by Kyle Hunter
Thursday, May 25, 2023The MLB season is a couple months old now. I wanted to take a look at a couple teams who have been great to bettors so far this season and a couple teams who have been burning up bettors money thus far. Are they sell high or buy low candidates? Why or why not?
Season to Date Through May 24th Money Leaders ($100 per game bettor figures)
Moneymakers
- Baltimore Orioles (+$1,197) The Baltimore Orioles top the charts having helped bettors make a mint so far this year. They are second in the highly competitive American League East. Baltimore sits only three games behind Tampa Bay even with the Rays amazing start to the season. Yennier Cano has been the best reliever in baseball so far this year. The Orioles are second in baseball in bullpen ERA at 2.98. They do also have the second best FIP. The bullpen looks legitimately very good. Baltimore is just 17th in the majors in batting average on balls in play offensively. I think this is a good team. They won’t be as easy to make money from as early this year, but I wouldn’t straight fade them either.
- Texas Rangers (+$801) Texas has made bettors a lot of money as well. Can they keep it up? There are some concerning signs in my opinion. Texas has the highest batting average on balls in play in the majors at .324. The offense isn’t as good as they have looked so far this year. Opponents also have the seventh lowest batting average on balls in play against Texas pitching. The Rangers have won a lot of close games so far this year. The schedule gets tougher for them in the coming weeks too. This is a team I’ll look to fade in some spots.
Money Burners
- Oakland Athletics (-$2,393) I don’t have anything good to say about the Athletics. They are moving to a new city. Oakland has a negative home field advantage if anything at this point. There just isn’t any passion. Oakland also happens to have the least talented roster in the majors. They at least have a pulse against left handed pitching, but against righties this lineup is brutal. The Oakland bullpen is worst in the majors by nearly a full run in FIP. Yikes. I’m not backing this team.
- St. Louis Cardinals (-$912) A very different case than the Oakland A’s. The Cardinals were the favorites in the NL Central. St. Louis started the season terribly, but they have been playing much better of late. The good news for them is no one is running away with the NL Central by any means. Can bettors make money from them going forward? Cardinals pitching has allowed a batting average on balls in play of .325 which is second highest in the majors. That’s a sign of bad luck. The Cardinals are one of the most power filled lineups in the majors, and hitting dingers is always a good thing. I think this team is too talented to not at least make a run here. I’ll look for spots to back them and betting on them to win the NL Central at a nice plus money price isn’t a bad idea either.
