Online sports betting will list the Toronto Blue Jays as underdogs in their season opening game at Texas with Shaun Marcum the starting pitcher. The Blue Jays no longer have Roy Halladay so Marcum is the number one starter. Toronto is not given a lot of respect in offshore sports betting but Marcum is a solid starter.
Online sports betting on April 5th will favor Texas since they are at home in their opener against Toronto. In past years it was all about Halladay on opening day for the Blue Jays but not any more since he is in Philadelphia. Marcum is now the man for the Blue Jays. “It’s something special,” Marcum said. “I’m excited, I’m looking forward to it. When I came to spring training, after rehabbing last year and Doc got traded, (opening day) wasn’t my No. 1 priority. It was to stay healthy. That’s my goal for the season, to stay healthy and make all my starts.”
You may not recognize Marcum in offshore sports betting because he missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery. There have only been two pitchers since 2002 that missed all of the previous season and then started opening day the next year. They were Carl Pavano in 2007 for the Yankees and Scott Erickson in 2002 for Baltimore.
Halladay has pitched opening day for the Blue Jays for the past seven years. “It goes back to what Doc told me,” manager Cito Gaston said. “He said, `Hey Cito, you’re really going to enjoy watching this kid pitch.’ I didn’t see it until this spring. He earned it.”
Toronto plays in the very tough American League East with the Yankees and the Red Sox. They will need Marcum to lead their pitching staff with Halladay gone. “The main thing is I’m not a big rah-rah cheerleading type guy, but you have to have fun,” Marcum said. “You have to keep loose. That’s what I’ve learned coming up even from college. It seemed that the guys who were a little uptight and pressed too much were the guys that struggled a little bit.”
Marcum will now be matched up against other top starting pitchers in online sports betting. “In ’08, when I got off to such a good start, it seemed like I was facing No. 1’s,” Marcum said, “I was facing Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez and a lot of those guys. It seemed like I pitched better against those guys.” He will get a lot of chances this season to repeat that success.
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