The San Francisco Giants have officially crashed the party in the NL West. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres were thought to be the only ones to battle it out for supremacy and a guaranteed spot in the NLDS, but the Giants have announced their presence with a really strong start to the season.
These are three really high-quality baseball teams in this division. Sadly, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies were eliminated before the season even started and then really buried themselves with some ugly starts to the season. You’d like a little more parity to add some value to the top three teams, but at least the presence of the Giants has moved the odds around ever-so-slightly.
The reality is that the division is still very likely to come down to the Dodgers and Padres, but the Giants are a great story and a team that is right there competing with a much smaller payroll and a lot less star power. You have to give them a lot of credit for that and their odds are an indication of how much credit they have received.
Is there a bet to make right now in the division?
Odds To Win The NL West Division
| Team |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAD | -250 | -220 | -220 | +105 | +120 |
| ARI | +50000 | +100000 | +60000 | ||
| COL | +50000 | +100000 | +60000 | +200000 | |
| SF | +350 | +180 | +175 | -125 | -150 |
| SD | +450 | +25000 | +100000 | +49000 | +50000 |
The answer is not really. The Dodgers at -220 are still the deserving favorite and should be a clear favorite. Their alternate standings metrics suggest a team that has underachieved a bit, due in large part to some faults in one-run games and a period in which it felt like the team just wasn’t overly engaged in the season.
Focus has been a question for the Dodgers at times, but the fact that they have two teams vying for their NL West crown should keep them sufficiently motivated. After all, the Dodgers have won eight straight NL West Division titles. That is not a distinction that they would like to give up anytime soon.
At -220, though, the line hasn’t really moved from what we could have gotten before the season, even though the Dodgers are getting a lot more competition for the division than expected. The only team to really see its futures odds move are the Giants, who many people probably don’t believe have the horses to compete for 162 games.
The Padres are down slightly from +200 to +175 despite an offense that ranks below average this season. San Diego sure is getting a lot of respect here in this division race, but they really haven’t done anything to deserve a decrease in price. That is especially true because the oddsmakers don’t have to lower the price. All they did to make it look better was drive Arizona and Colorado up to 200/1. The Giants are down from 40/1 to 12/1 and that doesn’t really yield a ton of value.
There aren’t any bets worth making right now in the NL West, but it is interesting to see how the oddsmakers have handled what we’ve seen so far.
