Joe Duffy (www.OffshoreInsiders.com)
Major League Baseball announced that for the first time
ever, baseballs must be stored at a uniform temperature. Some clubs will be
using humidors, while all will have some kind of temperature controlled
facility.
Thanks to the thin air of
the Colorado Rockies Coors field was easily the source of the most runs of any
ballpark in the Majors for their first eight years of existence. In three of
the last four years, they fell to second. The perception is that the
significant drop in runs traces back to the fact that
installed a humidor in 2002 to store the baseballs.
The numbers support this assessment. Coors Field averages
dropped to an all-time low of 10.7 last year, as opposed to 15 runs at its peak
in 1996.
But what are the consequences for gamblers? “The intention
and likely result is uniformity,” states Cy McCormick
of MasterLockLine.com.
“The early consensus is the variances from stadium to stadium will be much less
than ever.”
Speaking of uniformity, it is also the first time teams
are mandated to use baseballs manufactured in the current year.
Stevie Vincent of BetOnSports360.com thinks scoring will be down.
“The sample in
statistically significant enough to believe the trend will repeat itself across
the board”. But he adds gamblers may not
want to forget that the ramifications of the long-overdue crackdown on steroids
will be felt gradually, not overnight as many baseball fans foolishly assumed.
“If, as widely believed, power totals were greatly bloated
because of the use of steroids, the concentrated effort to eliminate steroids
will not un-ring a bell.” Vincent notes that players who bulked up because of
years of being on the juice “were not going to become 90 pound weaklings just
because they stopped.”
Vincent believes with each offseason in which players do
not use steroids, the power totals will slowly move back to rates of 15-25
years ago.
McCormick cautions that the sharp player will have a
limited window to exploit. “If run
production is down, posted totals will quickly drop accordingly.”
“The oddsmakers know what they are doing,” he reminds us.
Going back to his “JD of the ACC” scorephone days, Joe
Duffy has been considered the undisputed king of the underdogs and small
favorites. Now CEO of OffshoreInsiders.com, his
plays are exclusively part of GodsTips.com.