This year, as in most years all the talk of the baseball odds community has been focused mostly on the AL East.
Year in and year out the AL East is the competitive division in MLB and almost without fail; it produces not only the best teams in the league but also the best records. And so far in 2010, true to form, the New York Yankees (92-61) and the Tampa Bay Rays (91-61) have dominated the competition and one or the other of the franchises has had the best record in the Bigs for months.
But while these two beat each other’s brains in during their division rivalry something very interesting has happened in the world of baseball betting odds: the Minnesota Twins have quietly played their way to the best record in MLB.
And on Saturday night they play to protect that record and home field advantage throughout the MLB playoffs against their own bitter AL Central rival, the Detroit Tigers.
The Twins (92-60) are now in the driver’s seat and even though they have the AL Central more or less wrapped up, every baseball odds matchup is a must win situation now as the home field honors are in play.
On Saturday this team is going to have an uphill battle for a handful of reason, not the least of which is the fact that the Tigers would love nothing more than defeat and somehow mar the season of their bitter division rival and you can be sure they’ll put in a little extra effort in batting practice.
Detroit will not only have home field advantage in this baseball odds contest but they’ve also been playing well of late going 6-4 over their past 10 games and have a winning record against division opponents (35-31).
Nonetheless this game is the Twins to lose and you have to like their chances of winning based on the pitching matchup and the team’s hot streak. Minny has won 8 of its past ten baseball odds matchups and will send one of its pitchers to the mound on Saturday.
Carlos Pavano (17-11, 3.60 ERA) has been a key performer for the Twins this season and he should pick up his 18th win of the year against a struggling Jeremy Bonderman (8-9, 4.92 ERA) and the Tigers.