The SHARP Shooter: WEDNESDAY 10/2 ALWC Best Bet

The SHARP shooter, brought to you by Elite Sportsbook and Rhythm City Casino is our daily blog that will find the best bets the sharps on on for each day.

Sharps, in gambling terms, are the professionals in the gambling industry.  Rarely do the sharps fall on the "fun" bets like betting on the favorites or betting on the over total.  The sharps usually go against public popular line-- taking advantage of inflated lines and mismatched numbers due to a large percentage of public bets on a certain play.

The easiest spots to find sharp plays are in nationally televised games, primetime games, and big games between popular teams with, teams with star players and rivals that get a lot of air time during the week on sports media.

It is important that you do your own homework and look at trends, as well.  Simply going contrarian against the popular public bet won't always be profitable.  Find the games that work best for your bet and your budget.  Pay attention to sharp trends-- you rarely want to be on the wrong side of the pros.

LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT WHERE THE PROS ARE LAYING THERE MONEY TODAY...

7:00 P.M. CST, ESPN: Tampa Bay Rays (96-66) at Oakland Athletics (97-65)

Last night's NL Wild Card game was awesome and tonight should be another great post-season baseball game between two very similar teams.  So similar that the the A's only opened at a slight -140 money line favorite.  The A's own on of the best home record in the bigs with a 52-29 advantage.  However, the Rays are the second best road team in baseball at 48-33.

Charlie Morton (16-6, 3.05 ERA) will hurl for the Rays tonight.  In 2 starts versus Oakland this year, Uncle Charlie sported a 0.68 ERA in 13 1/3 innings.  Morton struck out an impressive 240 batters while only allowing 57 walks.

Since returning to the bump after a year long recovery from shoulder surgery, Sean Manaea (4-0, 1.21 ERA) has been dominant.  In his 5 starts, the left hander has K'd 30 batters to just 7 walks in 29 2/3 innings.

The public money is on the Athletics at a 2 to 1 clip.  The PROS have been looking to grab value in the underdog Rays-- the line has moved form +130 to +118.  Based on the value of the play and the fact that the Rays hitters have the best batting average in baseball against lefties-- .272 BA, the sharps are backing Tampa Bay.

The TOTAL has been nailed by the PROS.  This game opened at a typical 8 and has been moved to 7.5.