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2024 MLB tips:
- Atlanta Braves to win the World Series – 11/2 with Unibet
- Worst Regular Season Record: Oakland Athletics – 5/4 with BetUK
- National League Cy Young Award Winner: Spencer Strider – 5/1 with Betway
The 2023 MLB season did not go to the script, with the unfancied Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks contesting the World Series. ESPN had the eventual champion Rangers ranked 16th out of 30 in their pre-season predictions, one ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, who went on to win 101 regular season games.
Predicting baseball is hard, as so much can change over the six-month season. The official Opening Day this year is March 28 and fans in the UK can watch the New York Mets hosting Milwaukee Brewers (5:10pm, TNT Sports 3) that day.
Betting sites are not expecting the Rangers to retain their World Series crown, with Texas sixth favourites, at 16/1. No team has gone back-to-back since New York Yankees won three in a row between 1998 and 2000 so who is going to ‘win it all’?
MLB predictions: Astros, Braves or Dodgers?
If history mattered most, the 27-time champion Yankees would be your World Series pick. A team salary powered choice would lead you across town to the Mets, while the Orioles had the best Spring Training programme this year, with 23 wins from 29 games.
Two of those teams are among the leading five in the outright market on gambling sites – with the Mets not expected to contend – but the top three are found elsewhere.
Los Angeles Dodgers are best priced 4/1 favourites on betting apps and it’s obvious why. They won over 100 games in the last four full seasons and in five of the last six. The Dodgers are a winning machine and should be even better this year.
They added Shohei Ohtani, the sport’s biggest star, to an already illustrious batting lineup. The Dodgers have also made Yoshinobu Yamamoto the best paid-pitcher in history and traded for Tyler Glasnow, a contender to win the National League Cy Young award.
The Dodgers face stiff competition from the Atlanta Braves. The 2021 World Champions have won the NL East for the last six years, over 100 games in each of the last two seasons and should coast their division once again. If seven-time All-Star acquisition Chris Sale can approach his best form after several injury-hit campaigns, an already strong rotation could be unstoppable.
Our other strong contenders are 17/2 shots the Houston Astros, who won the crown in 2022. A formidable lineup should carry them a long way, possibly to an eighth consecutive American League Championship Series, but pitching concerns mean they are not the right selection at this point.
So, Dodgers or Braves? It will be interesting to see if the fallout from the issues with Ohtani’s former translator destabilises him or his new team, so Atlanta shade it.
After all, they won the most regular season games in 2023, are widely forecasted to do so again and play in a slightly weaker division. The Braves face the Astros April 15-17 and first encounter the Dodgers May 3-5, so if punters would rather see how they fare against their chief competitors before betting, they don’t have to wait long.
MLB tip 1: Atlanta Braves to win the World Series – 11/2 with Unibet
A long year in Oakland
At the other end of the scale, there are four teams with a realistic shout of having the worst regular season record in 2024: Oakland Athletics (5/4), Colorado Rockies (9/4), Chicago White Sox (7/2) and Washington Nationals (13/2).
Last season points towards Oakland. They won just 50 games, six fewer than any other team, and were the first ball club since 2019 to have a run differential of at least -2 per game.
Search online and the Rockies appear in most trouble. Bat Flips and Nerds, ESPN, Fan Graphs and Pecota have all predicted the Colorado boys to record the fewest wins.
But the A’s were adrift in 2023, lucky to get 50 wins based on their runs for and against and have a 26-man roster payroll less than half of the next cheapest team. With the club stagnating ahead of relocation to Las Vegas, a significant improvement on last year appears unlikely.
MLB tip 2: Worst Regular Season Record: Oakland Athletics – 5/4 with BetUK
Spencer striding to Cy Young
The Cy Young Award, presented to the best pitcher, was no contest in both leagues last year. Blake Snell collected 28 of the 30 first place votes to win the National League gong by a country mile.
However, he then entered free agency and only signed with the San Francisco Giants around a week before the start of the 2024 season. He is unlikely to be in contention this time.
The Braves’ Spencer Strider is the favourite and impossible to ignore. Fourth in last year’s voting, the 25-year-old became the fastest pitcher to both 100 and 200 strikeouts in 2023 and broke the franchise record with 281 in total. With a 20-5 win-loss record last term and the Braves just as dominant, Strider has a great shot at winning the Cy Young in the NL.
MLB tip 3: National League Cy Young Award Winner: Spencer Strider – 5/1 with Betway
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Last Updated: 26th March 2024, 02:12 PM
