Diamondbacks deal Haren to Angels

Baseball Betting Lines

07/25/2010 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks have traded starting pitcher Dan Haren to the Angels for starting pitcher Joe Saunders, reliever Rafael Rodriguez, minor league pitcher Patrick Corbin and a player to be named later.

Haren, a California native, was one of the few high-profile arms still available prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, and several teams were vying for his services.

The Angels, who trail the Texas Rangers in the American League West by six games heading into their Sunday night tilt, nabbed the three-time All Star for the stretch run.

The 29-year-old right-hander has struggled this season, however, pitching to a 4.60 earned run average in 21 starts, his worst ERA since his 2003 rookie campaign. His strikeouts are still up, having fanned 141 in as many innings.

His 7-8 record puts the 6-foot-5, 215-pounder at 86-70 in 217 games -- 208 starts -- for his career, which includes stints in St. Louis (2003-04), Oakland (2005-07) and Arizona (2008-10). The Diamondbacks acquired Haren in an eight-player trade prior to the 2008 season.

Saunders, also 29, had spent his entire six-year career in Anaheim and was used strictly as a starter. The lefty made the All-Star team in 2008 but has also hit a rough patch in 2010, going 6-10 with a 4.62 ERA, as opposed to his career 4.29 mark. His lifetime record is 54-32 in 115 outings.

Rodriguez has made just one appearance out of the bullpen this season for LA after seeing action in 18 games in his rookie year with the club. The 25-year- old right-hander owns a 5.51 ERA.

Corbin, 21, was selected by the Angels in the second round of the 2009 draft. In two seasons in the minors, the left-hander has gone 17-5 with a 4.20 ERA in 33 games -- 32 starts.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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