride.

U. United . Manchester United has been a borderline disaster since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson. David Moyes could not fill the shoes as manager, and things have not gotten much better under Louis Van Gaal. In fact, Man U has lost three consecutive Premier League matches for the first time since 2001. The Reds did not score a single goal in three straight setbacks at the hands of Chelsea, Everton, and most recently West Brom this past Saturday. They are fourth on the EPL table behind Chelsea, Manchester City, and Arsenal. Sergio Aguero of City is -500 at Sportsbook.ag to finish as the league's leading goal-scorer.

V. Vonn, Lindsey . Vonn and Tiger Woods "mutually decided" to end their relationship, they announced in separate Facebook posts on Sunday. In news that may or may not be related, Tiger has also announced that he is playing just about every golf tournament in the universe this summer.

W. Willie Mays . Mays has company at the 660 home-run mark as Alex Rodriguez tied him last Friday with a blast at Fenway Park during the New York Yankees' 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox. Four straight homer-less games leave A-Rod tied for No. 4 on the all-time list as of Wednesday afternoon. Few would complain if he never passes Mays and remains stuck on 660 for eternity. The Yankees (Sabathia) are -102 road underdogs against the Toronto Blue Jays (Buehrle) on Wednesday, per 5Dimes Sportsbook.

X. Xavier Cooper . The Cleveland Browns traded up to get another third-round pick, using it to select Cooper at No. 96 overall while sending the New England Patriots fourth-round, fifth-round, and sixth-round options. General manager Ray Farmer said he made the move because Cooper "plays with his hair on fire." There must be something about hair and Browns' rookies, because their first-round pick (Danny Shelton, also a defensive lineman) certainly sports an impressive mop.

Y. Young, Chris . The 6-foot-10 giant got a spot start for the Kansas City Royals and kept the Detroit Tigers hitless through five innings last Friday. K.C.'s bullpen maintained it until the eighth inning, and the Royals scored a 4-1 win despite failing to finish off a combined no-hitter. Young is now back in the bullpen with the return of suspended starter Edinson Volquez. Of course, this is the Royals we're talking about; so you can be sure another starter will be suspended soon and Young will be back on the bump. K.C. (Duffy) is a -128 home favorite over Cleveland (Carrasco) on Wednesday, as indicated by Bovada Sportsbook.

Z. Zimmermann, Jordan . The Washington Nationals' starter owns a 4.15 ERA, which may not seem like much-until you consider what it was after two outings. Zimmerman has shrunk it from a bloated 8.64 thanks to four consecutive quality starts (at least six innings with no more than three earned runs). On Monday he went seven innings in a win over the Miami Marlins while allowing just one earned run.

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