mail bag e

  • Monday, March 8, 2021

Las Vegas - Quick trip over to London where we're gonna drop a few pounds on Chelsea over Everton. Really just two words you need to know. Thomas Tuchel. Since Double T took over as the manager of the Blues, they have NOT lost a game, posting seven wins and three draws. And they have been ULTRA-STINGY at their Stamford Bridge home, with four clean sheets/bagels the last four times out. Lets see. NO goals in four games. Zero divided by four. Hmmmmm. That's an average of ZERO goals per game. If you like history, I can tell you that Chelsea is unbeaten in the last 25 Premier League home games against Everton. Did I say TWENTY FIVE??? And if you like to handicap off of goal differential, here you go. Chelsea has scored 42 and allowed just 25 for a +17, while Everton has netted 39 and allowed 33 for a +6. Gonna go Blue for the win, and since the visiting Toffees have kept three clean sheets the last three, and are very stingy as well, we might tickle the draw at +$300.

ECK-MAIL REPORT: For the inquisitive readers of America's Line, we will dip into our E-mailbag each week to answer some of your questions.

Anthony B. writes...

"Just curious, with a gigantic slate on CBB and in the fall CFB on Saturdays, along with other sports, do you try and handicap all games? Do you have a system or database that uploads every day? Does your process give you results that are different than the line? And do you focus on those?"
Yo Anthony, that's a great question, and THX for writing. If anyone tells you that they can accurately handicap 50/60/70 games in one day and that they have a handle on each one, RUN!!! It's basically impossible and I know I can NOT do it. So, I try and focus on teams I know, mostly the major conferences, and eliminate, with no disrespect, teams like Elon, Mercer, Austin Peay, East Tennessee State, UL-Lafayette, etc. You get the picture. And as you say, I’m looking at the NBA, ice, soccer, boxing, UFC, golf and anything else that has a pulse, so yea, not gonna handicap the entire college board.

Of course we have a database with every team, every score, every spread, every total, home record, away record and other delicious analytics. And it IS updated EVERY day. Also like to look at my old friend Jeff Sagarin in USA Today for his hoop ratings, as well as this kid called Haslametrics.com. Both do a great job. Then we check into injuries and COVID-19 related quarantines. Finally, we always take a hard look at revenge games as well. And, then, we just keep GRINDING!!!

If you wanna jump into our E-mailbag, it's, ben@americasline.com.

----------------------------------------------------