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Betting Baseball by Michael Murray is the best book on handicapping baseball published to date. This book is a must have for anyone looking to handicap professional baseball.
For the beginning bettor, Murray covers the basics of betting baseball by giving a thorough explanation of the money line, run line, and totals. Also included is a list of quality offshore sportsbooks to consider betting with.
With the basics covered, Murray begins to dive into the various aspects of handicapping a professional baseball game. Aspects such as home field advantage, measuring offense, dealing with injuries, and pitching are covered.
For measuring offense, Murray gives a solid explanation of measuring a player or team's offensive power rating. The power rating is fairly simple to calculate, and an explanation on calculating this power rating (OPS) using on base percentage (OB%), slugging percentage (SLG%), and expected at-bats is covered. Lastly, a section covering injuries is included to provide the handicapper with a method for adjusting the power rating due to injury.
Next, Murray dives into various aspects of pitching. Murray starts with uncovering the impact pitching has on a baseball game (it's less than what you might think). Next, he describes various pitching statistics useful to the handicapper. These statistics include ERA, expected ERA (xERA), WHIP, ground to fly ball ratio, and much more.
Lastly, Murray brings it all together for the reader. He describes how to create your own line with offensive and pitching statistics. He also goes on to describe other important factors the handicapper should take into account: how the weather affects the game, other park factors, and umpires.
If you only have time to read one book on handicapping baseball then this is the one you should read. It is well worth the price.
I give this book a five out of five on the Benjamin scale.
- Ryan J. Parker |
Ryan's sports handicapping blog
