Category Archives: MLB

MLB approves league furloughs, pay reductions, but not for players

Just as Major League Baseball (MLB) was preparing for Opening Day, along came the coronavirus, preventing the league from even entering the batter’s box. That was almost two months ago, and there is still no clear picture about when, and if, the 2020 season will be allowed to resume. Ideas on resuming play, such as holding all games in Phoenix, Arizona, have been floated, but the odds of that happening are about as good as Hillary Clinton winning this year’s presidential election (since she’s not even a candidate, the result should be clear). Still, MLB was willing to recognize the efforts being made by its employees across the country to keep the league ready for action, and agreed to cover certain salaries for a while. However, all good things must come to an end, and MLB brass is giving teams permission to make cuts where necessary – players excluded.

About a week ago, MLB announced that it would pay its employees through the end of May and that the top league officials were going to reduce their pay by an average of 35%. It also said that players would be eligible to receive some type of compensation from a $170-million fund that was being created. As of today, though, teams could have the green light from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to temporarily lay off employees or reduce their salaries if they feel it’s necessary. The only exemption, as Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic points out, is that players cannot be touched.

Nothing would be better than to see all sports leagues back in action. Ideas of games in different sports beginning in May or June are still being discussed, but nothing definite has been, or will be, decided quickly. According to Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated, “[According] to the experts—medical experts, not the money-making experts in league offices—we will not have sports any time soon.”

Still, others in the medical community believe that something could happen soon. Most notably, the top coronavirus fighter in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, said last week, “There’s a way [for players to play]. Put them in big hotels wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled and name me a surveillance. But have them tested, like every week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family. And just let them play the season out. People say, ‘Well, you can’t play without spectators. Well, I think you’d probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game, particularly me. I’m living in Washington. We have the world champion Washington Nationals. I want to see them play again.”

National League Division odds update

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

One reported possibility that Major League Baseball is considering to get a 2020 regular season in during the coronavirus pandemic is all 30 teams playing in Arizona the entire season and without fans in attendance. The 10 Cactus League spring training sites are all very bunched together in the greater Phoenix area, plus there’s Chase Field.

Which team would benefit most from this setup? Obviously, the Arizona Diamondbacks – although MLB likely would have to essentially quarantine all players the entire campaign. Still, the Snakes would in theory have home-field advantage, especially in any games at Chase Field, and perhaps there is a way the players could remain with their families in some fashion.

Arizona had a good offseason in adding the likes of outfielder Starling Marte and starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner, but the Diamondbacks are +800 longer shots to win the NL West for the first time since 2011.

American League Division odds update

Will there be a 2020 Major League Baseball season? Commissioner Rob Manfred is doing everything in his power to try and make that happen, although it obviously will be much shorter than 162 games. One interesting report last week was that MLB could abandon the traditional American and National League split and instead have a Grapefruit and Cactus League. Divisions would then be split up by proximity of spring camps in Florida and Arizona.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

That seems far-fetched (but interesting) and for now we will assume that the AL and NL will stick with their usual divisions.

In the AL East, the New York Yankees are the biggest division favorites in the Junior Circuit at -450 despite some starting pitching concerns even with the addition of Gerrit Cole. Keep in mind that last year’s pitcher with the most wins on the team was Domingo German with 18, and he still has to serve 63 games of a suspension for an off-field incident from 2019. There may not even be 63 games this year.

MLB Home Run Leader odds: Can Alonso repeat?

Last year, the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso led the major leagues with a franchise-record 53 home runs, also an MLB record for a rookie. Alonso is +1000 to repeat as the home run king at sportsbooks, although it’s likely no player will be hitting 50 home runs again in 2020 because there isn’t going to be anywhere near 162 games due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Alonso, incidentally, also won the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game last year. The 2016 second-round pick out of the University of Florida wasn’t even a lock to make the Opening Day roster out of spring training. Alonso was the first rookie to lead the majors in home runs since Mark McGwire tied for the lead with 49 in his 1987 campaign.

Those 49 home runs had been the MLB rookie record until the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge hit 52 in 2017 to lead the American League. He’s +1400 on this prop but has had trouble staying healthy since then. Teammate Giancarlo Stanton, who hit 59 home runs three years ago to lead the majors, is +2000 but also has some issues staying healthy.

MLB ROY odds: Robert, Lux atop the board

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

It’s always difficult to handicap Rookie of the Year races in the American and National League entering any season because most teams keep their top prospects in the minors as long as possible for service time reasons. Cubs fans may remember that the team called up mega-touted prospect Kris Bryant the day after one service-time deadline in mid-April 2015. That ensured Bryant wasn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2021 season as opposed to after this year.

With the 2020 MLB season now likely to be much shorter than 162 games, will teams start the season with their top prospects on the big-league roster or just keep them in the minors all year? That’s just one of many questions surrounding the sport in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to MLB.com, a player is considered a rookie unless in a previous season(s) he exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the majors or accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a big-league club (or clubs) during the period of 25-player limit – i.e. before September when rosters expand.

MLB to move forward with Opening Day (kind of)

No sports league would have ever been willing to call off a season for virtually any reason. To do so would be to shoot itself in the foot and lead to billions of dollars in lost revenue. However, the coronavirus is proving to be a beast of an enemy, and all sports leagues have found themselves doing the unimaginable. With a lot of uncertainty still surrounding the possibility of getting things back to normal, sports fans can only sit back and wait. Today should have been an epic day for baseball fans, as it was supposed to mark MLB’s Opening Day. COVID-19 squashed those plans, but the league has figured out an alternative that it hopes will be received well by fans. Welcome the first-ever MLB Opening Day at Home.

Starting at 8:30 AM Eastern Time (ET) today, MLB will be providing reruns of baseball games for each of the 30 teams in the league. The games are available on MLB.com and the league’s social media channels, and MLB explains on its website, “All games will be streamed on MLB.com, as well as through one of MLB’s social media channels, on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, and by using the hashtag #OpeningDayAtHome, fans can connect with each other while watching their team’s selected game at a set time. In addition, on MLB Network, you can watch classic Opening Day games all day, beginning at 1 p.m. ET with Derek Jeter’s first Opening Day in 1996, and ending at midnight with Tuffy Rhodes’ unforgettable three-homer day for the Cubs against Doc Gooden and the Mets in 1994. Meanwhile, ESPN2 will air a Home Run Derby marathon beginning at 6 p.m. ET, starting with Pete Alonso’s 2019 triumph, followed by the derbies from 2018, ’17 and ’15.”

It probably would have been better kept a secret, but MLB already let the cat out of the bag. Each game is designed to showcase a team; therefore, the game will obviously be one that has that team as the winner. Still, it will be a great opportunity to catch up on highlights and see some incredible plays while stuck at home with nothing else but afternoon soap operas and talk shows on TV.

MLB is also taking advantage of the opportunity to try to source funds for several charities that are supporting coronavirus victims. The league, along with the MLB Players Association, has already donated $1 million to Meals on Wheels and Feeding America, and will contribute $30 million to different ball clubs so they can pay their employees. During today’s game schedule, MLB will be promoting the charities, as well as others, in an effort to find additional contributions.

Scott Manfred “not in control” of when MLB season will start

Today is March 26, and you know what that means, right? It’s the start of the MLB season! All 30 teams should be taking the field to play America’s favorite pastime.

But they won’t be.

Major League Baseball is doing everything it can to keep baseball starved fans entertained on March 26, airing classic baseball games for all 30 clubs, and making the 2018 and 2019 seasons free on MLB TV.

But that’s not much help for sports books. We all know how these games ends, and it offers nothing to gamblers and baseball fans who want something fresh. For all of us hoping for some promise of normalcy in the near future, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred joined Scott Van Pelt on ESPN:

Cy Young Award odds: deGrom, Cole favorites

There have been relievers to win the Cy Young Award in the American or National League with just a handful of victories. The last reliever to win the Cy Young was the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Eric Gagne in 2003 as he finished 2-3 but with 55 saves.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

With the 2020 Major League Baseball season obviously going to be severely shortened due to the coronavirus, it’s almost tough to project what the Cy Young winner’s resume in each league might look like. In the National League, New York Mets starting pitcher Jacob deGrom won it last year with just 11 wins and the year before with only 10.

Will deGrom even get 20 starts this entire season? To double-digit wins? He is the +325 favorite to threepeat in the NL. Twenty-one pitchers have won the Cy Young Award multiple times over both leagues but only 10 have won it at least three times as deGrom looks to join that exclusive club. The lone two pitchers to win it three straight years were Hall of Famers Randy Johnson (1999-2002) and Greg Maddux (1992-95), who each did it four in a row.

Pop Artists Reimagine Classic Cards As TOPPS Unveils ‘Project 2020′

The Topps Company and its fast-growing on-demand platform TOPPS NOW™ today announced one of the most unique, transformative and eclectic offerings in company history: “Project 2020,” a first of its kind effort that combines some of the most iconic cross-generational cards in the company’s nearly 70 year history with baseball, re-imagined by some of the world’s most influential, creative and eclectic artists, cartooners and pop culture influencers.

Some of the notable artists on the list include celebrity jewelry designer Ben Yang…aka Ben Baller; Chicago based designed Just Don, who has worked with Kanye West and Nike on major projects; Mexican American tattoo and graffiti artist Mark Machado, known as Mister Cartoon; Australian Tyson Beck, whose recent resign of the NBA logo in the image of Kobe Bryant became an international cause célèbre; New York native and design artist Sophia Chang and L.A. Based streetwear artist Joshua Vides.

The first two cards, issuing today, include Ben Baller’s Ichiro (2001) and Jacob Rochester’s Sandy Koufax (1955).

Each of the 20 artists will reinterpret 20 cards, representing baseball’s greatest stars from the 1950s to the present day. The cards will only be available for a 48-hour period from the time each is introduced.

“When we think of the collectible world and where it has evolved today, sports and pop culture continue to collide,” said Jeff Heckman, Global Director of Ecommerce. “We could not think of a better way to expose trading cards to a new audience than working to reinvent some of the classic baseball cards and personalities of the game of baseball through the eyes and hands of many of the world’s greatest pop culture figures of today. ‘Project 2020’ will be a must have for core and casual baseball fans, and will more importantly showcase the names and stories of the artists and the players on the cards to a global audience whose interests lie well beyond the sport. It is a transformative move we are very excited about.”

“Roberto Clemente and his story have always been inspirational to me,” said Mister Cartoon, whose hometown high school mascot was the Pirates, adding to his longtime connection to the Pittsburgh slugger and made working on the Clemente card extra special. “I want to take each of these classic cards and supercharge them!”

MLB making big changes due to COVID-19

March 26 should have been an exciting day for baseball fans around the world. It would have been the day that marked the start of the MLB regular season but, thanks to the coronavirus, Opening Day has been pushed back until the middle of May – at the earliest. This is just one of the many changes being made to MLB, and many more are still to come. Fortunately, not all of them are bringing bad news.

Mid-May is just the possible timeframe for the start of the league; it isn’t a definite. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is basing his decisions on guidance coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “We’re not going to announce an alternate Opening Day at this point. We’re going to have to see how things develop.”

The last time Opening Day was delayed was in 1995, and that resulted in a shorter season. As a result, players took a cut in salary as fewer games were played, but there is talk that the season could be extended this year in order to not have to lose any games. However, for that to happen, players could be eligible for additional pay, and this is just one of the issues MLB executives and players are now trying to figure out.

Instead of simply extending the season, perhaps the league will offer a larger postseason. A greater number of playoff games, in theory, would mean more TV viewership, since pennant runs typically get more action, and this would be a more lucrative alternative than just sending the regular season into overtime. This would also allow the league, even with a seriously delayed Opening Day, adhere closer to its regular schedule, avoiding many of the issues that are expected to crop up from an extended season.

2020 American League Pennant odds roundup

Will there be a 2020 Major League Baseball season in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic? Needless to say, if it’s at all possible to stage even a hugely truncated season MLB is going to do it because there are billions of dollars at stake.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

On Monday, the league pushed back Opening Day until mid-May at the earliest after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Sunday that gatherings of 50 people or more be canceled or postponed across the country for the next eight weeks. The 2020 season was supposed to start a week from Thursday.

So, while we don’t know when the season will begin, bettors can still wager on plenty of MLB futures. On the odds to win the American League pennant, the New York Yankees are +150 favorites even though they have lost projected No. 2 starting pitcher Luis Severino for the entire 2020 campaign following Tommy John surgery.

2020 National League Pennant odds roundup

The last time Major League Baseball didn’t have a 162-game regular season – there are times when a team or two might fall short of 162 if one game was postponed and there was no need to make it up – was in the strike-shortened 1994 campaign when the clubs played around 115 games before the players shut it down and canceled the postseason.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, it’s still not clear when MLB might start up again, but it won’t be before mid-May and could be well after that. Getting 100 games in for each team could be a challenge.

That said, bettors can still wager on various MLB futures, and on the odds to win the 2020 National League pennant, the Los Angeles Dodgers are clear-cut +155 favorites. Los Angeles has won the NL West division title seven years in a row but not a World Series title since 1988. The Dodgers, who were upset in the 2019 NLDS by the Washington Nationals, lost in the 2018 Fall Classic in five games to the Boston Red Sox and in the 2017 World Series in seven to the Houston Astros.

Players look for revenge on Houston Astros as sports books offer hit by pitch lines

The Houston Astros sign stealing scandal continues to rock Major League Baseball (MLB). Although punishments have been doled out to team officials, the magnitude of the teams’ cheating still has lots of players feeling salty, and spring training talk has sports books speculating how they will get their revenge.

The scandal, which saw the Astros using cameras and a trash can to steal and relay pitch calls to the batter at the plate, has already been dealt with as far as the team and MLB are concerned. The league suspended Astros Manager AJ Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow, and the team fired them shortly after. Notably though, no current or former players were punished for the scandal, which the MLB’s report suggested was a “player-driven scheme.”

Unfortunately, even with the full story in hand, there’s nothing the MLB could do. The Major League Baseball Player’s Union is the strongest in North American sports, and protects players from punishment without notice. As none was given by the team to the players during the scandal, the league would likely lose in court if it tried to level any punishments.

Making matters worse, when asked if he considered stripping the Houston Astros of their 2017 World Series title, he called the act useless. ‘The idea of an asterisk or asking for a piece of metal back seems like a futile act.” That has many proud players feeling Manfred has cheapened the whole point of the league.

Rays vs. Twins MLB betting preview

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Anyone for a Tampa Bay Rays-Minnesota Twins ALDS or ALCS? Could happen, although the various networks that televise Major League Baseball’s playoffs would hate that with two small-market, rather anonymous teams. The Rays and Twins open a three-game series at Target Field on Tuesday. Minnesota will be the series betting favorite, and opened as -120 chalk for Tuesday’s contest at sportsbooks.

It’s too early to say any team is a “lock” anything in MLB, but the Twins would have to suffer a mega-collapse to not win the AL Central Division for the first time since 2010. Minnesota is easily the biggest surprise in baseball under first-year manger Rocco Baldelli, who has to be the leading AL Manager of the Year candidate. After finishing 23rd in the majors last year in home runs, the Twins are first in 2019 with 147 and on a potential record pace. Just not sure they have the pitching to really be taken seriously as pennant contenders.

Tampa Bay led the AL East for much of the season but has fallen off a bit. It still leads the AL Wild-Card race. It’s a credit to this team’s front office that the Rays annually overachieve because they have the worst stadium situation in the four major American pro sports leagues, draw no fans and have the lowest payroll in the majors.

Wrigley Field could get its own sportsbook

According to a report by ESPN, the iconic Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs, in Chicago, Illinois could be getting its own sportsbook. At least, that might be a plan set in motion by the Cubs, provided they can get approval from Major League Baseball (MLB) for the venue. The sportsbook would see a physical location in the stadium, as well as betting kiosks in strategic places on the perimeter.

Sports gambling hasn’t yet been legalized in Illinois, but it most likely won’t be too much longer before the go-ahead is given. A bill drafted by the Senate, Senate Bill 690 (SB 690), has already been approved by legislators and now only needs the signature of Governor J.B. Pritzker to be converted into law. Pritzker will reportedly sign the bill this week.

In preparation for legalization, the Cubs, and other sports organizations in the state, have been getting ready to launch sportsbooks. However, the Cubs will only admit to being in early discussions about the possibility without acknowledging that it has official plans in place.

Even if the Cubs, or any other MLB franchise in the country, wanted to put a sportsbook at its stadium, there is still one last hurdle to jump. The league has to agree to allow the teams to offer sports gambling, and it has yet to do so. An MLB spokesperson told ESPN, “We will work with our clubs to explore the opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving sports betting landscape in a socially responsible manner.”

White Sox vs. Cubs MLB betting preview

Major League Baseball‘s interleague series between the New York Yankees and Mets is called the Subway Series. Easy to remember. When the Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers play, it’s called the Freeway Series. Makes sense.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

When the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs play each year … well, the names have varied. There have been titles like the Red Line Series, the Windy City Showdown, North-South Showdown, City Series, Crosstown Cup, Crosstown Series and Crosstown Showdown.

Nowadays, it’s generally referred to as the Crosstown Classic, and the South Side White Sox open a two-game set on the North Side of Chicago at Wrigley Field on Tuesday. The teams play two at Guaranteed Rate Field, eight miles south of Wrigley, to close the first half of the season.