Of the last four teams standing in the post-season, three of them have MLB's highest payrolls. Cot's Contracts has two payroll lists, one called Year End 40-man and the other called CB Tax 40-man. In the first list it goes Mets ($341.5M), Yankees ($303.8M), and Dodgers ($288.3M). Figuring in the Competitive Balance Tax keeps the Mets ($356.2M) in the top spot with the Dodgers ($351.7M) and Yankees ($314.8M) switching places.
The three highest-spending teams in the two biggest baseball markets are in the League Championship Series. That's the semi-finals. The winners go to the World Series. The networks are guaranteed one LA-NY matchup (that starts tonight on Fox) and may get two.
The Cleveland Guardians are 21st ($106.1M) and 23rd ($139.7M) on the two payroll lists. They have not won the World Series since 1948, back when they were the Indians and had guys like Bob Feller and Larry Doby. Any discerning baseball fan who isn't rooting for the Guardians is doing the game a disservice. I'll exempt lifelong fans of the other clubs. After all, somebody must like them.
--M.C.
p.s. The moneyline (Fanduel) on winning the whole thing stands at Dodgers (+150), Yankees (+170), Mets (+410), and finally the Guardians (+550). If you bet 100 bucks on the Bums you'll clear 50 bucks if they win. They are 3-to-2 favorites. The longshot G's will make you a profit of 450 bucks if they pull off two upsets. Their odds come in at 11-to-2.
4 comments:
It's interesting to see the money lines, because, it is of course influenced by money. I like the odds on the Guardians although I wouldn't touch FanDuel with a stick. Not that I think the Guardians will necessarily win (although I sure hope so) but because I think they are much more evenly matched than 11 to 2. It's tough to match the Yanks in hitting, but I think the GoT's have better pitching.
Yeah I like looking at betting lines because they are an accumulation of many inputs. Bettors are of course a subset of the population, and hardly a representative sample, but sports has always had bettors and oddsmakers and they help shape the narrative. Las Vegas can sum up a lot of analysis in simple dollars-and-cents terms.
CLE 3.86 RA/G and NYY 4.12 RA/G, 3rd best and 9th best. ERAs are real close, CLE 3.61, NYY 3.74 while FIPs are nearly identical 3.98 to 4.06.
Bryan Price has decided to retire. He cites a desire to be with family. He was offered a two-year contract a year ago, opted for a one-year deal in anticipation of this. He is from Mill Valley and goes way back to college with Bob Melvin. It was a tough year for Giants pitching, but they did remarkably well, considering.
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