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Johnny Banks
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Major League Baseball is Starting by The Gaming Today’s Mark Mayer
Hard to believe, but in less than three weeks major league baseball comes to Cashman Field with a pair of split squad games involving the Chicago Cubs on March 12-13.
And, the 2011 spring training season begins Thursday with the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies meeting in Tampa, Fla.
Spring training has always been my favorite lead-in to a sport with over an entire month of games that will determine the final rosters that head into the regular season.
The Las Vegas Hilton, Cantor and Lucky’s books each list the Phillies and Yankees among the three favorites to win the World Series. The Phillies are the top choice with the best price the 5-2 odds at Lucky’s. The Yanks rank third behind Boston with a generous 7-1 at the Hilton.
As of today, it would seem the Phillies and Red Sox were the big winners in offseason moves as the rich just seem to get richer. The Phils reacquired past Cy Young winner Cliff Lee to form a starting four for the ages – joining Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. Barring injury, it’s hard to imagine Philly not winning at least 100 games, and that figure may even draw boos from hardcore fans.
Boston made its big moves on offense, acquiring All-Stars Carl Crawford from Tampa Bay and Adrian Gonzalez from San Diego. Crawford unleashed for 81 games at Fenway Park could be baseball’s most productive player.
Gonzalez brings another left-handed bat to an already loaded Boston offense and should pepper the famed Green Monster left field wall where most of his home runs and doubles tended to go in San Diego. And, both players are gold glove winners in center field and first base respectively.
Even though the Yanks are rated no worse than third in most books, one could make the argument this could be a down year. There was the contract distraction of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte retiring, most of the corps talent in their mid to late 30’s and losing out on the Lee sweepstakes.
The Yankees will be focused on the Red Sox but there’s no pushover any more in the American League East. Tampa Bay is solid, Toronto’s a threat with major league home run champ Jose Bautista re-signing a multi-year deal and the Baltimore Orioles producing a winning record in the second half of last season under new manager Buck Showalter.
The Orioles are an especially interesting futures wager at 80-1 (Hilton), having acquired proven right handed power bats in Vladimir Guerrero and Derrek Lee to a growing list of talented young players. The pitching is a question, but no doubt Baltimore will score plenty of runs in Camden Yards this year and definitely worth playing OVER in any season win total you see.
The same can be said in the National League Central with Milwaukee. The Brewers will be making a big push with Prince Fielder playing out the last season on his contract and almost guaranteed to be the top player on the market.
Milwaukee pulled off one of the “steals” in postseason moves by signing past Cy Young winner Zack Greinke from Kansas City. Greinke’s stats were far off his Cy year of 2009, but is still young and definitely the No. 1 starter the Brewers have been lacking since the half-season they rode C.C. Sabathia to the playoffs a couple of seasons back.
Along with Greinke, the Brewers added Shaun Marcum from Toronto to form potentially the best starting five in team history. A strong good starting five with an explosive offense led by Fielder, a “franchise” player in Ryan Braun and rejuvenated leadoff batter Rickey Weeks have definitely raised the ante for Milwaukee in a wide open NL Central race. Best odds we’ve seen on the Brew Crew are 40-1 at Cantor.
Speaking of the NL Central, there’s always the plight of the lovable Cubbies who still haven’t been to a World Series in over 100 years. It will definitely be a new-look Cubs without manager Lou Piniella, who stepped down in the offseason. The 30-1 price at the Hilton seems more in line with Chicago’s chances rather than the 15-1 offered at Lucky’s and 18-1 at Cantor.
As stated earlier, the Cubs play twice at Cashman Field. Both are split squad games, meaning half the team will be playing in Arizona. Scheduled contests are against Cincinnati at 1:05 p.m. Saturday, March 12 and the same starting time the following day against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With holdouts on the horizon in both the NFL and NBA this coming fall, it figures to be a banner year for baseball heading to the World Series.
Oh, by the way, the San Francisco Giants are the defending world champs. That said, you can get an excellent price of 15-1 at the Hilton for the Giants to repeat.
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