Baseball Betting Tips

If your looking for baseball betting tips and keys to help increase your winning percentage you've come to the right place!

While baseball looks like an easy sport to beat, it's just like anything else, you need to study up on how to do so otherwise your bookie will have the last laugh. Listed below we highlight some things that are often overlooked when one does their baseball handicapping. Some have nothing at all to do with handicapping. Enjoy!

1. Make sure that your playing at a dimeline sportsbook. They simply have better odds and pay more.

2. Exercise proper money management. Never play more than 2% of your bankroll no matter how good a team looks. Often times the best looking bets end up being the biggest losers.

3. Never chase losses. This is a sure-fire way to go broke. Ever heard of throwing good money after bad? This is a prime example.

4. Study both starting pitchers recent starts. A starting pitcher is only as good as his last 2-3 starts. Season stats show an average of how a pitcher does. Recent stats show how that pitcher is doing at present. Often times you will find a big descrepancy in stats.

5. Check how the pitchers have done over the course of their career on the field their playing on. We've discovered some mind boggling stats by doing this.

6. Check to see how a pitcher has done over the course of career vs. the current opponent. This is another stat that "at times" will reveal some great supporting evidence to help you make a play. Example: Roy Oswalt is something like 15-0 vs. the Cincinnati Reds in his career. You don't want to bet on the Reds and hear an announcer say that on TV after the game has started when you could have found that out with a little homework.

7. Check the past couple day's boxscores to see how much the manager has worked the bullpen. To many amateur cappers dismay, a manager often times has no plan to use certain pitchers in the game because they've thrown too many innings in the past couple games.

8. Shop for the best odds. When you go to the store you compare prices on bread and other household items, why wouldn't you consider playing at multiple sportsbooks and pricing out the odds to assure your getting the best possible value?

9. Consider learning to bet on totals. Did you know that totals have lesser limits than sides? There's a reason for this. TOTALS ARE EASIER TO BEAT!

10. Avoid betting on your favorite team. Your opinion is a biased one and your judgement is skewed.

11. Avoid playing parlays. Its hard enough to win one game much less 2, 3, 4 or more!

12. Always check injury reports before placing bets. How'd you like to have a bet on the Yankees and find out Arod is sitting out?

13. Check weather reports. Inclimate weather and/or winds may make for an easy under or over play depending on which way the wind is blowing.

14. Consider joining a baseball betting forum. People from all over the world come together to share regional info and picks. Some of these guys are really good, better than the pros, so you can coattail (ride) their picks for FREE. Others are horrible and make great fades (go against's). Don't ever tell a fade he's a good fade, just embrace him and enjoy the profits.

15. Watch lots of games. There's handicapping helpers that you'd only ever get a grasp on by watching the actual games.

16. Try to watch or listen to pregame reports. Some great info can be found here!

17. Try to avoid systems. Many are crap, unproven over time and have no supporting evidence.

18. Study and handicap the games. It will raise your winning percentage.

19. Always consider and look for underdogs first. Baseball is a unique sport in that there is no point spread involved. This means that you can bet moneyline dogs, hit less than 50% and still be a winner. Try to receive the vigorish rather than paying it.

20. Keep track of your records. Track and monitor how your sides, totals, runlines and parlays do. Break them down even further to see if favorites or underdogs are treating you good/bad. Often times you will spot strong points and weaknesses in your game. Once you've identified these, pay more attention to the strong and eliminate the weak.

21. Study pitcher vs. hitter stats. Some hitters simply own certain pitchers (See Catcher Mark Redmond vs. Tom Glavine) and some pitchers simply dominate certain hitters.

22. Avoid chalky favorites (High vig, heavy odds.) Laying -240 on a game and then losing means you have to win 2.4 times to break even. OUCH.

23. Learn about WHIP. While we list it late in this article, it's simply one of the most important handicapping stats you'll ever use in any sport.

24. Check lineups. We noted above to check injury reports but you need to check lineups too because some players take days off. Most MLB scoreboards show the lineups prior to the game. Well worth checking into.

25. Never put all your eggs in one basket. Betting the heck out of a game because you like it, then tying it into all your parlays etc is gambling suicide. No matter how much you like a game bet it just like any other game because often times these are the games that kill a bettors bankroll.

26. Take external variables into account.

Read this great article on Rating Pitchers.

Related: Baseball Betting Strategies

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