The Chicago Cubs, the eternal laughing stock of MLB betting, is off to one of the most impressive and dominant starts in baseball history. The Cubs have been good in previous seasons, but never this good, never this promising. Yesterday, the Cubs reached their 40th win of the season in their 56th game. An impressive feat, that is only surpassed by the 2001 Seattle Mariners. That year the Mariners reached 40 wins in 52 games. Should the Cubs continue with this pace, they have a legitimate shot of tying the 2001 Mariners all time regular season wins of 116. The other team that managed to get that amount of wins in a regular season? The 1906 Cubs. Granted, let’s not forget that most wins immediately translate into World Series’ pennants.
The hype surrounding the Chicago Cubs has caught on by many, including odds makers. Ever since the beginning of the season they have been considered the overall betting on baseball favorites to win the World Series. Their current odds hold them as +295, the next team on the list, are the San Francisco Giants… they are at +705. And, in case you were wondering, the Cubs are also the +160 MLB betting favorites to win the National League.
The moment the Cubs are living is virtually the definition of a perfect storm. They are excelling at offense, and the stats prove it. They are outscoring their opponents with a 143 run margin. The record holders for the biggest run differential in history? The 1939 DiMaggio’s Yankees. And let’s throw in another interesting stat there. Those Yankees had a total 106 wins.
Defensively, Chicago is also excelling to enormous degree. The ERA of their pitching staff is unreal. They currently are throwing a 2.60 ERA as a collective, with an even more impressive 2.33 ERA by the starting rotation. Jake Arrieta deserves special note, he is keeping runners from reaching first base, as he is having an incredible season so far. His ERA is at an amazing 1.80, keeping up to the 1.77 he had last season.
The pitching staff is also getting help from the rest of the lineup as in a whole; defensively the Cubs have allowed 160 runs. Plus, they are keeping their opposition to a .201 batting average. And if you are scoring runs in large proportions, but you are keeping your opponent’s production to a small minimum, you don’t have to be a MLB betting wiz to understand that they are strong favorites to win big.
History awaits this Cubs team. And their run makes this memorable video game ad a bit more plausible as a possibility come World Series time. This could be the Cubs year, it HAS to be, they are treading on legendary waters and MLB betting pundits and other sports writers agree, they only seem to get better game after game. We might see it. And if you are an avid betting fan, this could be the year for the big payout.
