AL 1st Half Review
By Judd Hall
Major League Baseball has finally reached its halfway point of the season with the upcoming All-Star Game in Anaheim. We’ve learned plenty of things in the first half of the 2010 campaign in the Junior Circuit. Let’s take a look at the opening 3 months of play.
A Square’s Paradise…
We’re all familiar with chalk-eaters in our trials of gambling. Hell, I’m sure that we’ve been accused of being such a person at one time or another. Normally, these lovers of betting only favorites will get bitten in the ass eventually down the road. That, oddly enough, hasn’t happened just yet.
If you were to wager on nothing but the “chalk” in the first half of the season, you would have won 58 percent of the time (760-547). Definitely not a bad productivity level for the squares in 2010, yes? And if we are to tighten that up to focus on just the Junior Circuit, that gets kicked up to 60 percent.
Eastern Clout…
Most of those victories have come from arguably the toughest division in all of baseball, the AL East. The Yankees (50-28), Rays (40+27) and Red Sox (42-26) have been favored far more than any other teams in the league. Of course, that means you’re going to have to pony up a fair amount on each team. This trio will normally go around minus-150 (risk $150 to win $100) at most betting shops, if favored. Regardless of the cost, they continue to be a public and profitable play.
We’re going to see a lot of more chalky play out of the Yanks and Rays as soon as the All-Star Break. They’ll face one another in the Bronx, but after that bettors will have a chance to cash on both of them. Tampa Bay has six more games on its road trip with three games against the Orioles and the rest against the Indians. The Yankees have a quick two-game set against the Halos before four tests with the Royals.
Not for Profit West…
The AL West was the only division in baseball that had all of its teams turn a profit in 2009. Fast forward to this year and nobody in the group is in the black. The Angels were the only team turning a profit on Sunday by being up 35 units. But that disappeared after a 5-3 loss as $1.10 road favorites against Oakland to go into the All-Star Break.
There is plenty of reason to believe things will turn up for some of the clubs for the gambling public. For one thing, Texas is hands down the most complete team of the four. Now that they picked up Cliff Lee from the cellar-dwelling M’s, the Rangers have a much more formidable pitching rotation. Of course, that also means you’re going to see some obscene lines when he’s on the mound. Hopefully nothing like the minus-400 they closed at for Lee’s home debut on July 10.
The Angels have enough talent to push themselves back into the good graces of the public. After all, they get a four-game home stand with Seattle to warm up before heading out to New York once league play resumes.
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