The St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers all had a shot to be the victor on the NL Central betting odds a season ago. Once Game No. 162 concluded, it was the Cardinals that stood atop the division with the Brew Crew also snagging one of the play-in wild card slots. The odd man out proved to be the Cubs who continue to be nothing but disappointments since ending their World Series drought back in 2016. Linemakers at online sportsbooks once again expect the trio to have a say in how 2020’s shortened 60-game season plays out. However, the Cincinnati Reds look to be the team everyone expects to make some real noise. Not so much for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Let’s dig into the offerings and see what type of value resides in the teams heading into the abbreviated regular season.
NL Central Betting Odds
Chicago Cubs +225
St. Louis Cardinals +240
Cincinnati Reds +265
Milwaukee Brewers +300
Pittsburgh Pirates +8000
Chicago Cubs +225
The Cubs were in it to win it with 12 games remaining in the regular season. They were bunched up with both the Cardinals and Brewers atop the standings with seven games still remaining with the Redbirds. Then the team proceeded to drop all but two of those games and lost five times to their hated rivals to miss out on the postseason. With that, Joe Maddon was handed his pink slip and Theo Epstein decided to hitch his wagon to former player and catcher David Ross. Other than that, this year’s roster doesn’t look much different from what’s taken the field on the North Side the last few seasons. If you can believe it, upper management is crying poor; laughable! With only a few less than intriguing free agent signings, it’s surprising to see Chicago installed the favored side.
St. Louis Cardinals +240
For all intents and purposes, it was a widely successful campaign for Mike Shildt in his first full season as the Cardinals manager. The team caught fire in the middle of August and rode the momentum all the way to the franchise’s tenth NL Central pennant since the turn of the century. It then disposed of the Atlanta Braves in the division round by laying the smack down in the fifth and deciding game of the series, but the season came to a screeching halt in the NLCS by the Washington Nationals who swept their way to the World Series. Much like the Cubs, the Cardinals elected to remain within the franchise and made few moves to shore up the roster. It will be dependent on its young guns to take the next step in hopes of propelling the team back to the World Series for the first time since 2013.
Cincinnati Reds +265
With both Chicago and St. Louis standing pat in free agency, it’s the ‘Natti that made the move to dramatically improve its roster this offseason. David Bell’s squad has seen its odds to win the division, NL pennant and World Series shorten up quite a bit since first hitting the board. They’re +265 dogs to win the division, 15-1 to win the National League and +2472 to win it all. Not bad for a team that finished 12-games under .500 a season ago and hasn’t produced a winning overall record since 2013! The pitching staff rated out very favorably last year; the starting staff returns intact with both Raisel Iglesias and Michael Lorenzen again situated in the back end of the bullpen. Should the offensive additions of Shogo Akiyama, Mike Moustakas, Nicholas Castellanos and Freddy Galvis pay-off, the Reds just might be able to live up to expectations in this shortened season.
Milwaukee Brewers +300
The Brewers have won the NL Central only twice in franchise history. It recently pulled off the feat back in 2018 by way of producing a 96-67 record before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the NLCS. Last year, it went on to win 89 games but ended up falling to the eventual World Series champion Nationals in the play-in game. Though Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich are once again situated atop the batting order and the additions of Justin Smoak, Avisail Garcia and Omar Narvaez make the offense formidable, the pitching staff leaves much to be desired to believe the team can compete for the division pennant in 2020. The back end of the bullpen could be lights out with Josh Hader, Corey Knebel and Freddy Peralta available to close things out.
Pittsburgh Pirates +8000
Every division in Major League Baseball has at least one team that has absolutely no shot of winning the pennant. The Pittsburgh Pirates are the NL Central’s representative in 2020. Since playing some inspired ball for the city of Pittsburgh from 2013-15, the franchise has amassed just one winning season in the last four and it still resulted in a 4th place finish back in 2018. To add insult to injury, the team got very little in return for Gerrit Cole, Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow who are now tearing it up for their current teams. The slate has been wiped clean in 2020 with a new manager (Derek Shelton) and general manager (Ben Cherington) taking over. This is a young squad that will go through growing pains. It’s only going to get worse before it gets better for the Yinzers.
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