Appealing to Those Better Angels

BetUS Sportsbook has odds posted on who is going to win each of Major League Baseball's six divisions, not to mention the American and National League pennants and the World Series. As we are well into August, we take a look at my solid pick for the American League crown. Does it coincide with what the BetUS oddsmakers have established?

BetUS MLB Baseball Betting Odds

To Win American League

Boston Red Sox +250

New York Yankees +400

Los Angeles Angels +190

Cleveland Indians +20000

Detroit Tigers +1400

Chicago White Sox +600

Oakland Athletics +15000

Toronto Blue Jays +10000

Texas Rangers +10000

Minnesota Twins +1000

Tampa Bay Rays +350

In analyzing these numbers, the Angels, at +190 in the BetUS odds, are the favorites and rightly so. In fact, they should be perhaps even a little more of a favorite than the Red Sox or Rays because of a simple factor - they can give the most assurance that they are going to be eligible to play on the next level. Before the start of Thursday's action, the Angels, who have the best record in all of baseball, were 8.5 games ahead of second-place Texas and have already blown Oakland away. The Rangers, who are 100/1 at BetUS, have a lot of offense, but they don't have enough pitching depth to mount a serious challenge as we come down the stretch.

So the Angels are going to BE there. And with all due respect to the Red Sox (+250 at BetUS), the defending World Series champs, the Yankees (+400 at BetUS), who will spend whatever amount of money necessary, and the Rays (+350 at BetUS), who are the great rags-to-riches story this year, not one of those teams can make anything near a guarantee that they will even be playing in the post-season. Remember that as far as the wild card is concerned, Boston at 66-49, does not hold much of a lead over the Minnesota Twins (+1000 at BetUS).

And on top of that, the Angels made the trade that brought a missing power ingredient to the lineup when they acquired Mark Teixiera from Atlanta. If there was a weakness in this team that likes to play "small ball" and does it as well as anybody, it's that aside from Vladimir Guerrero, the future Hall of Famer who is not having the season he's used to (20 homers, .287 average) and maybe Torii Hunter, there isn't anyone who is a big threat to hit it out of the park. That has changed now.

And it's going to be very difficult to match this team's pitching staff, especially when, in a short series, they can throw guys like Ervin Santana (13-5, 3.45), Joe Saunders (14-5, 3.03) and John Lackey (9-2, 3.10) at the opponent. That means Jon Garland and Jared Weaver are available for long relief or setup duty. And in Francisco Rodriguez (45 saves ALREADY, just 12 off the all-time mark), they probably have the AL's best closer this side of Mariano Rivera.

The Angels aren't at the top in any major or minor offensive category, ranking only 15th in runs scored. And in fact there is only one regular - second baseman Howie Kendrick - who is hitting over .300. yet they are stealing some bases, and making their hits count.