The Boston Red Sox look like the best team in baseball, and nobody is catching the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. Beyond that, nobody has a clue how the 2018 MLB season is going to end up.
You can assume your way to the MLB playoffs, but last year showed that even the best prognosticators can be wrong. The Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the best record and arguably the most stacked roster in the league, couldn’t live up to the hype.
It was the Houston Astros that nabbed a banner, instead.
That doesn’t mean we can’t try to figure out how things will unfold, of course. That’s what bettors hope to do, both for the enjoyment of following along with their predictions and also benefiting via monetary profit.
While there is still some dust to be settled, I think the writing might be on the wall for the 2018 MLB World Series. Let’s slow-play our grand reveal, however, as we take a look at each division race and see how things could trickle down to the final baseball series of the year.
This was previously a race between only the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, but the pesky Tampa Bay Rays are surging.
I don’t believe the Rays have the top-shelf pitching or consistent offense to remain sustainable, but they do provide a fun narrative. They could make things interesting for a wild card if someone chokes, but they’re not stealing this division.
A soon-to-be healthy Yankees lineup gives New York a shot here, but as I write this, the Yanks are a whopping 9.5 games back. With less than a month to go, I just don’t see them making up that much ground.
SportsBetting.ag and other MLB betting sites clearly agree, as this isn’t even an MLB division winner wager that is offered anymore.
Ditto for the AL Central. Bless the hearts of the Minnesota Twins, though, as they keep fighting just to hold onto second place behind The Tribe.
It’s a losing battle, as Cleveland sits comfortably ahead of everyone else in this trash division, with nobody closer than an incredible 16.5 games at the moment.
Nobody is safer than the Indians, who are locks for the MLB playoffs. The crazy thing is that their cruise through the weakest division in baseball makes them look less dangerous than they actually are.
More on that in a bit.
This is the only division in the AL that isn’t seemingly decided already, but it probably won’t be until the regular season is up.
The defending champion Houston Astros are supposed to run away with this thing, but their elite pitching has hit a wall, and their offense can be a bit suspect at home.
Fortunately, their pitching rotation does remain stacked, and one of the best rosters in baseball is getting healthy at exactly the right time.
Oakland is Houston’s main competition, as they presently reside just 3.5 games out of first place. They benefit from a pitcher-friendly ballpark, and the second they get out of Oakland, their extreme fly ball ways are too much for anyone else to handle.
The Athletics are quite dangerous (and fun at +500), but if they were taking the AL West, I get the feeling they’d have done it by now. They’re still a heck of a story and a threat as a wild card, but I see Houston (-900 at SportsBetting.ag) holding on here.
Over to the NL we go, as the NL East remains rather undecided. This has been an easy division for the Washington Nationals for years, but they’ve slid backwards this year.
The Nats have a loaded offense and top-shelf pitching, but they started a fire sale a couple weeks back and don’t have the look of a team ready to storm the castle in their 8.5-game hole.
Atlanta is the cream of the crop of this division and has been all year.
Barring an insane comeback from the lifeless Nats, the Phillies (+350) are their only real threat. All three of these teams are currently trending in the wrong direction, but with just 3.5 games between them and the top spot, the Phillies can’t be ignored.
I still don’t trust Philadelphia here. They don’t have enough elite pitching, and as powerful as their offense is, they just come up lame all too often.
This has been a great year for them, but the Braves (-500) have been the more balanced team. This one is close, but if I have to pick one team in this division, it’s ATL.
I’m impressed with the Milwaukee Brewers. They usually enjoy a good first half of the year, only to go into the tank and miss the playoffs. That’s what happened last season, but so far, they’ve remained a very good team and look like a solid bet for the playoffs.
The Brewers still even have a shot at stealing the NL Central back from the Cubs. Chicago leads by 3.5 games, but that’s not an insurmountable gap, and I’m not even sure Chicago has the pitching to pull this off.
Milwaukee’s pitching isn’t great, either, but their offense tends to be a bit more powerful. The Cubs are the obvious favorite (-800), but Milwaukee is a really fun pivot (+700).
Oh, and then there’s the St. Louis Cardinals (+800), who have kept at it this entire time and are just 0.5 games behind the Brewers going into Friday.
This race isn’t over, but I’d still be fairly surprised if the Cubs choked the lead away.
The tightest MLB division race right now belongs to the NL West, where the Dodgers hope to be repeat winners.
Clayton Kershaw and company have overcome a brutal start to be right in the thick of things, as they enter the weekend just 1.5 games back behind the Colorado Rockies.
That’s pretty fitting, since the two sides will be playing the very weekend I piece this blog together.
I don’t think that series decides the series, but I tend to favor the Dodgers.
If you take away their slow start, they’ve been one of the best teams in baseball in 2018. A healthy Kershaw heads a very good pitching rotation, while LA can heat up in a hurry at home offensively.
The Dodgers are flat-out stacked these days, so barring an epic collapse, I think they’ll jam their way back into the playoffs with another division title.
The Rockies (+195) are still a fun bet, while you shouldn’t automatically write off the Arizona Diamondbacks (+385), either. After all, Arizona has some excellent pitching and was atop the division for virtually the entire year before a recent slide.
Still, the Dodgers are the most complete team in this division, and you know they’re going to want to try to avenge their WS loss of a year ago.
In the AL, the two wild card spots appear to be going to the Yankees and Athletics, assuming neither swoop in and somehow steal their respective division crowns.
I don’t see that happening, so that’s the wild card matchup you’re likely looking at. I mentioned the Rays and the Mariners are also hovering around, but I don’t anticipate either getting in when all is said and done.
On the other side, the race is far from over.
The Phillies, Brewers, Cardinals, Dodgers, Rockies, and Diamondbacks are all viable options. As things stand, though, the best bets appear to be the Brewers and Rockies, assuming the Dodgers overtake the NL West like I think they will.
St. Louis would be the only other team I’d really be eyeing here, as they could finish ahead of the Brewers rather easily and perhaps the Rockies as well.
Why is that important? Because all it takes sometimes is to get into the party.
Once in, the Cardinals could lean on better-than-advertised pitching and an offense that can blow up in the right spots. That could then translate to a World Series run, one in which the Cards carry fun +2200 odds at the moment.
That’s what this is all about – trying to figure out who the best teams are, who is actually getting into the playoffs, and who can win it all.
Houston and LA stand out the most, simply because they got there last year. Both remain absolutely stacked, and both are in line for their division titles.
I don’t think that happens, though.
Instead, I am enamored with Cleveland on the AL side. Boston might have the best overall offense in baseball, but beyond Chris Sale, they don’t have a ton to get excited about on the mound.
David Price has turned things back around, and Rick Porcello is serviceable, but I think they can be gotten to.
Cleveland is more stacked when it comes to their arms, and they have the offense to match wits with anyone. With Trevor Bauer nearing a return, they’re the team to beat for me in the AL.
For the NL, I think the Dodgers will ultimately piece things together, overtake the Rockies, and march their way back to the World Series.
The Braves aren’t ready yet, the Cubs don’t have the arms, and the rest of the NL West just can’t deal the finishing blow. The aforementioned Cardinals are the big one that worries me if they get in, while the Brewers don’t have the pitching to match their power.
Ultimately, the Dodgers and Indians give us a very interesting World Series showdown between each of the losers in the last two MLB title series. I think it’ll be a close one and a ton of fun, but I am really digging the Indians right now.
Cleveland has more top-shelf pitching than anyone, and when they’re clicking, their offense rivals the very best in baseball. Another seven-game series could be upon us, but this time around, I think it’s the Indians coming away with the championship.
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