“Listed” Vs. “Action” On MLB Bets

By Robert Ferringo

Wednesday’s Texas-Cleveland wager were voided by a late pitching change. Rangers starter C.J. Wilson was supposed to take the hill but was put under by a bout of food poisoning.

Now, when you place your Major League Baseball wagers you generally have two options:

“Action”

or

“Listed Pitchers”

If you list a baseball bet as “action” it means that you are choosing a side to play regardless of any late pitching changes. If you chose “listed pitchers” you obviously are saying that you only want your bet to be official if the pitchers listed at the time you placed your wager take the mound.

Also, what many sportsbooks will do if you choose “action” and there is a pitching change is they will actually void your original wager, post new odds on the new pitching matchups (and when there is a late pitching change the odds are always way out of whack) and then recalculate your bet based on the new odds.

So if you play the Mets for $50 at +120, but their opponent’s pitcher is a late scratch the books can post the Mets at -170 and alter your $50 bet.

I know this can be confusing. But the bottom line is that Doc’s Sports always recommends that you place any baseball bet from any of our handicappers as “listed pitchers”. This will protect you from any such changes.

Our handicappers grade their plays accordingly. For instance, on Monday there was a late change in the Pittsburgh-San Francisco game when the Pirates pulled Ross Ohlendorf. Both Doc and myself had action on the Giants, who won easily. But that bet didn’t count toward either handicapper’s record because of the pitching change.

Naturally, there is a catch with my picks:

Throughout the season I release “System Plays”. These bets are about 98 percent based on systems that have nothing to do with individual pitching matchups. As such, any System Play that I release should be bet as “action”. We don’t care about pitching changes in these games. In fact, in most instances a pitching change will likely help us. Since most of my system plays are on underdogs and small favorites that means that generally the opposition has the stronger pitcher. So if they change arms that’s going to help our side.

So play any System Plays for myself – and only myself – as “action”. Everything else should be played as “listed pitchers”. I know it can be a pain in the ass. And if you don’t understand or don’t want to take the time then just play everything as “listed”. It should only make a difference in about a half-dozen or so games each year. And already it’s worked against us once (San Fran) and for us once (I had Cleveland tonight). And these things usually even out anyway.