When these debate,arguments,discussions come up people always forget one thing BOTH sides have AWESOME odds generally, especially in baseball.
I have bet baseball since the 80s used to be you could scalp lines with positive odds expectations at multiple books, now with books moving on air thats impossible. But you can still take leads and then buy back later in the day. trick to that is to guess which side is going to move.
I have tracked line moves for a long time, some win, some lose. The idea of beating a closer, especially in baseball are ludicrous. Mostly because books book scared and they over move lines all the time, and there is always some sort of buy back at some point.
Baseball used to be an easy income, but now with Micky Mouse limits and getting tracked and profiled its a lot harder. You simply cant get the volume down you need to make a decent living anymore. But give anyone with a clue a 10 cent line, enough 25 cent moves and a 10K limit (impossible these days) most books would be broke. But thats why books do what they do theyre in the business to stay in business not be ATM machines for people.
If youre betting one way in game the paramount objective is to pick a winner. The rate you must win is determined by the odds you get each play but you still must pick enough right sides to show a profit. If youre betting BOTH sides (off the same game) then odds are much more important. You still dont have to get the best both ways to have an advantage but getting -115 and +132 is much better than getting -118 + 130. Both are cant lose situation one just pays you about 2 dollars more (1.95) per hundred put into action. So to a layman it mightlook like you only missed it by 3 cents one way and 2 cents the other way, guys with a clue know how much that actually effects the money you make.