Online sports betting future odds have the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox as top contenders to win the World Series. The Yankees are the defending World Series champs and the offshore sports betting favorites. Whether they win or not might come down to pitching.
Online sports betting on baseball is oftentimes decided by pitching. When it comes to New York and Boston, the team that gets better starting pitching is probably going to win. The Yankees got better pitching last year than Boston and they won it all. New York’s top five starters last season made 139 starts while Boston’s top five made just 121 starts. The Yankees won more games and ultimately won the World Series. That was last season and it was a good barometer. Let’s go back further and see if that trend has held up through the years. We know that last year the Yankees best starters made 18 more starts than Boston’s and New York won eight more games than the Red Sox.
Two years ago the Red Sox top starters made 35 more starts than New York’s and the Red Sox won eight more games. In 2007 the Red Sox had 35 more starts and won two more games than New York. In 2006 it was the Yankees who had 29 more starts and 11 more wins. In 2005 it was Boston with 25 more starts and the teams tied in wins. In 2003 it was the Yankees with 12 more starts and six more wins. Only in 2004 did one team have more starts and fewer wins. Boston had 31 more starts but the Yankees won three more games. Boston won the World Series that year though.
So which team will do better in 2010 in online sports betting? Let’s look at the starters for each team. Boston has Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield. Lackey has missed 15 starts the past two seasons. Daisuke has missed a lot of time lately and Wakefield is the oldest pitcher on the staff.
New York has a much more stable staff. In the past five years they have three of the most durable starters in the league. CC Sabathia, Javier Vazquez and Andy Pettitte are almost always healthy. A.J. Burnett is a workhorse as well. The fifth spot is wide open but Boston has question at #5 as well. If you compare the top four for each team the Yankees have 28 more starts and 200 more innings pitched. The Yankees are favored in offshore sports betting and their starting pitching is a big reason why.