Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
Some potentially good news last week regarding the chances there will be a Major League Baseball season at some point this year. Needless to say, owners and players are both going to do whatever it takes to play even 50-60 regular season games and a postseason because both sides would lose hundreds of millions of dollars if there’s no baseball in 2020.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States and really the public face of battling the coronavirus, said he could see a way that sports could return this summer – he didn’t give a date and wasn’t going to make a prediction – and that’s if games are played in empty stadiums/arenas and the players are quarantined in hotels.
MLB seems to be looking at a plan to have all 30 teams play in Arizona, which has 10 spring training sites with ballparks, a few major colleges with fields and Chase Field – all in the greater Phoenix area.
One team this shutdown might have helped is the Minnesota Twins, who are +1600 fifth-favorites to win their first World Series since 1991. The Twins set a big-league record with 307 home runs last season on the way to winning 101 games and the AL Central title.
Alas, the Twins have been a horrible playoff team for years as they were swept in the ALDS by the New York Yankees (+350 second-favorites to win 2020 Fall Classic). Minnesota has lost an unthinkable 16 straight playoff games and been eliminated by the Yankees in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2017 and last year. The 16 consecutive postseason losses are an MLB record and 13 of the 16 defeats were to the Yankees. Minnesota has dropped 11 playoff games in a row at home spanning two different ballparks.
One of Minnesota’s big offseason acquisitions, other than third baseman and former AL MVP Josh Donaldson, was former Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw starting pitcher Rich Hill. He has been one of MLB’s best starters over the past few years but always lands on the injured list. He had surgery on his pitching elbow and wasn’t expected to be ready until June. Thus, he should be good to go when/if the season starts. Hill’s former Dodgers team is the current +325 favorite to win the World Series.
The extra time off also should benefit Twins outfielder Byron Buxton, who had offseason shoulder surgery and hadn’t played any spring training games before the shutdown. Alas, the news is not all good for Minnesota as starting pitcher Michael Pineda still has 39 games of a suspension to serve. Obviously, the fewer regular-season games there are, the less he would be available.
