The NFL betting preseason takes a day off on Tuesday, so it’s time to make some baseball picks. Can the Tigers and Dodgers retain their division leads?

Interestingly, Tigers rookie Rick Porcello is 2-0 against Seattle this season. However, he’s been less picture-perfect, allowing three homers and six earned runs over 12 innings in those starts. There’s no point betting against Felix.

Best betting management pick: Mariners

St. Louis Cardinals @ Los Angeles Dodgers
Tuesday, August 18, 10:10 p.m. ET
Mitchell Boggs (1-1, 3.78) vs Chad Billingsley (11-6, 3.73)

Can Mitchell Boggs do the unthinkable and down the mighty Dodgers in L.A.? It’s a real crapshoot. He can’t hit the plate — 20 walks in 33 innings!? — but he misses plenty of bats and finds a way to pitch out of jams. Chances are, a good hitting group like L.A. will punish his mistakes more than most teams. Then again, Boggs should get lots of run support. Matt Holliday is hitting an eye-popping .459 with five homers and 22 RBI in 21 games since the Cards acquired him. He also has three homers and five RBI in just 18 career at-bats against Chad Billingsley. With Boggs facing off against the ace Billingsley, the Dodgers will be big favorites at home. Why not take a baseball picks flier on St. Louis, one of the hottest teams in the majors right now?

Best betting management pick: Cardinals

What does the Hurricane Bill projected path and NFL betting have in common? The forecasting should be left to the experts at the National Hurricane Center and the The Weather Channel for the hurricane tracker; and Lines-Maker.com, ScoresOddsPicks.com, and OffshoreInsiders.com for NFL spread picks from football predictions experts.

It’s the Carolina Panthers and the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. Super book Bodog has the Giants a three-point favorite with a total of 33. While the point spread remains steady, the total hovers from 33.5-33.5.

For that game, we present two independent betting previews. The first is from the top NFL handicapper of all-time, the Grandmaster Joe Duffy, the other from Bodog, the home of the sharp NFL odds.  

First from the all-time leader in NFL expert picks:

Those who bet totals will want to note that each team will be without their key receiver by the name of Steve Smith.

For the Panthers Smith: though the injury to four-time Pro Bowl WR Steve Smith was not as bad as expected and he is back practicing, he will not play tonight. Carolina is is also without starting DT Maake Kemoeatu and also be minus running back Jonathan Stewart.  

The Giants are minus two veteran receivers from last year as Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer are not with the team, but third round draft pick Ramses Barden has been a major pleasant surprise. Barden is a 6-6 receiver. The Giants Steve Smith, who had 57 receptions last year is out. Domenik Hixon and Sinorice Moss will likely start at WR.

Other key players out for Big Blue include CBs Corey Webster and Aaron Ross, DT Chris Canty and DT Fred Robbins.  

Expect vanilla from each team as they meet again during the regular season. For bettors have love handicapping position battles as motivation during the preseason, note that the Giants have 20 of their 22 starters back.

Top expert pick on this game:  GodsTips, anchor of OffshoreInsiders.com not only has the ESPN side Carolina-NY Giants, but also has winning MLB days 13-of-16. Two MLB Wise Guy plays and the Monday Night Football side are among four winners at

OffshoreInsiders.com. Don’t take advice from fools. It’s like taking Terrell Owens tips for kids.

Now from Bodog, here is their look:

Sure there are a lot of games this weekend but if you are already looking ahead to Monday Night Football on ESPN you will get to see the Carolina Panthers face the New York Giants.

The Giants enter the preseason looking to re-establish their positive vibes and to get back into the championship groove. At the same time this veteran contender will not likely want to expose key players such as quarterback Eli Manning to injury in the exhibition season.

Running back Ahmad Bradshaw should get a fair amount of carries as he is second on the depth chart. He ran for 355 yards and a 5.3 yards per carry average last year.

For Carolina, Jonathan Stewart can’t seem to get healthy enough to practice with the team. The running back missed his third straight workout Thursday and has been held out of almost all contact drills when he has practiced.

Get your Get your NFL Exhibition Odds in the Bodog Sportsbook.

While the infinite quest for the best sports betting free picks ended a long time ago, and with a lot more accuracy than John Edward’s physic network or John Edwards’ philandering list, reality TV and Monday Night Football odds take center stage today from Chicago Park District 9 to Las Vegas sportsbooks.  

It’s only a matter of time before the entertainment and political betting odds comes out as “Dancing With the Stars” announced their season 9 line-up. Four big sports personalities, Michael Irvin, formally of ESPN and the Dallas Cowboys,, swimmer Natalie Coughlin and professional snowboarder Louie Vito, not to mention MMA Odds beater Chuck Liddell headline the list that also includes singers Mya, Macy Gray and Aaron Carter; actresses Ashley Hamilton, Melissa Joan Hart and Debi Mazar; models Joanna Krupa and Kathy Ireland; reality stars Mark Dacascos and Kelly Osbourne (which makes them double reality stars, we guess); entertainer Donny Osmond; and former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay round out DWTS 2009. 

Today in the Daily Sports Roundup: The Giants host the Panthers, the Jaguars play in Miami, and the Yankees begin a three-game set on the road in Oakland.

Colliding on the gridiron . . .

The NFL finishes off its first week of preseason contests on Monday night with Jacksonville at Miami and Carolina at the Giants. The oddsmakers have the Dolphins pegged as 3-point home favorites in that first matchup, with the total set at 31.5 points. Meanwhile, the Giants are also listed as 3-point favorites at home for Monday night, with that total at 32.5 points. ESPN has the Panthers/Giants matchup as its Monday Night Football broadcast, with the kickoff set for 8pm ET.

The complete NFL handicapping preview of those two games is up.

Also on the National League schedule for Monday: Milwaukee at Pittsburgh, San Francisco at the Mets, the Cubs at San Diego, and St. Louis at the Dodgers. Ace Chris Carpenter (12-3, 2.27 ERA) will get the ball for the Cardinals on Monday; righthander Carpenter has won his last four starts, and he hasn’t been tagged with a loss since June 30. Charlie Haeger (0-0, 0.00 ERA) makes his L.A. debut.

Meanwhile, there are just four games on the American League schedule for Monday, with the Angels at Baltimore, Minnesota at Texas, Kansas City at the White Sox, and the Yankees at Oakland. A.J. Burnett (10-5, 3.71 ERA) gets the call for New York; righthander Burnett last won on July 27, but he’s allowed just three earned runs over his last 13 2-3 innings of work. The Athletics will counter with righthander Vin Mazzaro (4-8, 5.54 ERA), who has won two straight outings.

SUNDAY SWEEP; BOTH NFL SIDES & CAR/NYG O/U; DAY & 2 NIGHT PRO BASEBALL

Here is your locked and loaded menu for Monday, August 17, 2009

The top money won handicapper in the 21^st century is a handicapper out of Philadelphia who rates his plays 5, 7.5 and 10 stars. He is especially rewarding in professional sports, where his NFL and NBA combined units won is No. 1 all-time.  His first 10* of 2009 NFLX is on the Carolina/NY Giants over/under

An attorney/law professor/pro bettor turned pro bettor/professional handicapper out of Tri Cities, TN is best known for being the greatest SEC handicapper of all-time. However, he is also the top NFLX totals handicapper, based on all-time units won. Supreme Selections are his highest rated plays. He is 3-0 in NFLX already: Thursday, Aug 13 it was New England over, Friday the Rams, Saturday the Bears over. He goes to 4-0 with the Jaguars/Dolphins side.

Hottest service in the land is out of Milwaukee. They have had the best units won six-day stretch of any handicapper in the nation since early February and in fact won at least 1.4 units each of the last six days. (Stats are out of 620 services and syndicates monitored, rankings based on total net units won based on one-unit per play). They have the Carolina/NY Giants side and two MLB winners and we have all three.

Bo Eason is the No. 2 ranked handicapper all sports combined since 1990 and No. 1 in MLB.  His 10*s have turned a profit in every sport (college and pro counted separately) literally every year since 1990. He’s No. 3 overall this month in MLB units won, but his 10*s is the reason. He’s hit 10-of-11 +12.7 units thanks to several big underdogs including the Royals and Seattle yesterday. His only 10* Monday is a pretty big underdog

Free pick:  Service out of the west, NL Upset of the Month on Pittsburgh

Please note that plays released are generally not every play released by the service. We pass along ONLY the top rated plays from the top rated sports services in their highest rated sports. Even if a top ranked service has a highly rated play, we may cancel it’s re-release because of conflicting information from other top services.

Our rankings are based on:

Default category: Total net units won—how much money a service won based on one unit per play including the juice

Winning percentage—self explanatory, minimum of 50 plays in quoted category to quality for rankings

ROI—based on units risked versus units won ratio, minimum 50 units risked to qualify. This category also takes into consideration multiple unit picks