Something to talk about this morning. These are the wagers I made on team over/unders for 2010.
 Washington Nationals – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(158) Over vs. (159) Under Under 70½ (-105)
Not sold on the Nationals being that improved this offseason. They’re not as much an automatic out, but I don’t think they’ve got more than 70 wins in them.
Seattle Mariners – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(148) Over vs. (149) Under Over 83½ (-125)
Seattle seems to be a popular pick to do well this year, and the division isn’t that great. Missing Cliff Lee for an extended amount of time could hurt though, but they’ve still got King Felix, my pick for AL Cy Young. I don’t think they’ll smash this number, but 84 wins isn’t out of the question.
San Francisco Giants – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(146) Over vs. (147) Under Over 82½ (EVEN)
I think they’ve just got too much pitching to do that badly. If a couple of their bats improve and get hot for even a small stretch, they should easily stay above .500.
Philadelphia Phillies – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(140) Over vs. (141) Under Under 92½ (-120)
A pick I’ll probably be criticized for, but it’s actually a pretty simple pick. They just didn’t improve that much, are probably financially limited from improving midseason should anything go wrong, and the division is better. They won 93 last year, I doubt they reach that much again.
New York Yankees – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(136) Over vs. (137) Under Under 95½ (-120)
Another controverisial pick given how many games they won last year, but many are picking the Rays and Red Sox to win a lot of games. Chances are there will be a bunch of beating up on each other to lower all their win totals. They also have some old players that could end up declining and hurting the total.
New York Mets – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(134) Over vs. (135) Under Over 81½ (-105)
Easy pick. The Mets are an easy target lately which reflects the low number. All their pitchers have proved they’re healthy in Spring Training, and they have a very potent offense. Personally, I think they can smash this number, but they’re almost a lock for 82 wins.
Chicago Cubs – Total Wins 2010 Regular Season
(108) Over vs. (109) Under Over 83½ (EVEN)
The Cubs had a lot of underperformers last year . I think some of those bounce back and they are fairly competitive this year. Zambrano and Lilly in the rotation are very talented. This crop of players, much like the Mets, has competed in recent years sans 2009. I don’t know if they can win the division over Pujols and the Cardinals, but they’ll be around in September and win more than 83 games.
46 comments
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-9:39am at 9:39 am (UTC -4)
Not too shabby. I don’t think the M’s are going to turn it around, and I think LAA and Texas are going to be tough. I’d take the under on them. Also, I’d take the over on the Yanks. Not cause I want to, mind you.
ceetar
3/26/2010-9:42am at 9:42 am (UTC -4)
LAA and Texas look like they’ll be tough, but not powerhouses by any stretch. I did make this pick before Lee got hurt, so it feels even iffier now.
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-9:49am at 9:49 am (UTC -4)
I like their moves, definitely in the right direction. But what do they really have after King Felix and Lee… Not a whole lot. If they had a little more offense, I’d say yeah, they could cover. But with Kanye, er, Milton ready to take another high dive into the deep end of the pool, I wouldn’t count on him powering up that lineup much. He’ll probably get all depressed because it rains so much, come up with some racial thing about there being no black people in the Pacific Northwest and threaten to smack around a bat boy who was eyeing up one of his gameworn jerseys sitting in his locker. That’s just a guess, but who knows.
(Non-racial stipulation: the above comment was not intended to offend anyone. Well, maybe the Irish. We’ll take the N’s and the chinks, but we don’t want the Irish!)
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-9:56am at 9:56 am (UTC -4)
Aw prairie s***, everybody!
rustyjr
3/26/2010-9:44am at 9:44 am (UTC -4)
I would rake the mets , m’s yanks, and nats with the overs – pirates may be in the negative area
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/26/2010-9:46am at 9:46 am (UTC -4)
So… you went to Vegas and placed these bets I’m assuming?
ceetar
3/26/2010-9:49am at 9:49 am (UTC -4)
Nah, online. Bodog.
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/26/2010-9:52am at 9:52 am (UTC -4)
What’s the payout for the Mets?
rustyjr
3/26/2010-10:00am at 10:00 am (UTC -4)
I know people
gotta get the papers
the papers
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-10:05am at 10:05 am (UTC -4)
Am I funny? Do I amuse you?
metsfan4decades
3/26/2010-9:47am at 9:47 am (UTC -4)
Agree with the Mets. If we stay relatively healthy, I see more than 82 wins.
Phillies: agree also. Their BP is a big question mark, as is at least 3 in that rotation. I also think Ibanez is a problem (age, coming back from surgery) and I don’t see Rollins bat much better than last year. They keep rolling the dice with that bench too, relying too heavily on all staying healthy.
I expect the Mets and at least the Braves to take a few more games from them so whichever analyst I read has them at 98 games, I’d like some of what he’s smokin’.
Yanks: this is a hard one. I think the age of some of their regulars will start catching up to them.
Giants: With that division and their pitching, I think they’ll do better than 82 games.
Mariners: I haven’t paid a lot of attention but I read from one analyst where they think their ‘great off season’ is just a tad bit overrated. Hmmm….
Nats: Admittedly I just automatically checked them for 5th place in the east this year.
Cubs: I had them picked for last year in the NL Central, if not overall in the NL east so I was surprised when they all but fell off the radar. I think the Cards are the favorite in that division but I can see them doing better than last year.
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-9:54am at 9:54 am (UTC -4)
The Mariners got Cliff Lee, signed Chone Figgins, and traded Carlos Silva for Milton Bradley….but after The King and Cliff Lee, their rotation is very iffy…but their pen can be great, and their defense is really excellent, and they play in a pitchers’ park.
I love the M’s this year.
How about the M’s beating the Red Sox and then the Yanks in the playoffs?
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-9:55am at 9:55 am (UTC -4)
Are you the one with the Seattle bias?
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-10:04am at 10:04 am (UTC -4)
That would be me!
I lived there from 1989-2001, and it is an absolutely amazing, wonderful place.
It does rain a LOT from late fall-early spring, but it snows seriously only a couple of times a decade, and it is not humid at all in the summer–summer days are 75-80 degrees with 15% humidity.
There are an infinite number of things to do outdoors, it is incredibly livable in all ways, it is VERY tolerant in all ways politically (a healthy combo of liberal attitudes and lots of military people/bases and companies like Boeing and Microsoft), incredible art and culture, and the greenest area you can imagine, with amazingly beautiful mountains in every direction, and the Sound and Lake Washington to the west and east.
As a good friend of mine said, it is “Paradise on earth.”
The one athlete I remember saying that he did not like it there was ARod. Seriously.
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-10:12am at 10:12 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind getting transferred up in them parts. I’d move in an instant.
All that said, I wish you luck in your M’s hope. I don’t think it will happen, but we’ll see. I’ve got Lee in the TRDMBFBBC, so he’d better do me some good!
darknova306
3/26/2010-10:18am at 10:18 am (UTC -4)
You know, if I ever leave upstate NY, I’ve always considered the Pacific northwest near the top of my list of places to move to.
You forgot one thing though, Kingman… they have a crazy amount of breweries out there.
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-10:24am at 10:24 am (UTC -4)
Same with Colorado. Some killer Breweries there.
Texas is the only place of prosperity these days, it seems, with Austin, Dallas and Houston all on the top 10 list of where the business is booming. But it is ugly, flat and and makes Africa seem chilly in the summer time. Seattle sounds like paradise compared to this hot box.
But then again, there is the enormous sense of pride in being a Texan. I’ve no clue why that is and am still searching for it, but they have it.
ceetar
3/26/2010-10:27am at 10:27 am (UTC -4)
Maybe it’s the loveable loser thing? Surprised they’re not Cubs fans.
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-10:32am at 10:32 am (UTC -4)
You should see peoples faces down here when they bring up the buffalo/oilers games where buffalo had that 35 point comeback win. it’s like the anti-viagra.
darknova306
3/26/2010-10:42am at 10:42 am (UTC -4)
Agreed on Colorado’s breweries. It’s also another gorgeous area nature-wise.
You’d have to pay me a f#ck-ton of money to move to Texas. Some friends of mine just moved back to Troy NY from Houston and they said you could practically swim in the air it was so humid down there. Yuck.
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-10:43am at 10:43 am (UTC -4)
Oh, I did not forget!!
Microbrews and great, great coffee are everywhere.
And anyone considering moving there, GO!
It took a couple of years to get used to the rain, but now I miss it.
metsfan4decades
3/26/2010-10:00am at 10:00 am (UTC -4)
I’m in with that!
trs86
3/26/2010-10:30am at 10:30 am (UTC -4)
This is proof that something is seriously wrong with Fongy. I am concerned. Usually any type of negativity towards the Phillies at least gets a post.
Quick someone get the APB on Fongy.
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-9:49am at 9:49 am (UTC -4)
Interesting; I got 9-1 in Vegas in February for the Mets to win the pennant, and 16-1 for them to win the Series.
Love the Mariners over, but -125 kind of makes it a little less fun. Personally, I generally feel that the casino should be giving ME the odds!
Most of those look like, as usual, the oddsmakers know what they are doing….but I kind of like the Cubs under at even money.
And I do like the Mets to win 82.
DNDJohan aka kistics
3/26/2010-9:55am at 9:55 am (UTC -4)
What’s are the numbers in brackets?
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-10:00am at 10:00 am (UTC -4)
The ones by the teams’ names must be the numbers of the bets for whatever source he used to get the odds….
The (-105) by the Mets over means that you have to bet $105 to win $100 if you bet that the Mets will win over 81.5 games, i.e., the casino/website is meaning that you have to lay 5% in order to make that bet.
Even of course means you risk $100 to win $100.
ceetar
3/26/2010-10:01am at 10:01 am (UTC -4)
That’s the payoffs. I’m not real good at reading them though.
I’ve got the Mets at 26-1 to win when I placed my bet.
The Mets are (Risk US$ 10.00 to win US$ 9.52)
rustyjr
3/26/2010-10:05am at 10:05 am (UTC -4)
Guys got this off of twitter
Gamblers Final Word, has learned Albert Pujols the St.Louis Cardinal’s slugger was among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to Lawyers with knowledge of the results.
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-10:07am at 10:07 am (UTC -4)
Ha!
If that is true, I think in a way it might finally get this issue out of the way; I mean, if he did it too, then everyone did, and we can stop talking about it!
ceetar
3/26/2010-10:08am at 10:08 am (UTC -4)
except Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera who are pure as snow.
rustyjr
3/26/2010-10:11am at 10:11 am (UTC -4)
Derek & mo do coke ? Lol
metsfan4decades
3/26/2010-10:11am at 10:11 am (UTC -4)
That’s a good point, but say it ain’t so, Joe….
I really wanted to believe Albert was a rare talent not often found. I should have known better.
Read on a Cardinals blog a year ago that every time they come out with a new story or supposed leak of the ‘list’ all their fans hold their breaths….
trs86
3/26/2010-10:32am at 10:32 am (UTC -4)
But really LOOK at him. Tell me he does not fit with what a roid user LOOKS like.
ceetar
3/26/2010-10:14am at 10:14 am (UTC -4)
Regardless, this pisses me off. “Oh, it’s a slow baseball week, Let’s jump start discussion” This will go right up until end of next week when we discuss Opening Day and off we go.
ceetar
3/26/2010-10:14am at 10:14 am (UTC -4)
Still rather re-discuss steroids than college basketball though.
rustyjr
3/26/2010-10:19am at 10:19 am (UTC -4)
Amen
darknova306
3/26/2010-10:20am at 10:20 am (UTC -4)
I’ll second that.
darknova306
3/26/2010-10:21am at 10:21 am (UTC -4)
Anyone that didn’t see this coming isn’t cynical enough. They all did it. Done. Moving on.
rustyjr
3/26/2010-10:25am at 10:25 am (UTC -4)
Thanyou from shaking me out of my Peter pan delusion
darknova306
3/26/2010-10:46am at 10:46 am (UTC -4)
Sorry, Rusty, everyone needs a healthy dose of reality now and then.
njstuckintx
3/26/2010-10:26am at 10:26 am (UTC -4)
I hope he’s still on it, fantasy wise.
rustyjr
3/26/2010-10:29am at 10:29 am (UTC -4)
Enabler lol
stickguy
3/26/2010-10:31am at 10:31 am (UTC -4)
there was talk on Pujols for years. He had one of those miraculous off seasons where he bulked up with a huge amount of muscle, and went from a relatively skinny “normal” physique to looking like a pro wrestler. And funny thing, didn’t his power jump at the same time?
trs86
3/26/2010-10:34am at 10:34 am (UTC -4)
Yup.
http://www.stbsports.com/products_pictures/2000peoriaapujolsset.jpg
Hey look, it’s Fmart.
trs86
3/26/2010-10:39am at 10:39 am (UTC -4)
19 HR in 490 AB’s in minors, 17 of them in single A.
Rookie year in the majors hits 37 in 590 AB’s.
Kingman 26
3/26/2010-10:44am at 10:44 am (UTC -4)
“Anyone that didn’t see this coming isn’t cynical enough. They all did it. Done. Moving on.”
BINGO on all accounts.