Finding Starting Pitching Value

Finding value is the key to betting baseball and trying to find that value with big name starting pitchers is often difficult. With the season a quarter of the way completed, we can usually separate out who is going to continue to be strong and who is in for long seasons. There are special cases where we have some top starters struggling but who could be poised to turn things around. Now is the time to bite since once they get back into a groove, the value will be long gone.

Dontrelle Willis (1-5 5.12 ERA; 1-9 Team Record -8.6 Units)

Even though Willis is on one of the worst teams in baseball, his struggles are a pretty big surprise. He had a three-game stretch where he allowed 21 earned runs in just 14.2 innings and that is the main cause for his inflated ERA. Six of his other seven outings have been quality starts including his last two so he looks to be back in good form. Pitching at home has been a disaster where he has a 10.18 ERA compared to an ERA of 2.72 on the road.

Willis is not getting good run support as he has received just four runs total in his last three starts and he is getting just 3.1 rpg on the season. Playing on a bad team is tough mentally but as long as he keeps plugging along, he will be fine. He has been an underdog in his last four starts so the value is there but it been a lost cause. Its just a matter of getting into the win column. His next start will be at home against the Mets on Friday so expect to se a big dog price on his shoulder.

Andy Pettitte (3-5 5.03 ERA; 3-7 Team Record -6.5 Units)

Pettitte has been inconsistent this season following a spectacular 2005 season. With Roger Clemens not on the roster, he has some added pressure as the now number two guy but it should not be affecting him this much. His big struggles have come on the road where he is 0-2 with a 7.88 ERA in three starts. Seven of his 10 outings have come at Minute Maid Park and there is value there. In his first two starts at home, he was a -225 and -190 favorite while his last two he was a favorite of -145 and -115.

Pettitte is allowing a ton of baserunners and that has been the biggest problem. He has a WHIP of 1.58 on the season compared to a WHIP of 1.03 last year. He had 41 walks all of last season and he is already at 22 in 2006 and is coming off a 5-walk performance against Texas over the weekend. The control will likely get better and that will put some Ws in the column. He will be pitching at Washington on Thursday and that could be the break he needs as he is 3-0 with a 2.76 ERA in five career starts against the Nationals.

Livan Hernandez (2-5 5.51 ERA; 2-8 Team Record -6.5 Units)

Hernandez has been dominant the last three seasons but has started very slow out of the gate this year. His 5.51 ERA is higher than what he has finished at in any year throughout his career so either he is going the wrong way or he is bound to turn things around. Im guessing its the latter and he looks to be heading that way already. His ERA was close to seven at the beginning of the month but his last two starts have been very solid and he will look to feed off those recent outings.

He is playing on a team with one of the worst offenses in the league and it shows in his run support. He is receiving only 3.9 rpg and has gotten three runs or less in five of his last six outings. RFK Stadium is not a hitters park yet his ERA at home is a whopping 6.84 but that should continue to decrease. On the plus side, he has allowed only two home runs in his last six starts after giving up nine long balls in his first four. He squares off against the Dodgers next time out.

Matt Fargo is a documented member of the Professional Handicappers League. Read all of his articles at http://www.procappers.com/Matt_Fargo.htm

Dear Margo - DEAR MARGO: I am 50 and recently married for the first time.

Make Money Playing Video Games

Each year billions of dollars are earned by the video gaming industry through the sales of hardware and software. Rather than risk a nickel of that potential income, games creators work very hard at putting out products that are not only fun and entertaining, but that are also stable and that make sense from a playability point of view.

This is where you come in. As the tester, you take a game and break it down. Play each and every possible angle in the game and look for flaws or design issues that the programmers will need to fix before a full release.

The Freelance Tester

There are gamers who have a bit more experience as well as motivation that helps them take their game testing ambitions to the next level. These gamers will search out companies who produce games and offer to test their upcoming release for bugs, playability and other features. This type of work pays well but it requires the video game tester to be able to communicate and write very clearly. The tester must be able to communicate his / her thoughts regarding why a certain aspect of a game was good or bad. As a freelance video game tester, you'll play unreleased games and provide written feedback to the developer and return this information within the companies deadline. Another aspect of the freelancers expectations would be confidentiality. With the vast amounts of money and time invested by software developers, security is one of their biggest concerns, so you will be expected to keep all the information discreet. They must feel that the game tester they hire is not only a video game enthusiast, but a professional who will not reveal any unreleased game information.

Becoming A Full Time Company Game Tester

This is the pinnacle of video game testing. It is possible to get hired by large game developers for a full time game testing position, but the jobs are very difficult to get. They require a high level of communication and writing skills plus plenty of experience. Getting the full time gig however can offer a high paying, secure job doing what you enjoy most - gaming! On the other hand, you may spend 40 hours a week playing the exact same game and recording multiple reports on game strategies, functionality, game maneuvering, game errors and character design. Many gamers build up the experience needed to get these types of positions by working as freelance video game testers until they have built up a solid resume of completed assignments. A bit of time spent sharpening up your writing skills combined with your interest in gaming and a desire to share your knowledge with others can easily add up to a great job!

I've got blisters on my thumbs and bloodshot eyes, what could possibly make that worthwhile? Oh yeah, getting paid to earn them. You need to check this out. http://www.squidoo.com/videogamecareers

Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP(AFP/Getty Images/File/Scott Olson)" border="0" />AP - An adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign who was forced to resign earlier this year after calling Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster" is now working on the transition team for the agency Clinton is expected to lead.

Fix Xbox 360 Red Lights

Xbox 360 is one of the best gaming console from Microsoft, however being compact it has got some problems. It has one of the excellent gaming features all assembled at one tiny space and lack of proper cooling devices makes it vulnerable especially when operated for a couple of hours. It get heated and if used further can develop many more problems. Once your gaming console is having some problem, it is either displayed or a red lights glows on your Xbox 360.

Xbox 360 red light errors can either be an overheating problem or it can be a GPU (graphic processing unit) problem. First of all whenever you observe a red light error in your Xbox 360, you need to shut down the machine and place it at an open place. As majority of the problem arise due to heating, cooling the machine from outside by using a fan will help in fixing the problem temporarily. If even after cooling it from outside it does not work, you will need to fix the Xbox 360 red lights and either you will need the machine to Microsoft for fixing the problem or you can do the job yourself.

Once Xbox 360 red lights problem occurs in your favorite gaming console, you will have to ship it to Microsoft and after the expiry of warranty period; Microsoft charges $140 for fixing the problem. You will have to bear the charges of shipping also and one of the major disadvantage of sending your console for fixing Xbox 360 red lights error to Microsoft is that you will have to wait for at least one month and in between you will not be able to play game on your favorite gaming console.

If you want to fix Xbox 360 red lights yourself, you can do so by taking the help of a DIY (do it yourself guide) available at Internet. The video guide will help you by providing step-by-step instructions so that you can fix the Xbox 360 red light problems yourself.

E! Online - As you may have heard, Kanye West announced at the American Music Awards that he wants to be the next Elvis. Then West had to take it even further.

Warcraft Millionaire Guide Review

World of Warcraft gold is hard to get. It takes quite a lot of effort in the early stages of the game to gather enough gold to even afford the basic spell upgrades. It does get a little easier in the later stages of the game, especially since Blizzard implemented the daily quests, but even so an epic flying mount can take weeks of dailies to afford.

But all is not lost. There are plenty of tricks that players can use to supercharge their gold harvesting. In fact, there are so many tricks that not even veteran players know them all.

It's fortunate then that some players have invested a lot of time and effort in uncovering all of these secrets and writing them down into guides. One of these guides is Warcraft Millionaire. The author Brad Johnson, has claimed to have made over one million gold spread over several characters.

An extraordinary claim indeed.

I decided to check into this claim and purchased Warcraft Millionaire. First of all let me say that I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of these sort of guides, while they have might good information in them, don't really have a lot of information. They can be rather thin sometimes. Warcraft Millionaire doesn't fall into this category. It contains just over 200 pages spread across seven PDF books.

It is chock full of lists, locations, and details of all sorts of methods of making gold in the game. These methods include, but are not limited to, making the most of the auction house, places to grind the gold, and in game drops that are worth a decent amount of gold. A lot of what is in this guide is commonsense, but it's all wrapped up into a concise well-written package.

Finally, it is worth saying this, even if you don't need a lot of gold in a hurry, this guide also contains a lot of valuable information for the average player. For example, one section in the guide talks about the best locations to search for certain types of pets. Sure, these pets can be worth a lot on the auction house, but if you just want a pet for fun, Warcraft Millionaire can tell you where to look.

While I haven't yet made a million gold using this guide, I have no doubt that it's quite possible to do so by applying the techniques that Johnson writes about. And with the approach of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Blizzard is sure to include more ways for players to spend their gold.

This guide should be able to help with that.

About the author: Rip Norta is an avid World of Warcraft player and gamer. He has been playing WoW since launch, and other online games since 2000. For a more comprehensive review of the Warcraft Millionaire Guide, visit Top eBook Reviews.

E! Online - As you may have heard, Kanye West announced at the American Music Awards that he wants to be the next Elvis. Then West had to take it even further.