MLB Futures Betting: Texas Rangers Odds to Win the World Series
by Richard Gardner | Bodog Sportsbook Manager - 7/29/2010
Get your bets in now on the Texas Rangers, because their odds to win the World Series keep going down. At the moment, they’re at 15/2 to win it all and 10/3 to win the AL. It’s an amazing story for a team with one of the lowest payrolls in the majors. Oh, and the team’s also in bankruptcy court, which has to be distracting.
When the Rangers went out and got pitcher Cliff Lee in a trade with the Seattle Mariners, Bodog received a flood of action on Texas futures. The money has kept on rolling in as the Rangers pull further and further away in the race for the AL West. No other team in baseball is looking as likely to win their division. Even if you’re the Yankees, you’ve got to beat out Tampa Bay and Boston.
There have been reports that the Rangers aren’t done dealing, so keep an eye out for that. But even if general manager Jon Daniels doesn’t improve things further, his squad already features a line-up with the likes of Lee, plus sluggers Josh Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero. Unheralded starting pitchers like C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis are also getting it done, with help from a very capable bullpen.
Betting on the Texas Rangers to win the World Series. It just doesn’t sound right. Not when you consider it’s a franchise that’s 1-9 all-time in the playoffs, losing to the Yankees in the Division Series in 1996, 1998, and 1999. But past history shouldn’t really come into the equation, should it? I’ve always said that betting should be about the here and now, but I know that some bettors would just feel funny betting on the Rangers.
As far as the rest of the World Series odds are concerned, the Yankees remain the favorites to win, currently at 3/1. After that, it’s the Rays at 6/1, the Braves at 7/1, the aforementioned Rangers at 15/2, the Cardinals at 9/1 and the Phillies at 10/1.
That Atlanta team is another that’s surprised a few people in 2010. The Braves haven’t made the playoffs since 2005, the last year of a string of division titles that netted them just a single World Series title. They’ve still got Chipper Jones leftover from the bygone days, but it’s pitching and defense that’s getting it done now. The Braves have one of the best ERAs in baseball.
"This team, the more I look at it, reminds me of the '95 team," Jones said recently, referring to the World Series team. "You don't have guys leading the league in any category, but you have evenly distributed production up and down the line-up. More often than not, the teams with that kind of production are going to win a lot of games."
Atlanta will have to watch out for surging Philadelphia down the stretch, but even if the Braves don’t win the NL East, a wild-card berth is possible.
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