Gonzalez deserved better from Marlins

Baseball Betting Lines

06/23/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Perhaps when the Florida Marlins solidified plans for their new ballpark recently, they should have gone with a circus tent to cover the field rather then a retractable roof. It would fit with the overriding theme surrounding the team, because Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is quickly becoming the biggest clown in the game.

Despite the Marlins being just two games under .500, Loria on Wednesday fired the winningest manager in club history, Fredi Gonzalez.

"We believe we can do better and be better," Loria said. "We owe it to our fans to put this team in the best possible position to win. Everyone knows how I feel about winning. That's the reason we're making this change."

Let's be honest here. Despite Loria's proclamation this spring that his club was a playoff team, the Marlins were not expected to do anything this season. They certainly were not going to be better than Philadelphia, and most people thought the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets were better than the Fish.

Are they underachieving? Maybe a little, but they are not exactly the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Doesn't Gonzalez deserve the benefit of the doubt? The Marlins have been better in each of the last three seasons and his 276 wins were the most in team history. At the very least, he earned the right to finish the season.

Not to mention that he has won at a steady clip while being handicapped with one of the lowest payrolls in the game. On Opening Day the Marlins ranked 26th of 30 teams with a $57 million payroll, last in an NL East that also includes the Washington Nationals, a franchise that was owned by Loria when it was in Montreal.

The Washington Nationals have a higher payroll than the Marlins, and Loria thinks his club was a playoff team?

I gave Loria a pass when he fired Joe Girardi after one season, a year in which he won the National League Manager of the Year. I didn't agree with it, but there was obviously a personality conflict that could not be overcome even for the sake of the team.

But upon reflection, with decisions like that and the Gonzalez firing, it almost makes sense that the Expos went belly-up on Loria's watch.

Perhaps Loria should let star shortstop Hanley Ramirez run the team, since you could argue that he's running it now. It was Ramirez who publicly ripped Gonzalez after the manager had the gall to bench him for not hustling in a game against Arizona on May 17, then sitting him out the next day. Ramirez stated that he had lost respect for Gonzalez, making it a point to mention that he had never played in the big leagues.

Maybe Ramirez didn't get Gonzalez fired with that indictment, but do you think Gonzalez would be gone if Ramirez was in his corner?

Reports circulated last May that Loria was talking to Bobby Valentine, and those same rumors started again this past winter. My guess is that he will be the guy down there at some point. And an even better guess is that the immense egos of Loria and Valentine will clash at some point.

As for the future of Gonzalez, I like to judge moves like this on just what kind of demand there is for the fired party. In Girardi's case, he instantly went to the top of the list for just about every team that was looking for a manager in 2007.

In Gonzalez's case, I expect the same thing to happen.

I wouldn't feel so bad for Gonzalez, who should end up with plenty of options that will look much better than the job he is exiting. Bobby Cox is retiring at the end of the year. Gonzalez was his third base coach for years, and most thought he was being groomed to one day succeed Cox anyway. I would be shocked if he is not named some sort of advisor, or placed directly on Atlanta's staff, in the coming weeks. Such a move would put Gonzalez in position to take over the team at the end of the year.

Remember that Girardi sat out a year, took the job he always wanted, and won a World Series. Hopefully the same happens for Gonzalez. And if it happens in Atlanta, think how much sweeter the champagne will taste, knowing that Gonzalez had to step on Loria and the Marlins to get there.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.