Who’s Hot MLB’s Hottest Home Teams
by: Alex Smart Sports
Home field advantage in the majors has been as important as ever this season. There are some teams totally lighting it up at their own ballparks, so check out our list of home teams you should be watching as we head towards the month of June.
1: San Diego Padres (17-6, +$1,074) (5-0, +$578 in L/5) There’s no hotter team in baseball than the Padres, who have won ten straight games to get back in the thick of the playoff chase in the National League. They did the majority of the damage of that winning streak at home, and at +$1,074, narrowly have the Dodgers edged out as the top money home team in baseball. 1B Adrian Gonzalez has been tearing the cover off the ball of late, as he has a five-game hitting streak going. He also leads baseball with 17 dingers. The trick to their ten-game home winning streak has been the play of the pitching staff. Only one in those ten games did a team score more than three runs, and the average number of runs scored per game by the opposition is only 1.90. With pitching like that, it doesn’t matter that the Pads rank 29th in the majors in run production (3.89 runs per game).
2: Atlanta Braves (11-12, -$449) (4-1, +$320 in L/5) Atlanta is one of these teams that just keeps finding ways to hang around. At 23-21, the Braves are only 1.5 games back of the Phillies and are essentially dead even with the Mets atop the NL East standings. They’re not really spectacular at anything they do. They’re a marginal home team (11-12), an above-average road team (12-9), a below-average offensive team (4.41 runs per game), they don’t steal bases (10, 30th in MLB), don’t hit home runs (33, 26th in MLB), and are a middle of the pack team in terms of pitching (4.13 ERA, 11th). Yet, manager Bobby Cox keeps figuring out how to put winners on the field. They’ve won five out of six at home, but won’t be back in Atlanta until a ten-game stand at Turner Field opens up on June 6th.
3: Milwaukee Brewers (13-7, +$490) (4-1, +$286 in L/5) The Brew Crew have cooled off just a smidge from their 21-5 run from the middle of April through the middle of May, but most of the damage was done on the road. They’re still winners of their L/4 at home and are 7-1 in their L/8 at Miller Park. In that stretch, four different starting pitchers picked up victories, while the one that failed to win was Jeff Suppan, the best money pitcher on the staff. Things are looking up for manager Ken Macha’s crew, as the Brewers will expect to be in contention all season, especially if the Cubs continue playing as poorly as they have been lately.
And the rest…
4: Minnesota Twins (17-10, +$446) (4-1, +$274 in L/5)
5: St. Louis Cardinals (17-9, +$502) (4-1, +$255 in L/5)