Get to the Point

By Jimmy Harris

Jimmy has a buddy who's a trend junkie. He does all his betting according to the trends. Sometimes he goes on long winning streaks and rakes in the cash, but he's also known for a couple of lengthy losing skids that nearly bottomed out his bankroll.

So are trends the way to go? Jimmy went through the trends list for Thursday's baseball schedule and selected four games. Here are the results. (Also, there is a full Baseball Trend Sheet with the top trends for every game everyday in the Pointspread.com baseball betting section, click here and find Trend Sheet).

The first game on the list was Philadelphia at Atlanta. The trends sheet showed that Philly had won six straight over Atlanta, and they had actually owned the Braves in Atlanta lately. So I took Philadelphia as a +150 underdog at . Result: Philadelphia topped Atlanta 4-1 and Jimmy gets paid.

Game No. 2 was Baltimore at Kansas City. The trends here showed that the Orioles were 5-1 against Kansas City in their last six matchups, and a solid 14-2 in their last 16 games against them. So following the trends, I took Baltimore +150 at . Result: The Royals clipped the Orioles 10-7, so no money for Jimmy.

Game No. 3 featured the Dodgers at Houston. The trends here pointed to a definite UNDER on the total. Starting for the Dodgers was Chad Billingsley who had pitched in four straight Under games, while Houston's offense has disappeared at times since the summer arrived. The total was set at 8.5. Result: The final score was Dodgers 5, Astros 2, so Jimmy gets paid.

Finishing off my trendy picks were Milwaukee and Arizona. Here the trends showed that the Diamondbacks have had a lot of trouble with the Brewers lately, as Milwaukee was 5-1 in their last six games against the Snakes and 11-5 in their last 16. Also, the Diamondbacks have hit the skids lately with a 2-6 mark in their last eight games. At , the Brewers were a -155 favorite. Result: A 6-5 win by the Diamondbacks and no money for Jimmy.

Overall trends betting result: Jimmy's trends experiment resulted in a 2-2 record. Basically, some trends turn out to be bang-on and sometimes they're meaningless. The money lies in picking the right baseball trends to follow.

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