Seattle emerges as a popular choice at betting windows, but history is against the Mariners in 2010

The Seattle Mariners have emerged as one of the spring’s trendiest picks, in the gambling realm as well as among mainstream baseball fans, to make some noise in the American League West this year.

Coming off an 85-win season a year ago, the Mariners opened with an over/under of 81.5 regular-season victories for 2010, according to odds at the Venetian sports book on the Las Vegas Strip.

Bettors have supported the “over” on Seattle at the windows. The current line stands at 83.5, with a premium on the over, at a couple of major offshore sports books.

Wagering on NCAA Tournament conference victories propositions

Here's how the predictions in this column fared:

We determined 15 victories was the most reasonable number for the Big East and recommended betting under 16, or under 15.5 at "plus" money. The Big East finished with eight victories, making the under an easy winner.

We came up with 7.4 victories for the Atlantic Coast Conference, in line with the 7.5 (premium on the under) offered at Lucky's sports books. The ACC recorded nine victories.

In the Mountain West, our number was 3.7 wins, which compared favorably with sports book lines of 4 (premium on the under) or 3.5 (plus money on the under). Mountain West teams recorded two victories.

In the Southeastern Conference, we estimated 6.6 wins and liked the over 5.5 offered at the sports books. The SEC finished with six victories.

We estimated 11.6 wins for the Big 12, slightly under the 12 on the board in Las Vegas. The Big 12 had nine wins.

In the Big Ten, we came up with 6.8 victories, quite close to the 7 posted in sports books. The Big Ten ended up with nine victories.

Nearly nine years ago, author Stanford Wong outlined a method for analyzing March Madness propositions on total tournament victories by conference.

Bettors still use the procedure, described in Wong's book "Sharp Sports Betting," each year at NCAA Tournament time.