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Don't Expect The Mariners To Turn It Around In 2020

Last season, the Seattle Mariners went 68-94 (.420). However, it’s important to realize that Seattle got out to an MLB-best 13-2 start to the year before going 55-92 to close out the campaign, which was more of an accurate representation of how badly they struggled for most of the year. While there’s uncertainty in terms of if and when a season will even occur, DraftKings lists the odds of Seattle having a winning percentage of .410 or less at -112. That’s a solid bet for the following two reasons, no one is picking Seattle to be an MLB consensus pick to win it all, and the Mariners have some glaring issues.  

Awful Pitching Staff

At this point in time, Seattle’s starting rotation would most likely consist of Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Taijuan Walker, Kendall Graveman and Justus Sheffield. Yikes. Gonzales was the team’s ace in 2019 and went 16-13 with a 3.99 ERA in 34 starts, which was respectable, but allowed 210 hits in 203.0 innings pitched which isn’t exactly ideal for a guy at the top of the rotation. Kikuchi struggled mightily in his rookie season and went 6-11 with a 5.46 ERA in 32 starts. He allowed 195 hits and a ridiculous 36 home runs in just 161.2 innings pitched and was no match for Major League hitters. Walker will make his return to the team he broke into the Majors with, but has made just four starts over the last two seasons due to injuries. He’s essentially a wild card, as is Graveman, who is a 29 year old coming off of Tommy John surgery. Sheffield spent time up and down between the Majors, Double-A and Triple-A last season and managed a 5.50 ERA over eight appearances (seven starts) with the Mariners. Seattle’s bullpen had a 4.76 ERA last year, and while they’re essentially turning a new leaf there, they’ll hand the ball off to Yoshihisa Hirano, Carl Edwards Jr., Dan Altavilla, Matt Magill, Brandon Brennan, Taylor Guilbeau and Nestor Cortes Jr. There’s probably a reason the people who make MLB expert picks aren’t picking this team to win the World Series this year. 

Lineup Filled With Question Marks

While Mitch Haniger took strides forward in his 2018 All-Star campaign, he was limited to just 63 games last season due to injuries and is recovering from sports hernia surgery. Some combination of catcher Tom Murphy, first basemen Evan White and Daniel Vogelbach, second baseman Shed Long, third baseman Kyle Seager, shortstop J.P. Crawford, center fielder Mallex Smith and right fielder Kyle Lewis will likely make up the starting lineup while utilityman Austin Nola and the versatile Dee Gordon figure to get in the mix as well and potentially contend for starting roles. While Lewis and White are on the team’s top prospect list, it’s difficult to project immediate Major League success for either of them and the rest of the lineup figures to be one of the lowest-threat squads in all of baseball, despite the elite speed of Smith and Gordon. We wouldn’t recommend putting too many MLB money line bets down on the Mariners this year. 

While we still don’t know how many games the 2020 MLB season will be (if there is one), it seems like a foregone conclusion that the Mariners will struggle at the plate and on the mound, which should amount to overall disappointment in the loss column.

If The 2020 MLB Season Happens, The Red Sox Will Struggle

Mookie Betts: traded away in his prime. Chris Sale: Tommy John surgery. It’s safe to say that Boston Red Sox fans aren’t having a great time this offseason. Slashing salaries isn’t unheard of in Boston: what happened when they shipped off Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers was preceded by that massive deal that got rid of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford back in the day. Remember that? There’s no denying that Boston should still be a formidable group offensively, but there are a couple reasons why you should absolutely bet on Boston to post under on their MLB over under of a .520 win percentage this season. DraftKings is listing those odds at -112. Let’s get into why it doesn’t matter that J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers and company will score runs. 

Starting Rotation

With Sale now ruled out for any 2020 campaign due to Tommy John surgery, it looks like Boston’s starting rotation would be Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi, Martin Perez, Collin McHugh and Ryan Weber. Rodriguez has double-digit strikeout upside every time out and is coming off a career-best campaign in which he went 19-6 with a 3.81 ERA over 34 starts. But, he’s been wildly inconsistent throughout his career on a start-by-start basis, which isn’t optimal as an ace. After helping the Sox win a title back in 2018, Eovaldi was awarded with a massive multi-year deal that he instantly ruined when he posted a 5.99 ERA over 23 appearances (12 starts) in an injury-ridden 2019 campaign. Perez has a 4.72 career ERA and posted a 5.12 ERA over 32 appearances (29 starts) with the Minnesota Twins last year. At this point in his career, he’s an innings eater. McHugh made 35 appearances (eight starts) for the Houston Astros last season and posted a 4.70 ERA over 74.2 innings. Finally, Weber made 18 appearances (three starts) for the Sox last season and posted a 5.09 ERA over 40.2 innings. As a 29-year-old journeyman, he’ll also be an innings-eater. With a starting rotation full of innings-eaters it is going to be tough to think the people who make MLB picks will be backing the Red Sox this year, even if it is just moneyline picks. With this being said, Boston’s bullpen will most likely be heavily taxed.

Bullpen

Brandon Workman very quietly emerged as an elite closer last season. He will likely be supported by Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, Darwinzon Hernandez, Marcus Walden and Ryan Brasier, among others. With Boston’s starting rotation looking so poor, the team will most likely be forced into getting a ton of innings out of this bunch. Even in a shortened season, this will likely become a major issue, especially against powerhouse lineups in the American League like the MLB consensus picks for the AL pennant the New York Yankees and Astros. While the aforementioned names are all serviceable options, none of them possess electric stuff that can truly overpower opposing hitters like some other squads have the fortune of having in the later innings. If this season gets underway, don’t expect much out of the Red Sox.

MLB 2023 Playoffs: Rangers still favored by simulations

The MLB playoffs for the 2023 season have already provided quite a bit of surprising results, with plenty of underdogs sending the favorites packing early on. The regular season league leaders Baltimore Orioles of American League and Atlanta Braves of the National League, both with over 100 regular season wins, were ousted by the fierce dogs, the fifth seeded Texas Rangers and fourth seeded Philadelphia Phillies respectively. In addition, behemoths Los Angeles Dodgers, who claimed the second seed in the National League regular season fell to the sixth seed Arizona Diamondbacks – and it was not even close, as the D’backs swept the divisional round series 3-0 as did the Rangers against Baltimore Orioles.

The conference series of MLB playoffs sees the American League regular season second seeded Houston Astros hosting the best-of-seven battle against Texas Rangers and in the National League it is those hungry dogs facing each other in the dog-eat-dog contest between Philadelphia Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks. As mentioned before, Diamondbacks took everyone by surprise by sending Dodgers to an early holiday from the MLB playoffs by a clean sweep and the Phillies took down 2021 World Series winners Atlanta Braves 3-1. Reigning World Series champions Astros conquered Minnesota Twins in the divisional round with impressive 3-1 series victory, while Texas swept the shooting star of the season, Baltimore Orioles. Who would have thought, you might ask.

Well, Accuscore’s MLB playoffs predictions did. Texas Rangers were heavily favored by the simulations as an odds-underdog against the Orioles, with odds of -105 to win the series and odds of +600 to complete the sweep in three games. Accuscore’s simulations had Rangers 65.9% favorites to win the series with 20.5% probability to win it in three straight set. Hefty profits from this head-to-head covered some losses in the NL, with both Atlanta and the Dodgers picked to win their respective series in the MLB playoffs. Furthermore, the MLB playoffs predictions indicated Texas Rangers as a value pick for World Series as well, with odds of +700 at the time, currently those odds are slashed to +185 at Draftkings Sportsbook

The MLB playoffs Conference series are on their way and the Rangers have already proven not to be a fluke: they went to Houston and shutout the heavy hitting home team 2-0. Starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery led the way with six strikeouts and five allowed hits during his six innings and left a nice depleted field for the relievers Josh Sborz, Aroldis Chapman and José Leclerc. Jonah Heim’s single towards Mauricio Dubon was enough to allow Evan Carter to reach the home base on the top of 2^nd inning and the insurance score came by the bat of Leody Taveras, who homered to an empty field to make it 2-0 on the top of the 5^th inning.

Houston’s at bats were continuously left guessing by Montgomery and despite recording five hits, six runners were left on base. The pitching for the home team was exquisite despite the loss and veteran Justin Verlander stroke out five batters with an ERA of 1.42 – but it was not enough to secure the victory over the impeccable Rangers.

The second game of the series is played on October 16^th with Nathan Eovaldi stepping up on the mound for the Rangers and Framber Valdez getting the nod for the Astros. The odds are currently standing at +106 for the Rangers and -124 for the Astros at the Fanduel Sportsbook.

Accuscore MLB playoffs predictions indicate a coin flip of a match, with Astros being the moneyline favorites with 51.3% while the side value pick is marginally on the Rangers side with 48.7% and odds of +106 (48.5%).

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MLB Opening Day: Chicago Cubs vs Miami Marlins

The 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season officially kicks off this week on March 29. With all 30 MLB teams in action Thursday, let's take a closer look at two games and where the value's at. This year's opening day will be the earliest start to the season in league history. 

MLB Opening Day: San Francisco Giants vs Los Angeles Dodgers

The Diamondbacks Are Positioned To Make A Splash In 2020

Last season, the Arizona Diamondbacks went 85-77 (.525) and missed a playoff berth. However, after making some offseason moves, the D-Backs are positioned well and our one of the MLB public betting favorites heading into what will most likely be an abbreviated 2020 campaign. DraftKings listed Arizona’s odds to post above a .515 winning percentage at -112, and there are a few reasons to jump all over this MLB over under bet. 

Home Cookin’

Due to the fact that Arizona houses 10 Spring Training fields in addition to Chase Field, there’s a chance that many (or all) neutral field games will be held right in their backyard, if not right in their home stadium. Although crowds will almost certainly not be admitted into games this season, there’s a certain comfort of playing close to family and friends, even if the team ends up being quarantined and only permitted to and from the stadium from a designated hotel. Nonetheless, this could end up being a gigantic advantage to jump on before the odds move. 

Major Offseason Signings

During the offseason, the D-Backs signed Madison Bumgarner, Kole Calhoun and Hector Rondon and also added centerfielder Starling Marte via trade. All of a sudden, they have a solidified starting rotation consisting of Bumgarner, Robbie Ray, Zac Gallen, Marrill Kelly and Luke Weaver. Closer Archie Bradley will now be supported by Rondon, who will likely take on the eighth inning setup role while Calhoun will most likely be the everyday right fielder and Marte will now man center. Bumgarner made 34 starts last season and managed a 9-9 record and 3.90 ERA for the San Francisco Giants. While those numbers didn’t live up to his sparkling 3.13 career ERA, he’s still regarded as an elite pitcher and will immediately take over as the ace. Calhoun is coming off a career-high 33 homers campaign in which he also knocked in 74 runs. While he hit just .232, he will likely be a source of pop towards the bottom of Arizona’s lineup. Rondon made 62 appearances as a member of the Houston Astros last season and managed a 3.71 ERA and 19 holds over 60.2 innings pitched. He will instantly become a major piece of Arizona’s bullpen. Marte will likely bat towards the top of the lineup based on his ability to hit for average (.295 last season), power (a career-high 23 home runs and 82 RBIs) and serve as a threat on the basepaths (23 steals). All four of these additions answered immediate needs and could even lead the people who make MLB expert picks to start to favor the Diamondbacks. 

A Deep And Versatile Lineup

Further, their lineup will give manager Torrey Lovullo a lot of opportunities to platoon his starters including at catcher (Carson Kelly, Stephen Vogt) and first base (Christian Walker, Jake Lamb). The switch-hitting abilities of second baseman Ketel Marte and Eduardo Escobar will also come in handy, while David Peralta, Marte and Calhoun will man the outfield. Shortstop Nick Ahmed is one of the most sure-handed shortstops in baseball defensively and others like Josh Rojas, Tim Locastro and Ildemaro Vargas could also find playing time in utility roles off the bench. Overall, this is a deep offense that shouldn’t be written off.