fletcher, you raise an excellent point about playing big favorites flat. you aren't laying, for example, $1000 to win $500 on a 2 to 1 favorite (I'm just using easy round numbers as an example here) -- you're laying $500 to win $250, so that a loss here costs you your standard lay (in this case, I'm just arbitrarily assuming it's $500).
this way, a big favorite loser doesn't represent a large drain on the bank roll, with the tradeoff being the win amount isn't as large.
also, very true about Alou and his bat speed -- his bat is shockingly slow now. that guy has lost about 6 steps in a few short years.