MLB Betting and Increased Player Testing

November 30th, 2010 Betting on MLB Baseball

MLB betting has seen a precipitous drop in homeruns and general power numbers this season.

Just a decade ago in the heady days of the doping era balls were flying out of stadiums and fans were jumping at the chance to place a baseball bet on which homerun record would fall next. But that all changed with the Balco scandal and the power hitting numbers in MLB betting have dropped precipitously, especially this season where fans that have placed a baseball bet have been shocked at the relative lack of home runs.

MLB betting fans will recall that in the hay-day of the homerun decade of the 1990s and the early part of the 2000’s there was a ridiculous proliferation of long balls in baseball bet competitions. It all started with Mark McGuire busting loose and crossing the 50 homer threshold with the As in the early 90s, which was the first time that anyone had really flirted with that type of power since Cecil Fielder of the Detroit Tigers did so several years prior. But before that there was a real dead ball era in the 1980s in MLB betting and the people would have thought you crazy to make a baseball bet that a player would hit more than 50 homers in the baseball bet season. But McGuire changed that. And then Sammy Sosa got into the act and pretty soon before anyone knew it the single-season MLB betting homerun betting record was in jeopardy. It wasn’t long before Roger Maris’ hallowed record had fallen after decades of being one of the most impressive records in baseball betting.

But the record didn’t just fall, it was shattered and soon McGuire crossed the 70 homer threshold as well. At that time homers were a common part of the game and it was a smart baseball bet that several players would hit 50 homers every MLB Betting season. Even players with no former history of power hitting got into the act, like the Orioles Brady Anderson who did so and shocked anyone that had ever made an MLB bet.

But those numbers seem like something of a bygone era nowadays. No matter what you think about the subject it’s impossible to say that increased drug testing has not reduced the number of homers in MLB betting. This season alone has seen the most stringent testing standards implemented and the fewest homeruns we’ve seen in many years in MLB betting. At the All star break for example, there was only one player in the AL that hit over 20 home runs, whereas in the past players could hit that many in month. And by season’s end it’s a smart baseball bet that only a few players will even hit forty for the whole year.

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