King Of The Hill
The Sox are the defending World Champions- and are also favored by Las Vegas to win it all again in 2008. Time to watch everyone else play a rousing game of “King Of The Hill” and try and knock the Sox off the top. The latest addition of Santana to the Mets roster pushes them ahead of the Yankees to take the #3 spot — with the Angels and Tigers rounding out the Top Five. In the bottom five? The Orioles, Royals, Pirates and Rays are tied, but the Nationals take the worst odds crown.
The current odds, according to Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which advises casino sports books on odds for sporting events.
New York Mets 5-1
New York Yankees 11-2
Los Angeles Angels 15-2
Detroit Tigers 8-1
Cleveland Indians 10-1
Chicago Cubs 10-1
Atlanta Braves 16-1
Milwaukee Brewers 18-1
Arizona Diamondbacks 18-1
Philadelphia Phillies 20-1
Toronto Blue Jays 20-1
Colorado Rockies 22-1
San Diego Padres 22-1
Los Angeles Dodgers 22-1
St. Louis Cardinals 28-1
Seattle Mariners 35-1
Minnesota Twins 40-1
Houston Astros 40-1
Cincinnati Reds 55-1
Chicago White Sox 60-1
Oakland Athletics 65-1
San Francisco Giants 85-1
Texas Rangers 100-1
Florida Marlins 125-1
Baltimore Orioles 150-1
Kansas City Royals 150-1
Pittsburgh Pirates 150-1
Tampa Bay Rays 150-1
Washington Nationals 200-1
If the teams were ranked based on their odds of winning the World Series, from #1 (Red Sox) to #30 (Nationals), and then the rankings of the teams in each division were averaged (I know, questionable method of ranking them- but fun to look at nonetheless): the AL East comes out on top with an average ranking of 13.5, and the AL West is the bottom division with a 16.75 average ranking. The AL East and NL East each have three of their five teams in the Top 11; the AL West has just one team in the top 11.
- AL East = 13.5 average ranking
1 Boston Red Sox
3 New York Yankees
t11 Toronto Blue Jays
t26 Baltimore Orioles
t26 Tampa Bay RaysNL West = 14.2 average ranking
t9 Arizona Diamondbacks
t13 Colorado Rockies
t13 San Diego Padres
t13 Los Angeles Dodgers
23 San Francisco GiantsNL East = 15.2 average ranking
2 New York Mets
8 Atlanta Braves
t11 Philadelphia Phillies
25 Florida Marlins
30 Washington NationalsAL Central = 15.2 average ranking
5 Detroit Tigers
t6 Cleveland Indians
t18 Minnesota Twins
21 Chicago White Sox
t26 Kansas City RoyalsNL Central = 15.83 average ranking
t6 Chicago Cubs
t9 Milwaukee Brewers
16 St. Louis Cardinals
t18 Houston Astros
20 Cincinnati Reds
t26 Pittsburgh PiratesAL West = 16.75 average ranking
4 Los Angeles Angels 15-2
17 Seattle Mariners 35-1
22 Oakland Athletics 65-1
24 Texas Rangers 100-1
Don’t anybody dare say that word that rhymes with “Prepeat”- there will be no jinxing allowed on these premises!
So based on these projected results… the standings would end up looking like this.
AL East: Red Sox
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
AL WC: Yankees
NL East: Mets
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: DBacks
NL WC: Braves
That’s actually almost exactly what I posted at OTM a week ago, haha. But I went out on a limb and said Cards for NL Central (nothing personal, TG). I want to see what they do with Glaus.
Until last week I definetely would have picked the Phillies to win the NL East. Santana going to NY changes things a bit, but I still think everyone is discrediting the Phillies a bit too much.
NL Central may end up being one of the most interesting divisions this year- because I think it’s going to mirror the Cubs/Cards/BrewCrew close race from ‘07.
I hope the NL Central goes down to the wire like it did last year-that was really interesting to watch for a change!
I’m just curious as to what exactly the Braves and Cubs did to make them better this season than the D-backs (who only added Dan Haren)?
Poor Nationals! ugh that would be horrible!