The 162-game marathon that is the MLB season has reached the quarter-pole as all 30 clubs had played a minimum of 41 games after Sunday's action. Through the first seven weeks of the campaign, the surprising Phillies have posted a league-high profit of 11.1 units. They are followed by the Rangers (+10.7), Orioles (+9.6) and White Sox (-8.0).
Conversely, the lowly Twins have been the worst bet in baseball. They've lost a combined 19.7 units while posting an 11-32 straight-up record. Minnesota is followed at the bottom by the Astros (-17.8), Reds (-12.8) and Braves (-12.1).
As for the past seven days, below is our weekly look at the hottest and coldest bets in baseball.
Hottest MLB Bets (5/16 through 5/22)
San Francisco Giants (5-1, +4.5 Units)
After taking four games from Arizona, the Giants continued their hot streak last week with a sweep of the Padres in San Diego and taking two of three from the Cubs at home. The sizzling run has put the Giants four games atop the NL West. Ace Madison Bumgarner (6-2, 2.17 ERA) has given up just one run over a combined 16 ⅔ innings in his last two starts, which includes 7+ innings of shutout ball against the Cubs Sunday. Even better for the Giants, Matt Cain has had three straight excellent outings after early-season struggles.
Next up for the Giants is three at home against San Diego followed by three at Colorado.
New York Yankees (5-1, +4.3 Units)
The Yankees were seemingly at rock-bottom just a couple weeks ago, but the fortunes in the Bronx have since changed for the better. New York has won 11 of 16 and went 7-3 in their last 10 games, which included a four-game sweep of the A's to end the week. Masahiro Tanaka (2-0, 3.24 ERA) has led a revived starting rotation of late, and the return of Aroldis Chapman has bolstered what was already a dominant bullpen.
In addition, the Bombers are getting healthy. Next up for New York are three-games at home against Toronto and three in Tampa Bay.
Seattle Mariners (5-1, +4.1 Units)
The Mariners are sub-.500 (8-10) at Safeco Field, but an eye-catching 18-7 road mark has propelled them to the top of the A.L West standings. The road warriors from Seattle continued their raiding success last week by taking two of three in Baltimore and sweeping three from the Reds in Cincinnati.
The Mariners, who are 1 ½ games up of the Rangers in the division, have scored the second-most runs in the AL and rank second in team ERA (3.21). Hence, the fact they have the fourth-best scoring differential (+48) in baseball.
Seattle will be home all week with three against Oakland and three against the Twins.
Other hot MLB bets: Texas Rangers (5-2, +2.5 Units)
Coldest MLB Bets (5/16 through 5/22)
Cincinnati Reds (0-6, -6.0 Units)
The Reds have been atrocious of late as not only are they losing (2-12 in last 14 games) but losing big. The lopsided losses have left Cincinnati with easily the league's worst scoring differential at -87 runs.
High-priced 1B Joey Votto is hitting just .169 in May and as a team the Reds rank 29th in OBP at just .289. To make matter worse, Cincinnati also sports the league's highest team ERA (5.57). There's no joy in Mudville.
The Reds have a six-game road trip this week with three against the Dodgers and three in Milwaukee.
Chicago Cubs (2-4, -4.4 Units)
The Cubs' juggernaut finally hit a rough patch last week as they lost two of three to both the Giants and the Brewers. This could be a case of the North Siders returning to reality a bit as they were off to a historically good start. The starting pitching finally faltered a bit last week and they were left without the services of Jason Heyward over the weekend because of an injury. He is day-to-day.
Still, this team is too good to struggle for long. Next up for the Cubs are three in St. Louis followed by three against the Phillies at Wrigley.
Miami Marlins (1-4, -3.6 Units)
The Marlins remain a profitable proposition for the season (+1.4 Units) despite last week's struggles that included losing two of three to both the Phillies and the Nationals. The blame in Miami can be placed squarely on the broad shoulders of Giancarlo Stanton. The slugging right-fielder has hit just .156 in May with one home run while striking out 28 times in 64 ABs. So goes Stanton, so go the Marlins.
Next up for Miami are four games against the Rays followed by three games in Atlanta.
Other cold MLB bets: Los Angeles Dodgers (2-4, -3.1 Units)
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