Apologies for the long hiatus. Employees at my company have been resigning in bunches and leaving me with piles upon piles of work. I also purchased a house with my lovely girlfriend and we’ve been extremely busy making it a home. As these things settle down, I’m making it a goal to start posting on a more regular basis. Thank you for sticking with me through it all.
There’s no better time than the All-Star break, the unofficial halfway point of the MLB season and the only stretch of the year without a major sport, to check in on our pre-season predictions.
The good:
The Cleveland Guardians are making me feel like a very smart man. This lineup and rotation (although they lost Shane Bieber to injury very early on) were too good to warrant the third-best odds to win the division. They are now the odds-on favorite at -135 after starting the season 58-37, four games ahead of the Twins.
If you recall, I had some very harsh criticism of the Rockies, Angels and A’s going into 2024, and all three of these teams have proved me right. The annual Mike Trout injury put the Angels in the gutter, and the other two teams don’t look like they’re trying to win baseball games. It’s just par for the course with these franchises.
For Cy Young winners, I picked Zack Wheeler and Corbin Burnes who both currently have the second-best odds in their respective leagues. Mookie Betts was playing out of his mind before breaking his hand, which was great for my NL MVP pick. We’ll see how the rest of the season shakes up, but right now I’m very comfortable with where these stand.
The bad:
I thought the Astros were a slam dunk at plus odds to win the division. They got off to a horrendous start, but have clawed their way back to a single game behind the Mariners; zero in the loss column. That is an incredible stretch and I feel like people are not talking about it. So while this prediction looked dead, it’s still not out of the realm of possibility.
The rest of my division standing predictions were not that terrible, with all of my winners sitting in first or in second within a few games.
The worst predictions I made before this season started were my Rookie of the Year picks. Jackson Chourio and Evan Carter do not even crack the top ten odds to win. Chourio is having a nice little season, but this award is pretty much locked down by Paul Skenes. In Carter’s case, he’s missed some time due to injury, and I maybe put too much stock into his 2023 playoff performance.
All in all, I’d say were looking pretty good.
Tough Money Sports 