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There is a plan in place for a 60-game MLB season, so it was only a matter of time before avenues to bet on baseball emerged. Thanks to BetOnline, we can see that the Dodgers are heavy favorites to win the National League West and their over/under win total is tied for the highest in baseball with the New York Yankees.
The oddsmakers at BetOnline have the Dodgers at 38½ wins in 2020, which would translate to just shy of 104 wins in a full, 162-game season. While it seems abnormally high, the Dodgers won at least 39 games in 61 of 103 (59.2 percent) 60-game stretches last year.
The Yankees also have an over/under of 38½ wins, with the Astros next at 35½ and the Twins at 34½ wins. The Braves and Nationals are two of four teams with an over/under of 33½ wins, the second-highest total in the National League.
The disparity is even larger in the National League West, a division the Dodgers have won seven years in a row. The Diamondbacks and Padres have over/unders of 31½, which translates into 85 wins in 162 games, followed by the Rockies at 27½ and Giants at 25½ wins.
Links
Dan Szymborski at FanGraphs has the Dodgers projected at 38-22 in his ZiPS standings, the top projected record in MLB.
Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register talked to manager Dave Roberts about many things, including the short season: “If anything, the unknown is kind of how we get off to a good start. I’m not really concerned about the mindset. I’m not really concerned about the injury piece because I love our depth. I just think you’ve still got to go out there and get off to a good start.”
Roberts was also a guest on MLB Network Radio Wednesday:
The #Dodgers won't have a full-time DH in 2020, Dave Roberts told us on @MLBNetworkRadio. He expects to utilize the spot as a partial day off for regular players, depending on handedness of the starting pitcher; he mentioned Justin Turner as one option in that regard. @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 24, 2020
Dave Roberts said the #Dodgers are planning to begin the regular season with a 5-man starting rotation. He added that he doesn't anticipate starting pitchers going beyond 4 innings per game during their first turn through the rotation. @MLB @MLBNetwork @MLBNetworkRadio
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 24, 2020
Emma Baccellieri at Sports Illustrated talked to several epidemiologists about MLB’s return plan amid a viral pandemic:
“It’s sort of a pick-your-poison situation,” Dr. Binney says. “You could centralize all the risk. But if that city explodes, then your whole league is in trouble. Or do you want to accept the more dispersed risk, where one of your teams is probably going to be in trouble at any given time, but maybe not all of you will have to shut down?”
Clayton Kershaw was a guest on Ross Stripling’s Big Swing Podcast this week.