Baseball Handicapping Articles

MLB Futures Odds: Handicapping the Playoff Teams from Last Season
by Trevor Whenham - 2/28/2017

There were 10 playoff teams in baseball last year, and every one of them has to start completely from scratch this year - getting in last year gives no advantage to getting on this year. Some of those playoff teams are very strong and quite likely to be back again. Others won't be. Baseball is a brutally-tough sport to win in, and there aren't enough playoff spots for all the good teams out there. So it only makes sense, then, to look at last year's playoff teams to see where they stand now (Odds to win the World Series are from BetOnline):

MLB Betting Advice: How best Moneyline Teams From Last Season Stack Up in 2017
by Trevor Whenham - 2/27/2017

There are two big reasons I love betting on baseball. The first is the number of games - a full slate every single night leaves you with countless options. Second is the moneyline. It's the purest form of betting, and while it is available in most sports it is here where it truly shines. What happened in the moneyline one year doesn't always have much bearing on what happens the next year.

2017 MLB Home Run King Futures Odds with Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 2/27/2017

We are in a bit of a grand period when it comes to home runs in Major League Baseball. There were more hit last year than any time since 2000. With so many exciting young players, and so many old veterans who can still mash, this year again promises to be a very exciting year packed with home run trots. For bettors, the biggest question is obvious - who will hit the most home runs? BetOnline offers the odds, and I throw in the analysis:

2017 World Baseball Classic Betting Odds and Wagering Primer
by Trevor Whenham - 2/24/2017

The fourth edition of the World Baseball Classic will be here before we know it. It gets underway on March 6, in fact. We will look closer at specific games and matchups as they get closer, but for now it will be useful to remind ourselves what the tournament is all about and what we need to keep on top of as bettors. So, let's get to it:

Expert MLB Handicapping: Toughest Aces to Judge
by Trevor Whenham - 2/23/2017

The ace of a pitching staff is the guy who gets more attention from fans and bettors than anyone else. They are also the guy on a team who can have the biggest impact on how lines are set. That means, of course, that bettors who are serious about winning betting on baseball need to get good at evaluating how good aces are and what we can expect from them on a given day.

MLB Betting Advice: How to Wager on Early Spring Training Games
by Trevor Whenham - 2/23/2017

Preseason sports suck. And spring training rules. But mostly only if you can attend a game live. There are few better things to do in March then sit in the stands in Arizona or Florida, soak up the sun, nurse a beer or three, and watch some ball. Beyond that, though, there are challenges that make the spring training less than ideal from a betting perspective. Sometimes you just have to get some action, though, and if you are a baseball fan that is feeling withdrawal after the long offseason then I get why you would want to bet on games as soon as you possibly can.

MLB Betting Advice: Potential Surprise Teams to Help Your Bankroll
by Trevor Whenham - 2/16/2017

This is the hardest time of year to be a baseball bettor and fan. Pitchers and catchers are starting to report, so the season is tantalizingly close to getting started, but there is still a whole lot of time between now and meaningful games. To fill the time, and hopefully to make it pass more quickly, let's look at teams that could be a surprise this year - squads that could exceed the expectations for them (and, by necessity, go "over" their season win totals, which are posted here from Atlantis Casino in Reno):

MLB Season Win Totals Odds Released
by Robert Ferringo - 2/10/2017

One of the best things about the sports calendar for bettors - and one of the worst for wives and significant others of bettors - is that it is perpetual. Like waves pounding against the beach, one sport ends only for another to begin. For instance, we are less than one week removed from the Super Bowl, the finale of another grueling six-month football season. We are in the thick of heated college basketball, NBA, and NHL seasons. And now dawn is breaking on the 2017 Major League Baseball season.

MLB ALCS and NLCS Series Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
by Trevor Whenham - 10/14/2016

There are still as many as 21 baseball games left in the season, yet these playoffs already go down as an instant classic. Both wild card games were spectacular. Both ALDS series ended quickly but didn't lack drama by any means - especially if you were cheering for the winning team. The Cubs staged a zany comeback to clinch their series, and the Dodgers played perhaps the craziest seventh inning in history in the deciding game of theirs.

NLDS Game 5 & ALCS Game 1 MLB Betting Matchups & Odds
by Alan Matthews - 10/12/2016

Maybe the Curse of the Billy Goat is a thing of the past and the Chicago Cubs are finally going to win the World Series. How else to describe what happened in the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday in San Francisco? The Giants were up 5-2 and appeared a sure thing to win their 11th straight postseason elimination game, which is just stupid.

NL Division Series Game 1 MLB Betting Matchups & Odds with Expert Picks
by Alan Matthews - 10/6/2016

I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone that the Chicago Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908. And if they don't win it this year, I really do think that franchise is cursed because this is clearly the best team in baseball on paper. The Cubbies are +245 favorites at 5Dimes to win the Fall Classic and +115 to win the pennant -- honestly, many aged Cubs fans would be happy enough just to see them get to the World Series. While Chicago had easily the best record in the majors, only four times since the playoffs shifted to the divisional era has the top regular-season team won it all.

AL Division Series Game 1 MLB Betting Matchups & Odds with Expert Picks
by Alan Matthews - 10/5/2016

The AL West champion Texas Rangers will have home-field advantage throughout the 2016 MLB playoffs as the Rangers had the American League's best record at 95-67. Because the AL won the All-Star Game, the Rangers know they won't have to play a Game 7 anywhere but Arlington. Texas should have won its first World Series title in 2011 but blew Games 6 and 7 in St. Louis and hasn't been back since.

Wild-Card Round MLB Betting Matchups & Odds with Expert Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 10/3/2016

Want more proof that Major League Baseball is a "what have you done for me lately" sport when it comes to managers? Interesting story came out over the weekend that if the Mets had lost their game on Aug. 13 to the San Diego Padres that Manager Terry Collins would have been fired right then despite leading the team to the pennant last year.

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Saturday, October 1, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/30/2016

It's my final regular-season "Five To Follow" betting story, and I hope you have found these helpful for wagering on those early lines for games. Sometimes it can be very profitable betting an MLB game the day before it begins. I will continue occasionally in the playoffs when there are multiple games on a day. What individual races should you be monitoring on the final weekend? Locked up are the AL batting title (Houston's Jose Altuve) and almost surely the home-run crown (Baltimore's Mark Trumbo will lead the majors).

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Friday, September 30, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/29/2016

You are probably only paying attention to the good teams in the standings on the final weekend of the season with the AL and NL wild-card races still tight and the top seed in the Junior Circuit -- and thus home-field advantage throughout the playoffs -- still up for grabs. But don't overlook the bottom of the standings. We already know the Minnesota Twins will pick first in the 2017 draft. But it's very important for a team to finish with one of the 10 worst records in baseball if you are going to be bad regardless.

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Thursday, September 29, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/28/2016

I guess you can call it good news for the Cleveland Indians, already down their No. 2 and 3 pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar due to injury, on ace Corey Kluber. He was diagnosed with a quad injury on Tuesday and will be sidelined from 7-10 days. That makes him questionable for Game 1 of the ALDS -- most likely vs. the Red Sox or Rangers, two pretty darn good offensive teams.

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Wednesday, September 28, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/27/2016

The Washington Nationals will be holding their collective breath on Tuesday as the club awaits results of an MRI on the knee of All-Star catcher Wilson Ramos. He had to be helped off the field Monday after landing awkwardly when he jumped to catch a throw from the outfield. Ramos couldn't put any weight on his right knee, the same knee in which he missed time in 2012 with a torn ACL and MCL.

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Tuesday, September 27, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/26/2016

What utterly devastating news for the Miami Marlins franchise early Sunday morning when the team learned that All-Star pitcher Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident off Miami Beach. Fernandez was originally to start Sunday and thus probably wouldn't have been out so late at night before a start, but he had been pushed back to Monday. He is the youngest-ever All-Star to die in Major League Baseball.

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Saturday, September 24, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/23/2016

It has nothing to do with betting -- well, there's a chance that L.A. could clinch the NL West depending on what happens Friday and Saturday -- but I urge you to watch the Rockies-Dodgers game on Sunday afternoon. The MLB Network has picked up the game nationally (outside of the L.A. and Denver markets) because it will be the last game the voice of baseball, Vin Scully, will call at Dodger Stadium. It will be "Vin Scully Appreciation Day" at Chavez Ravine. When that guy talks and tells his stories, it's literally poetry.

Five to Follow MLB Betting: Friday, September 23, 2016, Opening Line Report
by Alan Matthews - 9/22/2016

As of Thursday, there's a three-way tie for the two National League wild-card spots between the Cardinals, Mets and Giants. Bit of a long shot that three end up that way by next Sunday night, but here's what would happen if there was an unprecedented three-way tie: On Monday, Oct. 3, the Cardinals would host the Mets and the winner of that is one of the wild-card teams.