Blue Jays' Anthopoulos building on youth
Baseball Betting Lines
07/16/2010 -
Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - When your pockets aren't deep and you live
in the American League East, you need to do things a little differently. With
a new general manager in town, it seems as though the Toronto Blue Jays have
finally come to understand that motto.
It's been less than one year since Alex Anthopoulos replaced J.P Ricciardi as
GM of the Blue Jays and he's looked anything but a man in his early 30's in
his first year on the job.
Although their record may not indicate it at 44-45, Anthopoulos has brought an
optimism of hope back to the club despite playing in a division that features
the three best teams in the American League. The task left for him was not
easy either, as he had the responsibility of unloading the franchise's
greatest pitcher, Roy Halladay.
Anthopoulos took over with a vision that, at this point, most Torontonians can
probably feel comfortable trusting after living through eight years of
Ricciardi's five-year plan. Nobody said it would be easy, especially when the
Jays have to look up to AL East behemoths New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and
Tampa Bay Rays, but Anthopoulos has executed his plan well.
He's building through youth and high-ceiling, high-potential types of players.
A few of those pieces were already in place, but the new GM has done a solid
job supplementing the existing talent.
A look at some of the key moves made by Anthopoulos:
Anthopoulos stepped into a tough spot - despite being the assistant GM before
taking over the role - as he would become the man responsible for trading away
the best player on the roster. He went to work quickly, landing the Jays three
very good prospects in starting pitcher Kyle Drabek, catcher Travis d'Arnaud
and outfielder Michael Taylor from the Philadelphia Phillies. Taylor was
immediately shipped to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Brett Wallace,
the future first basemen of the Jays who already has played for three
organizations during his brief span in the minor leagues.
While it's impossible to replace Halladay's arm and work ethic, but this type
of return could prove to be a success for years to come. All three players
made their respective minor league All-Star games this season, and Wallace and
Drabek are on a fast track to the majors. Wallace did not participate in the
Pacific Coast League's All-Star Game (Triple-A) due to a wrist injury, but his
teammate Jarrett Hoffpauir, someone Anthopoulos also snatched up in the
offseason, took his spot. Hoffpauir has seen a little bit of time this season,
appearing with the big club in nine games.
The youth movement continued by way of the draft this past June, as
Anthopoulos selected a little bit of everything, starting with a polished
college arm and continuing with some high-potential prospects and homegrown
talent. He made a point of targeting pitching, using his first four picks to
select right-handers Deck McGuire, Aaron Sanchez, Noah Syndergaard and Asher
Wojciechowski as well as capitalizing on Canadian-born talent. The most
intriguing of which is Ontario-native Marcus Knecht, who batted .472 with 16
homers at Connors State College last year.
As much as Anthopoulos has concentrated on a youth movement, the team entered
the season with several holes still to fill. Although his offseason signings
didn't appear to be significant at the time, even the most optimistic of
supporters couldn't have foreseen the production the Jays gotten from their
additions. Catcher John Buck is enjoying his finest season and fresh off
his first All-Star game, shortstop Alex Gonzalez is on his way to a career
year and Kevin Gregg, despite being shaky at times, has converted 20-of-23
save opportunities.
Gonzalez, who hit 17 home runs and drove in 50 runs in the first half, was
never part of the long-term plan, which is why his trade to the Atlanta Braves
came as no surprise. The five-player deal was essentially a swap for
shortstops, where the Braves were more concerned with the now and the Jays for
the future, as they are willing to let Yunel Escobar play through his current
struggles. Although he's having a down year, the 27-year-old still has plenty
of upside and is coming off a fine 2009 season, when he hit .299 with 14
homers and 76 RBIs - the later numbers career highs. If Escobar, who is
hitting .238 with no home runs, doesn't bounce back, the Jays also have Cuban
Adeiny Hechavarria, an offseason acquisition who is currently playing in the
minor leagues but projects to be the shortstop of the future.
The biggest steals for the Jays have come in the form of outfielder Fred Lewis
and starting pitcher Brandon Morrow. Lewis was acquired from the San Francisco Giants at the beginning of the season and has turned out to be a complete
success. The 29-year-old is batting .276, leading the team with 10 stolen
bases and has become a fan favorite in Toronto.
Morrow, on the other hand, has finally found a role, as he's not only firmly
entrenched in the Jays' rotation, he's quite possibly the future ace of
the staff. He still needs to string together more consistency, but has shown
flashes of dominance during his first year as a Blue Jay. He came over to
Toronto in an offseason trade with Seattle.
There's a lot of hope for the Blue Jays moving forward, with Anthopoulos
steering the ship into a deep pool of youth. Toronto already has a surplus of
young players thriving in the big leagues, led by a rotation whose oldest
member is 28-year-old Shaun Marcum. It goes without saying that Anthopoulos
has done an exceptional job and has the Jays heading in a positive direction.
For the fans, this team has become a breath of fresh of air. This truly is a
new era for Blue Jays baseball.
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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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