Olympic Baseball Odds Look Like Three-Way Race For Gold

With the baseball bettors can take advantage of the fact that the race for the Gold Medal looks like a three-team race.

That narrows the field of eight teams considerably, giving online baseball bettors a one-in-three chance of coming through with a winning baseball wager.

Each of the eight teams in the field will play the other, in a round robin style format with the top four teams after the first round meeting in the semifinals. The gold-medal game will be Aug. 23.

With baseball not on the program for the next Games, schedule for 2012, the International Olympic Committee will vote on reinstatement of the sports for 2016 Games in October 2009.

Despite that fact, the majority of players competing in this year’s tournament are only concerned with what is happening in the here and now.

While the U.S. team has been set as the second favorite to Gold Medal defending Cuba, the real competition for Cuba will likely come from a Japanese team that is absolutely loaded with talent, including masterful pitcher Yu Darvish, who will soon be commanding mega-millions from some American MLB team.

The Cubans are 33-3 in four Olympics and have won three of the four gold medals since the sports was introduced to the Olympics beginning in 1992.

Cuba will be led by a pair of two-time medalists in starting pitcher Pedro Luis Lazo and gifted shortstop Eduardo Paret and also have plenty of international experience with 12 players back from their 2004 Gold Medal-winning squad.

The U.S. team, which opens Wednesday against Korea, will have many of the same players on its roster that player for the team when they beat Cuba in the Olympic qualifier and the 2007 World Cup.

Team USA will be led by overpowering San Diego State right-hander Stephen Strasburg, who struck out 23 batters for the Aztecs in one game in April.

32-year-old Brandon Knight, a right-hander who has gone from playing independent ball in New Jersey to starting a game for the New York Mets this season is also on the U.S. roster.

However, Japan has already gone on record to say that they expect to leave an indelible impression on the Olympic baseball tournament.

Manager Senichi Hoshino said Tuesday, that he expects greatness from his players during the Games.

"I want to tell my players that we must carve our names in history as Beijing is our last chance for now," he said. "Our motivation has been steadily rising," he added.

Even the Cuban players here have singled out Japan as their biggest threat in Beijing.

"Japan is a good team with strong ability. For us, they are the strongest rivals for the gold medal rather than the US," Cuban outfielder Yoandry Urgelles said.

Japan finished runners-up to Cuba at the 1996 Atlanta Games but ended up fourth in Sydney in 2000.

Here is a look at the 2008 Olympic Baseball Odds for each team, followed by my overall analysis on the outcome and winner of the old Medal:

Cuba -170

USA +150

Japan +300

China +5500

Canada +7000