Totals Diversion
Betting baseball totals is about lineups. Betting baseball totals is about identifying favorable weather. Betting baseball totals is about getting the best of the number and understanding why 7’s and 9’s are such key numbers. Betting baseball totals is also about knowing who will be behind the dish calling balls and strikes. Apparently the importance of umpires isn’t lost on major league baseball these days given a disturbing trend a few of my closest industry colleagues and I have noticed. MLB.com is supposed to be a trusted source of information (theoretically), a website baseball fans can rely on for up to date ACCURATE information about all things major league baseball. That hasn’t been the case lately given a slew of incorrect umpire listings on the site.
Just yesterday there were 3 wrong initial listings. One game was so egregious that an umpire known to be on an active crew in Game 2 of a series was somehow listed as the home plate umpire in the Giants/Padres series opener 3000 miles away. Don’t get me wrong; mistakes happen but when you have one job to do this kind of crap would get an intern fired at any normal company unless it’s intentional. Whether these constant mistakes are the byproduct of lazy data clerks doing manual data entry or a bigger push from MLB, I find it hard to believe that it’s mere coincidence the problem persista. As handicappers we all have routines and tools we come to rely on before making our investments; thankfully trusted sports information sources like Don Best and Sports Options are in the business of being accurate with this kind of information knowing what’s at stake for bettors.
A picture is worth a thousands words so behold just one example of what I’m referring to regarding MLB’s recurring practice.
OF course the icing on the cake for final verification…
I’m all for a little bit of misdirection from time to time but it begs the question why has MLB.com adopted this practice? Clearly the casual fan isn’t the one waiting with baited breath on gameday to check umpires assignments the same way he or she checks a favorite team’s starting line-up. Every gambler loves a good conspiracy theory and typically when there’s smoke, fire isn’t far behind especially it pertains to gambling in our fine country.
