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The Boston Red Sox have made it clear they are looking to make a fresh start after trading four of their highest-paid players to the LA Dodgers, in a trade that has been seen by fans betting MLB as one of the league’s biggest in decades. Starting pitcher Josh Beckett, first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez, left fielder, Carl Crawford, and infielder, Nick Punto, have left Boston to sign for the Dodgers, with James Loney, Ivan De Jesus, Allen Webster, and two as yet unnamed players heading the other way to join the Red Sox. While the deal will strengthen the Dodgers’ squad as they prepare for their playoff hopes, it will give the Red Sox a chance to rebuild after a tough couple of years. This season has been another write-off for the Boston faithful, and general manager, Ben Cherington, has made it clear that these wholesale changes have been made in order to get the club back to where they need to be. "I think we recognize that we are not who we want to be right now," said Cherrington. "We needed to make more than cosmetic changes. To build that we required more of a bold move to give us an opportunity to really reshape the roster, reshape the team." It is fair to say that not many of the Red Sox squad can be happy with how they have performed over this season, but this trade has still come as a shock to many in the game. With a saving of around $270 million in salaries, the Red Sox have a great chance to now go and assemble a squad capable of getting the franchise back into the big time, with Cherrington knowing this could be the defining moment in Boston’s history. For more MLB trade rumours, as well as the best odds, picks, and news for the current season, head over to the Bet365 website.

A heavy defeat to the Texas Rangers only further deepened the sense of disappointment felt throughout the Minnesota Twins, after another tough American League season. The loss took the Twins’ MLB scores to a 1-8 on their current road trip and a season-worst 24 games below .500, leaving no one in any doubt that this year has been another failure. Despite such a disappointing year, the Twins will not be changing their head coach, with interim boss, Terry Ryan, receiving the backing of the team’s owner, Jim Pohlad. The coach has been beset by bad luck this season – with a string of injuries robbing Ryan of his star players. Pohlad has made it clear that Ryan is the man to lead the club back up the ladder next year, despite admitting that it had been a tough year to be a Twins fan. "It's very frustrating. There's only one way to describe it, and that's losing sucks. When Terry wants to remove the interim (label) from his title, we'll welcome that," Pohlad said, after watching his team’s latest lopsided defeat. "We don't keep revisiting that every week or every month. We don't keep saying to him, 'Terry, why are you still interim?' Whenever he wants to take that way, he can, as far as we're concerned. He has my full confidence.” Players like Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Josh Willingham prove that there is enough quality in this Twins squad for the team to not be struggling at the bottom of the league. If Ryan can keep the majority of his key players injury-free next season, then this Minnesota squad is more than capable of being a real force in 2013, a belief backed up by the early MLB picks on Bet365.

A heavy defeat to the Texas Rangers only further deepened the sense of disappointment felt throughout the Minnesota Twins, after another tough American League season. The loss took the Twins’ MLB scores to a 1-8 on their current road trip and a season-worst 24 games below .500, leaving no one in any doubt that this year has been another failure. Despite such a disappointing year, the Twins will not be changing their head coach, with interim boss, Terry Ryan, receiving the backing of the team’s owner, Jim Pohlad. The coach has been beset by bad luck this season – with a string of injuries robbing Ryan of his star players. Pohlad has made it clear that Ryan is the man to lead the club back up the ladder next year, despite admitting that it had been a tough year to be a Twins fan. "It's very frustrating. There's only one way to describe it, and that's losing sucks. When Terry wants to remove the interim (label) from his title, we'll welcome that," Pohlad said, after watching his team’s latest lopsided defeat. "We don't keep revisiting that every week or every month. We don't keep saying to him, 'Terry, why are you still interim?' Whenever he wants to take that way, he can, as far as we're concerned. He has my full confidence.” Players like Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Josh Willingham prove that there is enough quality in this Twins squad for the team to not be struggling at the bottom of the league. If Ryan can keep the majority of his key players injury-free next season, then this Minnesota squad is more than capable of being a real force in 2013, a belief backed up by the early MLB picks on Bet365.

Portland Trail Blazers new boy Joel Freeland has received the backing of Team GB team-mate Luol Deng as he prepares for his first season in the NBA. The 25-year old Englishman was signed by Portland back in 2006, before further developing his game in the ever-improving leagues in Europe. Freeland will now have his chance in the big-time after completing his move to the US from Spanish team Unicaja Malaga. While it will be anything but easy for the versatile forward to establish himself in the NBA, Freeland has been given the support of Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng, who has seen up-close over the summer just how much the new Portland signing has improved. Deng and Freeland were part of the Team GB side that competed at the Olympic Games in London, and the 2012 NBA All Star believes his fellow Brit has what it takes to be success in the toughest league in the world. “I'm excited for Joel,” Deng said to nba news reporters. “Everybody in Britain wants to play at the highest level and we all agree the NBA is that. He's done a tremendous job in Europe but it's time for him now. In the last few years he's grown so much as a player, and matured so much as a person, he's ready for it.” Freeland will join a Portland side that has undergone plenty of changes during the off-season, not least in the shape of new head coach Terry Stotts, who has been tasked with establishing the Trail Blazers as a team capable of getting into the play-offs. Punters who bet on nba will be hoping Freeland can establish himself as a key part of Stotts’ plans over the course of the new season.

Portland Trail Blazers new boy Joel Freeland has received the backing of Team GB team-mate Luol Deng as he prepares for his first season in the NBA. The 25-year old Englishman was signed by Portland back in 2006, before further developing his game in the ever-improving leagues in Europe. Freeland will now have his chance in the big-time after completing his move to the US from Spanish team Unicaja Malaga. While it will be anything but easy for the versatile forward to establish himself in the NBA, Freeland has been given the support of Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng, who has seen up-close over the summer just how much the new Portland signing has improved. Deng and Freeland were part of the Team GB side that competed at the Olympic Games in London, and the 2012 NBA All Star believes his fellow Brit has what it takes to be success in the toughest league in the world. “I'm excited for Joel,” Deng said to nba news reporters. “Everybody in Britain wants to play at the highest level and we all agree the NBA is that. He's done a tremendous job in Europe but it's time for him now. In the last few years he's grown so much as a player, and matured so much as a person, he's ready for it.” Freeland will join a Portland side that has undergone plenty of changes during the off-season, not least in the shape of new head coach Terry Stotts, who has been tasked with establishing the Trail Blazers as a team capable of getting into the play-offs. Punters who bet on nba will be hoping Freeland can establish himself as a key part of Stotts’ plans over the course of the new season.

Memorial Day weekend is almost here and it’s usually the 40-game mark that occurs around that holiday that can be used to assess how good a team is. And most MLB Previews will tell you not to expect many surprises after that. But does a really hot start necessarily mean post-season success? Let's take a look at some of the best starts before Memorial Day in MLB history and how those teams ended up. The 1977 LA Dodgers side won 30 of their first 40 games in manager Tommy Lasorda’s first season; ultimately they went onto a 98-64 record, so 68-54 after Memorial Day and eventually made their way to the World Series where they were beaten by the NY Yankees in six games. The 1998 Yankees were dominant and possibly one of the most dominant teams of all time. They started 31-9, and they didn’t let up after that either going on to record 114 wins. The San Diego Padres couldn’t stop the Yankees bandwagon in the World Series either going down to a clean sweep 4-0, with the result exemplifying the Yankees’ dominance that year. In 2001, the Seattle Mariners made the same 31-9 start as the Yankees, but they could not sustain the same ebullient form and the regular season success faded away in the post-season as they crashed out 4-1 to the Yankees in the AL Championship series. But the best start of all was made by the the Detroit Tigers, who went 35-5 in 1984. This stellar start to a season is by some distance the best start in 40-games and they went wire-to-wire in first place the whole season. Willie Hernandez won the Cy Young and the MVP for the Tigers that year and they finished as strongly as they started, winning 35 of their last 40 games, including the playoffs, before taking the World Series. The LA Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles are setting the pace at the moment through the 40 game barrier, but only time will tell where they will end up at the come the business end of the season. Whatever happens, MLB betting tips will tell you that a good start is never a hindrance.

Memorial Day weekend is almost here and it’s usually the 40-game mark that occurs around that holiday that can be used to assess how good a team is. And most MLB Previews will tell you not to expect many surprises after that. But does a really hot start necessarily mean post-season success? Let's take a look at some of the best starts before Memorial Day in MLB history and how those teams ended up. The 1977 LA Dodgers side won 30 of their first 40 games in manager Tommy Lasorda’s first season; ultimately they went onto a 98-64 record, so 68-54 after Memorial Day and eventually made their way to the World Series where they were beaten by the NY Yankees in six games. The 1998 Yankees were dominant and possibly one of the most dominant teams of all time. They started 31-9, and they didn’t let up after that either going on to record 114 wins. The San Diego Padres couldn’t stop the Yankees bandwagon in the World Series either going down to a clean sweep 4-0, with the result exemplifying the Yankees’ dominance that year. In 2001, the Seattle Mariners made the same 31-9 start as the Yankees, but they could not sustain the same ebullient form and the regular season success faded away in the post-season as they crashed out 4-1 to the Yankees in the AL Championship series. But the best start of all was made by the the Detroit Tigers, who went 35-5 in 1984. This stellar start to a season is by some distance the best start in 40-games and they went wire-to-wire in first place the whole season. Willie Hernandez won the Cy Young and the MVP for the Tigers that year and they finished as strongly as they started, winning 35 of their last 40 games, including the playoffs, before taking the World Series. The LA Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles are setting the pace at the moment through the 40 game barrier, but only time will tell where they will end up at the come the business end of the season. Whatever happens, MLB betting tips will tell you that a good start is never a hindrance.

With the month of May coming to a close and the main part of the season yet to come, it’s still not too early to start looking at the race for the Cy Young contenders this year. Most of the big guns - or should that be arms? - are still in contention at the current time and the mix contains many former winners of the award. Despite the fact that the usual suspects are in contention. there is always one wild card and that just happens to be Toronto Blue Jays’ Brandon Morrow. His hot hard or arm has seen him take his record to 5-2 and his ERA to below 3.0. So who are the other contenders for the prestigious award? Well, Jered Weaver is certainly another player who is very much in contention according to many MLB Betting Tips. He endured a tough start to the season, especially against the Rangers, but since that baptism of fire he has improved, registering some very solid numbers and is no tied for first in the American League for the number of wins. Consistency has been the key to Jake Peavy from the Chicago White Sox, who has had only really one bad start this season. but even that blip has done little to spoil his numbers. He has a 5-1 record and a 2.39 ERA. Justin Verlander has carried on from where he left off last season. He is the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young winner and his current record sits at 5-1 with a 2.14 ERA. He did look rather lacklustre in the first few weeks of the season but has really caught fire now, leading the American League in several statistical categories. It’s worth keeping a close eye on the MLB previews and all of the aforementioned players in the weeks and months ahead, as the race for the Cy Young award hots up in the American League. But, although these guys hold the advantage for now, don’t rule out the prospect more contenders forcing their way into the picture.

With the month of May coming to a close and the main part of the season yet to come, it’s still not too early to start looking at the race for the Cy Young contenders this year. Most of the big guns - or should that be arms? - are still in contention at the current time and the mix contains many former winners of the award. Despite the fact that the usual suspects are in contention. there is always one wild card and that just happens to be Toronto Blue Jays’ Brandon Morrow. His hot hard or arm has seen him take his record to 5-2 and his ERA to below 3.0. So who are the other contenders for the prestigious award? Well, Jered Weaver is certainly another player who is very much in contention according to many MLB Betting Tips. He endured a tough start to the season, especially against the Rangers, but since that baptism of fire he has improved, registering some very solid numbers and is no tied for first in the American League for the number of wins. Consistency has been the key to Jake Peavy from the Chicago White Sox, who has had only really one bad start this season. but even that blip has done little to spoil his numbers. He has a 5-1 record and a 2.39 ERA. Justin Verlander has carried on from where he left off last season. He is the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young winner and his current record sits at 5-1 with a 2.14 ERA. He did look rather lacklustre in the first few weeks of the season but has really caught fire now, leading the American League in several statistical categories. It’s worth keeping a close eye on the MLB previews and all of the aforementioned players in the weeks and months ahead, as the race for the Cy Young award hots up in the American League. But, although these guys hold the advantage for now, don’t rule out the prospect more contenders forcing their way into the picture.