D-Backs settle with reliever Breslow

Baseball Betting Lines

02/09/2012 - Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Arizona Diamondbacks avoided arbitration on Thursday with Craig Breslow, signing the veteran reliever to a one-year contract.

The D-Backs acquired the 31-year-old lefty and starting pitcher Trevor Cahill from Oakland in December.

Breslow went 0-2 with a 3.79 earned run average in 67 appearances for the A's and led all relief pitchers with a career-high five pickoffs last season.

For his career, Breslow has compiled a 12-17 record with six saves and a 3.06 ERA in 295 games with San Diego, Boston, Cleveland, Minnesota and Oakland.

Thwgreek Baseball Betting News

<< Bayern signs Swiss starlet Shaqiri from Basel
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich acquired Switzerland starlet Xherdan Shaqiri from Basel on Thursday and signed him to a four-year contract. The 20-year-old Shaqiri will join Bayern this summer on a contract through the 2015

<< Hoffenheim fires coach Stanislawski
Sinsheim, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hoffenheim and coach Holger Stanislawski have parted way following the club's exit from the Pokal Cup, it was announced Thursday. Hoffenheim has struggled under Stanislawski, who took over before the se

<< Symetra Tour announces 2012 slate
Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Symetra Tour announced its schedule for the 2012 season on Thursday. The schedule for the LPGA's developmental tour will have 16 events in 12 states and one in Mexico, and includes a purse of

<< Swansea signs coach Rodgers to long-term deal
Swansea, Wales (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Swansea City signed coach Brendan Rodgers to a 3 1/2-year contract extension Thursday through the 2014-15 season. Rodgers, 39, led the Wales club to the Premier League in his first full season and has the cl

<< Ticats reach deals with pair of receivers
Hamilton, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tiger-Cats signed Bakari Grant to a contract extension that will keep the receiver in Hamilton through the 2014 season. Grant caught 42 passes for 507 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie l

Bayern's Schweinsteiger tears ankle ligament >>
Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bayern Munich and German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger faces another layoff after tearing an ankle ligament in a Pokal Cup win over Stuttgart, the club announced Thursday. Schweinsteiger, who was sidel

Hawks sign Erick Dampier >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Hawks have added some depth to a banged-up front line by signing veteran center Erick Dampier to a 10-day contract. Centers Al Horford and Jason Collins are both sidelined with injuries, le

England names Pearce interim coach >>
London, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - England named Stuart Pearce interim coach Thursday, one day after Fabio Capello resigned. Pearce will manage England against Netherlands in a friendly later this month, while the English FA searches for a

Real Madrid's Altintop sustains calf injury >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid's Hamit Altintop has sustained a muscle tear in his left calf and will likely be sidelined for a few weeks, the La Liga club announced Thursday. Although Real Madrid gave no exact timetable for

Koivu back in Wild lineup Thursday >>
St. Paul, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild will have captain Mikko Koivu in the lineup when they host the Northwest Division-leading Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. Koivu missed eight games with a shoulder injury suffered

FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.