Besides battle fatigue brought on after long NFL and NBA seasons, there is a good reason why baseball draws such little action from bettors -- it’s just too hard for Joe Public to understand and requires time and research. Why pore over a dugout-full of statistics when it’s easier to sit at the beach with a cold one?

And that’s a shame, because professional handicappers say that there is far more low-hanging fruit for bettors in baseball than in the more-easily-understood NFL and NBA.

The ying and yang of baseball betting can be complicated for wagering newcomers. Since many games finish with a one- or two-run difference, a point (or run) spread like those offered for football and basketball doesn’t make sense. So the odds are often manipulated in the moneyline or the vig.

Baseball is built on statistics, and betting baseball is not much different. If you don’t enjoy analyzing numbers, chances are pretty good that betting baseball will get tired very fast. But if you’re a Sabremetric nerd with a gambling jones, and are still years away from carpal tunnel syndrome, it could be what you’re looking for.

Legitimate handicappers offer dozens of systems for betting baseball, some legit and some gibberish. But there is one unassailable fact that needs to be taken into consideration when throwing down hard-earned money on a game – that is, approximately 44 percent of games are won by underdogs. Pros who can’t agree that on breakfast cereal will almost to a man tell you that the way to win money in baseball is to find value in a dog, and hammer it. And if you can find a division rival road dog that is hitting the ball halfway decent, all the better.

Veteran handicapper Steve Merril says that bettors can often find an edge by tracking a team’s offensive production, as oddsmakers more often than not will set lines based on teams’ starters.

“Betting lines are based on the starting pitchers,” says Merril, “so often this is already factored into the equation. I think current form, especially current offensive form, is something that is often overlooked by both the oddsmakers and the bettors. Teams definitely go through hot and cold streaks, especially on offense as these players are in the rotation every day as opposed to a starting pitcher which only appears every fifth game.”

Merril points to the Orioles series in Texas this past weekend. “[Baltimore] has been the worst team in baseball all season and they all of a sudden have gotten hot offensively, batting over .300 as a team the past week and they go a perfect 4-0 at Texas this weekend, including winning three of those four games outright as a +200 underdog or higher.  They outscored the Rangers 23-12 in those four wins and cashed a total of +9.8 units of profit on the moneyline. Baltimore had a similar hot streak at the end of June when they went 5-1 during a six-game period, outscoring their opponents 39-29 and cashing +4.2 units on the money line. If you remove those two recent hot streaks, the Orioles have been an atrocious 20-58 (.256) in all other games this season and -30 units on the money line.”

And if all this is a bit too much to deal with on a warm summer day, bear in mind that the first NFL exhibition game is less than a month away.