Blue Jays designate 3B Encarnacion for assignment

Baseball Betting Lines

06/21/2010 - Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Blue Jays have designated third baseman Edwin Encarnacion for assignment.

Encarnacion, 27, was batting .200 with nine home runs and 22 RBI in 37 games this season. He was sidelined from April 15 through May 17 because of a sore right shoulder and missed 30 games during that stretch.

Toronto acquired Encarnacion from Cincinnati in a four-player deal at the trade deadline last year.

He has a career .257 average with 88 home runs and 308 RBI.

The Blue Jays also announced pitcher Dustin McGowan will undergo an arthroscopic procedure on his right shoulder Tuesday. He hasn't pitched in the majors since 2008 while recovering from shoulder surgery. No timetable has been set for McGowan to resume throwing.

Toronto activated pitcher Scott Richmond from the 60-day disabled list and optioned him to Single-A Dunedin.

Richmond is returning from a right shoulder impingement that sidelined him during spring training. He went 8-11 with a 5.52 ERA in 27 games (24 starts) for the Blue Jays in 2009.

Wwwezscores Baseball Betting News

<< D-Backs recall Gillespie, option Roberts
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks have recalled outfielder Cole Gillespie from Triple-A Reno. Gillespie batted .256 with a home run and four runs batted in during his first stint in the big leagues this season

<< 2010 NHL Entry Draft: Players to Watch
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It's been almost two weeks since the Chicago Blackhawks were center stage of the hockey world, but on Friday night in Los Angeles, the Edmonton Oilers will get to take a turn in the spotlight. The Oilers h

<< McDowell jumps to 13th in world ranking
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Graeme McDowell became the first European to win the U.S. Open in 40 years on Sunday and that helped him leap 24 places to No. 13 in the latest world golf rankings. McDowell become the eighth European

<< New Orleans Hornets 2010 Draft Preview
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Obviously the New Orleans Hornets need a healthy Chris Paul to get back to the NBA postseason but the team also needs a significant defensive presence inside, something that was lacking last season. Last summer's trade tha

<< Cardinals' Holliday earns top NL honor
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday has been named the National League Player of the Week for the period ending June 20. In six games during the week, Holliday batted .435 (10-for-23) with a ma

Coyotes re-sign LW Pyatt >>
Glendale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Coyotes re-signed left wing Taylor Pyatt to a two-year contract on Monday. The 28-year-old Pyatt had 12 goals and 23 points with a career-high plus-13 rating in 74 games last season, his first w

Jeff Gordon became driver enemy number one at Sonoma >>
Sonoma, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Gordon is a four-time NASCAR Cup champion and a five-time race winner at Infineon Raceway, but at the conclusion of Sunday's race at the Northern California road course, Gordon was a marked man in the garage.

Nationals send P Lannan to minors >>
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Washington Nationals have optioned opening-day starter John Lannan to Double-A Harrisburg. The left-hander was 2-5 with a 5.76 earned run average in 14 starts this season. In a correspond

Federer, Djokovic survive; Roddick rolls at Wimbledon >>
Wimbledon, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Six-time champion Roger Federer was on the ropes but managed to avoid an opening-round shocker against game Colombian Alejandro Falla at Wimbledon on Monday. Novak Djokovic, like Federer, also needed

Thousands of fans cheer Lakers in tribute >>
LOS ANGELES (AP) -Thousands of fans cheered the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers during a victory parade Monday that players promised to repeat next year with a third consecutive title.Police reported a largely well-behaved crowd. Nine people were ar

SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.