Bodog Live MLB Betting Guide
by Bodog Sportsbook

When betting on baseball with Bodog Live, the good bettor is always prepared. He knows situations, he knows historical trends and he knows his personnel. Bodog Sportsbook presents you with a guide on some of the things you might want to take into consideration to increase your chances of stacking that bankroll while betting on baseball with Bodog Live.

Know Your Players

Knowing your players and teams can make all the difference in the world when betting on a single play. If you're betting on a batter, it is paramount to know just what kind of a hitter the player is. Is he a fastball hitter? Does he struggle with left-handed pitchers or does he rake them? How good of a batter is he with two strikes? Certain guys like David Eckstein, Albert Pujols and Ichiro rarely whiff and are more likely to put the ball in play as opposed to a Troy Glaus or Ryan Howard-type player that strikes out often.

Know Your Pitchers

Knowing your types of pitchers can also be helpful. Knowing whether your pitcher is a strikeout pitcher or a guy who just looks to get outs is a big advantage. Certain pitchers will throw more pitches and try to overpower batters, as they are trying to strike batters out. Other pitchers are more inclined to make good pitches for strikes to put the ball in play and get batters out. For example, sinker ball pitchers like Chien-Ming Wang from the Yankees, Derek Lowe from the Dodgers and of course Greg Maddux tend to put a lot of balls in play and get plenty of ground balls for their defenses to turn into double plays.

Know Your Teams

Knowing your team is important as well. Some teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies are notorious for late-game comebacks. Plenty of that stems from having good pitching and a good bullpen. Look for their marquee players to get that timely hit or make that pitch to get that timely double play in the clutch. Along the same lines, the style a team plays is also relative to the type of ballpark they play in. Teams with excellent team speed and large ballparks are more likely to play small ball and move runners around by putting the ball in play as opposed to playing for the long ball or the big inning.

Know Your History

Sometimes knowing your players and their tendencies just isn't enough. Historical trends are important to consider, because more often than not, history repeats itself. Knowing past records for certain hitters against certain pitchers can help you stay ahead of the game. There are some batters that certain pitchers simply can't get out. For example, Manny Ramirez ate up Andy Pettitte at Yankee Stadium in the 2007 regular season. In eight at-bats against the southpaw, Ramirez had a batting average of .625 with five hits, of which one was a home run. Knowing the history of pitcher-batter matchups will help you decide what outcome is more likely to occur.

Know Who is Hot and Who is Not

You will always want to consider how a specific team, player or players have been playing leading into the game that you are betting on. When teams or players get hot, every other factor can take a back seat. To hitters, the ball looks like a beach ball moving in slow motion. And hot pitchers don't miss their pitches. When certain marquee pitchers get hot or are on their game, guys like Fausto Carmona, Roy Halladay, Josh Beckett and Brandon Webb to name a few, can be virtually un-hittable. On the flipside, slumping pitchers are liable to miss their locations, get themselves into trouble early and often and give up big hits. In regards to slumping hitters - well, if you believe the old adage that "he's got to be due," you've probably lost a lot of money. Follow the trends of hitters. Slumping hitters are not due, they are slumping because they're overdue. Usually, either they are not 100 percent healthy or they have faced a couple of aces in their last few games or they are simply not seeing the ball well and their timing is off. The latter is the toughest slump to break out of, so if you see a slumping great hitter swinging right through fastballs he would normally mash, chances are that he's not due and could take time - a game or two - to gradually work out of a slump.

See the Game

See the game through the eyes of a betting stud. Trust your gut instincts. Keep your eyes peeled and watch players closely for that little edge that could pad your bankroll. A player can find his form in a hurry and it's easy to see it from a good at-bat. For example, if Manny Ramirez has been slumping in his previous games, but as you watch the game you see that he's tearing the cover off the ball when he makes contact, it's something to take note of. For hitters, some slumps are not slumps, but bad breaks and bounces - or they're hitting the ball hard, but always at someone. In many cases, for good players, it's only a matter of time. Now with Bodog Live Baseball betting, that time is for you to decide.