Sports Handicapping

The National Football League rolls out more exhibition games on Saturday, including Brett Favre’s Jets playing host to the Redskins. Here’s your Daily Sports Roundup . . .

Event of the day . . .

Favre apparently has a ‘tired arm’, but Jets coach Eric Mangini says that he will start the team’s home game against the Redskins on Saturday nonetheless. Don’t expect the 38-year-old quarterback to see much time on the field, though, as the Jets aren’t going to want their prized acquisition to do too much before the games really start to count.

That means we’ll get to see more of Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliff, and Erik Ainge, with Ainge possibly joining Chad Pennington on a train out of town if he can’t beat out the unheralded Ratliff for the team’s No. 3 quarterback job. As for the Redskins, starting quarterback Jason Campbell seems to be catching on to the team’s new offense, and he should leave most of the work to his backups on Saturday night as well.

The oddsmakers have the Jets listed as 3-point home favorites in this preseason contest, with the game’s total sitting at 35.5 points. Kickoff is 7:00pm ET at Giants Stadium, with Favre highlights scheduled to be shown approximately every 20 minutes on local and national sports shows for the following two to three days.

Non-event of the day . . .

Peyton Manning is still sidelined for the Colts, and the Falcons won just four games all of last season. That hasn’t built up much anticipation for the Indianapolis/Atlanta preseason clash at the Georgia Dome on Saturday night. The oddsmakers actually opened Indy as 1-point road favorites for that contest, but the latest lines have seen Atlanta favored by 2.5 points. The total for the game is pegged at 37.5 points.

Betting event of the day…

Forensic sports handicapping pioneer Stevie Vincent has the 2008 Preseason Pro Football Game of the Year on the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos. The top football sports betting service off all time, GodsTips has four, yes four NFL Wise Guy, an incredibly high number for NFL exhibition season betting. Something is clearly and GodsTips always gives complete analysis. Check out the home page of OffshoreInsiders.com for all the sports betting information on tonight’s card.

Also on the schedule . . .

Other NFL preseason games on Saturday include Miami at Jacksonville, Minnesota at Baltimore, San Diego at St. Louis, Arizona at Kansas City, Houston at New Orleans, Dallas at Denver, and Chicago at Seattle. As well, Favre’s old team, the Packers, will play out west in San Francisco; Green Bay is a 1.5-point road favorite in that game.

The baseball games actually mean something Saturday, and the top pitching matchup looks like it’ll be in Cleveland; the Indians’ Fausto Carmona (5-4, 4.91 ERA) will take on Angels ace John Lackey (9-2, 3.15 ERA). Other American League games on the Saturday schedule include Kansas City at the Yankees, Seattle at Minnesota, the White Sox at Oakland, Toronto at Boston, Baltimore at Detroit, and Tampa Bay at Texas.

Over in the National League Sean Marshall (2-2, 3.55 ERA) will get a spot start for the Cubs on Saturday night, pitching on the road against the Marlins and Anibal Sanchez (1-2, 4.08 ERA). Also on the NL schedule: the Mets at Pittsburgh, Arizona at Houston, Colorado at Washington, St. Louis at Cincinnati, San Francisco at Atlanta, Philadelphia at San Diego, and Milwaukee at the Dodgers.

News from the wire . . .

Braves starting pitcher Tom Glavine was activated from the disabled list on Thursday, was promptly pounded for seven runs by the Cubs, and is now back on the shelf . . . Dodgers starting pitcher Brad Penny is also back on the disabled list with a sore shoulder . . . Padres starting pitcher Chris Young is on the disabled list now as well; he has a strained forearm . . . the trade that sends forward Ron Artest to the Rockets was made official on Thursday.

Peek at the future . . .

There are two NFL games on the Sunday schedule: Detroit at Cincinnati, and New England at Tampa Bay. The Giants will host the Browns on Monday . . . the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship begins its final round on Sunday morning . . . the Sprint Cup Series’ 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway gets underway on Sunday afternoon . . . the Phillies and Cole Hamels (9-8, 3.32 ERA) will take on the Padres and Cha Seung Baek (4-7, 5.20 ERA) in Sunday night action.

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