The 2010 baseball odds season is upon us and I’m going to talk about…..the Royals?
Really? You bet, underdog team of the year, worth strong consideration for regular baseball gambling enthusiasts.
I may have dismissed them in the past, I may have dismissed them in this past month even, but they’re growing on me. And fan of the division or not, the AL Central has more question marks than any other one in the league right now.
The Twins? One nagging back injury away from a sub-.500 season.
The White Sox? Suddenly Colon looks like he could toss up an 8-run inning every outing, and Ramirez is banged up early – not good signs.
The Indians? Well, Kerry Wood and his glass…everything…don’t replace Sabathia. Plus Hafner is still yet to fulfill his star DH potential on a consistent basis.
The Tigers are still my MLB betting pick in the division if they’re healthy (good move dumping Sheffield, 499 homers or not), but the Royals actually have a legitimate shot at making people nervous this year.
The Royals paid up for Meche recently, is this the year they can put some muscle behind his solid numbers? (3.98 ERA, 1.32 WHIP in 2008). Is this the year Greinke finishes in the top 3 for AL Cy Young? Don’t laugh, it could very well happen.
I’m not jumping the gun here. I don’t see them beating ridiculous odds and representing the AL or winning the World Series this year, but I could see them making their division interesting, and possibly keeping the AL wild card a race into the last couple weeks of the season. The problem the Royals always seem to have isn’t the season where they almost make it to the top…it’s the season afterwards, where all the players that shined (Beltran, Dye, Damon, etc..) take the money and run.
Joakim Soria could become a household name this year, at least in houses that care about good pitching. Last year, according to OnlineVegas.com he put up a beautiful 1.6 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. So the Royals have some pitching to work with, the “Cinderella” part of the team is going to have to come from the position players. After Jose Guillen, there’s not a ton of proven talent here. A group of castoffs from other teams, and, hey that’s where Coco Crisp is playing these days! Last year they had a very “meh” .269 team average. If they can get that up 7 or 8 points, they might just be in business.
Closer is what I’d bet on, though. The pitching is what I’d bet on. The Royals are going to win games this year, and they’re going to hold onto small leads and leads late in the game. They’ll impress and open a few eyes…maybe a few bank accounts too come the second half of the season.