For a long period of time, NJ sports betting sites were doing regular-season winning percentages when it came to baseball. That’s because we didn’t know how many games the 2020 Major League Baseball would be.
Now that we know that we’re facing a 60-game season, definitive numbers have been posted. Let’s take a look at the MLB opening day odds, as well as other 2020 season lines to see what’s up on the board.
MLB Opening Day Odds – Updated: November 5, 2024
The first baseball game we’ll see this year (assuming everything goes well) is the New York Yankees-Washington Nationals showdown on July 23rd.
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It’s looking like it’s going to be a star-studded affair as the World Series champs will trot out Max Scherzer on the mound to go up against the Yankees new ace, Gerrit Cole.
- The Yankees have been posted as a -128 favorite
- Nats are on the board at +110
- The total for the contest sits at 7.0 runs.
Scherzer has been fantastic in his opening-day starts with the Nats as in his five such starts, he has a 1.54 ERA with 44 strikeouts.
As for Cole, this will be his first start in a Yankees uniform. He was 20-5 last season with a 2.50 ERA while leading the American League in strikeouts with 326.
Yankees, Dodgers Face Highest Regular Season Win Totals
We had a beat on this when the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers were posted with the highest regular-season winning percentages and now they’re both faced with the highest win total too.
The Yankees won 103 games last season and won the American League amidst a slew of injuries. They signed ace Gerrit Cole in the offseason and are now the favorite to win the American League.
As for the Dodgers, they led all of baseball with 106 wins last season and easily cruised to another division crown. They added 2018 American League MVP Mookie Betts to the lineup in the offseason, so they are hoping that he puts them over the top.
In terms of the defending World Series champs, the Washington Nationals are on the board at 33.5 wins. You might recall, they had a really slow start to last season with just 19 wins in their first 50 games before turning it on in the second half. They won’t have that kind of time this year if they start that sluggishly.
The Philadelphia Phillies added Zach Wheeler to bolster their pitching rotation in the offseason but mostly return the same cast from last year’s disappointing 81-81 team. They were 33-22 after 55 games last season before slumping in the second half.
We’ll see what they have in store for 2020.
“In terms of the early action on the regular-season win totals, we’re seeing money on the Arizona Diamondbacks under 31.5, the Miami Marlins under 24.5, the New York Yankees under 37.5 and the Tampa Bay Rays over 33.5,”
(Said Johnny Avello, Director Race and Sports Operations at DraftKings Sportsbook.)
“With the Yankees, you can see why. It’s a 60-game season and if the team starts slow, it could be tough get the over.”
Orioles, Tigers Face Smallest Numbers
Taking a look at the shortest numbers on the board, it’s two American League teams who lead the way in this category.
- The Baltimore Orioles are looking at a regular-season win total of just 20.5
- While the Detroit Tigers are at 21.5
The O’s were absolutely abysmal last season as they managed to collect just 54 wins in 162 games. That boiled down to a .333 winning percentage. The oddsmakers are expecting them to be virtually the same team as that winning percentage across 60 games boils down to 19.98 wins.
As for the Tigers, they were even worse as they picked up just 47 wins. They were embarrassing in the second half of the season or maybe more accurately, through the final five months.
The Tigers were actually 18-20 at one point in the season but went just 29-94 the rest of the way. The oddsmakers are expecting them to be slightly improved in the shortened season as their currently projected to win 35.8% of their games.