Books scare off bettors from Yankees' World Series odds

Books scare off bettors from Yankees' World Series odds
By VICTOR RYAN

The New York Yankees' giant splash in the free-agent pool this offseason resulted in a flood of cash put on the team to win the 2009 World Series.

Books have built up the levies, padding the Bronx Bombers futures odds to +250.

So much money has been put on the Yankees that books acknowledge that the current number is an effort to scare off any more action on the club.

“We got quite a bit of Yankee money to win the World Series at +600 before these signings, and again at +400 after they inked Sabbaths,” says Michael Perry, a oddsmaker for Logans.com. “The reason we moved them to +250 is, in addition to thinking that they are the team to beat, we really don’t want to see a lot more money on them anytime soon.”

Perry says the book opened the Yankees at a rather low +600 to win the World Series in expectance of what New York would do to improve its roster.

“(That) may seem a little low as this team wasn’t even in the playoffs last year, but we knew that Hank Steinbrenner was going to spend Papa George’s money early and often this offseason,” he says.

After the Yankees signed ace pitcher C C Sabathia for $161 million, the line was lowered to +400. The addition of A J Burnett for $82.5 million bumped the line down to +350 and the signing of slugger Mark Teixeira for $180 million prompted the line move to its current value.

The re-tooled Yankees will feature Teixeira at first base in place of Jason Giambi, who signed a one-year deal to return to Oakland, and Sabathia and Burnett serving in the rotation instead of Mike Mussina and Andy Pettite. The Yankees also added 28-year-old Nick Swisher via a trade. He hit .219 BA with 24 home runs last year and is expected to take over in center field.

By replacing its aging stars with players much closer to their primes, the Yankees figure to be an improved club. However, they still face a couple of daunting challenges in American League East rivals Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox have been busy trying to keep up with the Yankees' big-name signings. Boston got plenty of pitching help by adding John Smoltz, Brad Penny and Takashi Saito and also bolstered its outfield punch by stealing Rocco Baldelli away from the Rays.

The Smoltz signing alone prompted Logans.com to drop the Red Sox odds from +1000 to +800 to win it all.

The Rays weren’t completely quite either. They bolstered their offense with the big bat of Pat Burrell, formerly of the Philadelphia Phillies. Perry likes the Rays at +1000.

“One team you do have to watch out for is Tampa,” he says. “They have the overall pitching to go toe-to-toe with anyone in baseball and now have added some of the offensive punch they needed in Pat Burrell.”

“This should be one heck of a three-team battle.”