Baseball Averages That The Sports Bettor Needs To Know Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

Since baseball season is so long and tedious, 162 games, there will inherently be streaks, both good and bad.  When a team starts to hit the ball and score runs, such a team will win games.  Since hitting is contagious, everyone on the roster will start to hit and generate runs, which will  translates into wins.  The more a team is successful in hitting and scoring runs, the more inclined they will hit and score in the future.  On the other hand, if a team starts to slump they will start to lose.  Loosing, like winning, is contagious.  Once a player starts to get cold and stops hitting, this will transfer over to the other players.  It is, then, up to the managerial staff to try to stem this outbreak and control the infection before it spreads throughout the whole team.

In baseball betting, there is are alot of statistics to consider. The average sports bettor does not take or have the time to go through all of the stats that are presented for each baseball game.  But, it is through the analysis of such data that the best plays arise.  Since there is a ton of information and trends that develop over the course of a baseball season, the savvy sports baseball bettor must be mindful of the law of averages as it pertains to baseball betting.

In pitching, most pitchers have a constant lifetime earned run average (ERA). Although, there may be fluctuations from this number, for the most part, most pitchers will gravitate towards this ERA.  Although, it is bad to bet against streaks, such a pitcher will inevitably get battered by the opposition.  In betting terms, go against a pitcher if such a pitcher is pitching over his head.  On the other hand, go against a pitcher if he has recently thrown a good game in his last time out.  On the contrary, if a pitcher has a bad game last time out, go for such a pitcher the next time he pitches.  He will usually pitch a much better game and will most likely win the game.  Thus, the ERA of a pitcher is very important to know for the sports bettor.

Similar to pitching, batting can also be looked at in terms of averages.  If a hitter is ‘hitting’ over his average, expect such a batter to start to gravitate to his lifetime batting average.  If a batter starts to slump, he will not have many hits.  He will struggle at the plate and will not connect with anything.  On the other hand, if a batter is smoking hot, he will hit anything anywhere and anytime. 

What exactly is a baseball batting average?  A baseball batting average is a ratio of hits to times at bat. For example, a player at his first game might have three chances at bat, and one hit as a result.  The result would be 1:3 or divided, would represent, .330. Such an average is actually quite high. One game would not provide a successful evaluation of a player’s abilities.

Hits are not counted even if the pitcher walks the player by throwing four balls, or hitting the batter with a ball.  Over time batting average settles. Most professional players have a batting average above a .300.  This means in the average game, they will probably get one hit. An exception would be  pitchers who can carry a team.  They usually get a little leeway in batting averages that are not afforded to other professional players.

In betting terms, the sports baseball bettor must take the above into account when betting on games.  A streak is defined as one that repeats the same result more than 3 times; so, if a team starts to win or lose 3 games in a row, a streak will have started. It will behoove the sports bettor to jump on the train before the oddsmakers catch wind of such a streak.  When a team starts to streak greatly, their moneyline prices will be over inflated, thus loosing value on such a team.  Thus, it is important to jump on such teams early in the streak, and jump off them at the tail end.

Overall, if a team is good (a team with a winning percentage) and starts to slump, such a team will surely bounce back sooner or later.  This can be explained by the fact that good teams are inherently good.  If such teams start to loose, they will soon be on their winning ways again in the near future.  On the other hand, if a loosing team starts to win, they will not usually continue on such a pattern.  One should be careful to back such teams to win.

If you have any comments regarding baseball averages, please email me.