NOTE: Learn to check yourself from the feet up…every time. This will keep you from missing certain parts of the swing and more easily allow you to remember all details.

Rest Position – How does it look, how does it feel? Are you comfortable? Is your weight about 40% front foot and 60% back foot? Are you on the balls of your feet with your weight bearing on the inside of your slightly flexed knees and again, the balls of your feet? Hands about 4-6” from your body? Tall back side? Head equal distant between both feet, eyes level, so both eyes see the ball?

Load Position – Take a negative move (this is when you “load” with your hands moving toward your back shoulder) and hands held high (at the top of the strike zone). Can you feel the slight pull of muscles from your torso and upper body…like the winding of a spring? Keep your stride shorter rather than longer! Hands go toward the back of your body while front foot strides toward pitcher (some coaches will call this ‘walking away from your hands’).

NOTE: Your body should now be 80% on the back foot and only 20% on front foot with knees slightly flexed.

Contact position – Are you up on the toes of your back foot, is your front foot slightly open at a 45% angle with FRONT KNEE BRACED AND LOCKED? Are your hands in a palm up and palm down position? Head still and between both legs like a stickman drawing? Are your eyes staring right at the point of contact?

Finish – Are you hitting off a firm front side with your front knee locked? Are you still balanced with head between both legs so as not to be lunging forward? Is the bat completely wrapped around your back? Is your head still?

Coach JP’s Note
This is a generic list of checkpoints and should help most players. It is not designed to change any advanced players who now have a set schedule and their own way of doing things. This should supply you with solid information that will keep you in a good, strong hitting position throughout the entire swing.

There have been many styles of baseball caps throughout the years, ten different styles were advertised in 1888 in Spaulding’s Base Ball Guide. You could buy a baseball cap for 12 cents to $2.

Now baseball caps are available in numerous styles and colors. You can get a baseball cap that represents your favorite team. Baseball caps are sold at all the professional games and in sporting good and specialty stores around the world.

Baseball caps are worn by people of all walks of life and income levels. You see baseball caps not only at the games but at restaurants, parties, on the beach and in airports.

People sometimes wear baseball caps to make a statement about which team they support. The lucky ones have had their baseball caps signed by a favorite player. These baseball caps are treasured by their owners.

Baseball caps are comfortable to wear and adjustable. They are often made of fabric that “breathes” making them a cool choice even on a hot day. Baseball caps keep the sun out of your face and even deflect raindrops.

There is no age limit to the wearing of a baseball cap. From the smallest of children to the oldest fan, there is a baseball cap made to suit nearly everyone.

Whether you are a faithful attendee of the pro baseball games or just someone who likes to wear baseball caps, check out all the baseball caps and find one or two or three…. that is calling your name.

Money line results are decided by an event’s straight-up winner, without regard to any point spread, since there is no point spread. Odds makers set the money line so that more money must be risked on the favorite (the expected winner) and less money on the underdog in an effort to balance the willingness of bettors to back the respective sides of a contest. Many things go into a money line, which makes for another great article. However, in terms of the average bettor’s concern, the money line allows you to profit more when you feel strong about an underdog’s chances of winning. In more private circles, money lines are the equivalent to a team winning ‘straight up’, meaning without run/point help.

So why use this money line system instead of a point spread? If a point spread were used with baseball, the smallest amount a line could be moved would be a ½ run, which would be much more significant than a ½-point move in basketball or football. Using a point spread in baseball would not allow an evening of the action with the necessary precision, so rather, a money line is used.

So, how do you read a money line? It’s actually quite simple. Let’s take a line SD (-115) @ TB (+104). This was an actual recent MLB line during interleague play. To bet the favorite, the San Diego Padres, an investor would have to wager $115 to win $100, while a bet on the Devil Rays would only require a $100 to win $104. The numbers scale appropriately based on your actual wager amount. However, the line is always based on amounts of $100 for listing purposes.

Every $115 bet on the Padres nets a $100 profit if they win (plus the return of the $115 risked). If the Devil Rays pull off the upset, $100 bet on the underdog would profit $104 (plus the return of the $100 risked).

Keep in mind that sportsbooks only make a commission (also known as juice or vigorish) when the favorite loses. In this example, if the Padres were to lose the game, the book pays off $104 to underdog bettors while collecting $115 from favorite bettors, for an $11 profit.

If the Padres win as expected, favorite bettors collect $100 while dog bettors lose $100 – resulting in zero profit for the sportsbook. The bigger the favorite, the less likely the underdog will win (and the less likely the book will collect their commission). To compensate for making a profit less often, offshore sportsbooks increase the spread between the favorite’s lay price and the underdog’s payoff, making their commission bigger when the longshot underdog does win. This is why comparing online sportsboook odds with Vegas odds will often show a difference.

As with most things, the more you learn, the more you need to know. Now that you can read a MLB line, other questions come into play. Is it more profitable to wager online or offline? What does the +- 1.5 mean? Are money lines more profitable when offered in other sports than point spreads? Any good handicapper should be able to freely answer these questions for you. So get in there, search around and start profiting today. Major League Baseball and money line wagers can work wonders on your profit margin in your sports investing portfolio! By the way, the Padres won this game, 7-1.