Blue Jays' West Coast Road Trip Offers Chance to Make Up Ground
In need of a winning streak, Toronto begins a critical 4-game series in Seattle on Thursday
This has been a lackluster season for the Toronto Blue Jays and their loyal fans. The early favourites to win the AL pennant have fallen woefully short of the high expectations placed upon them.
The Jays' current 7-game road trip to the West Coast illustrates this season of missed opportunities and mediocre results. Consider the just-completed three-game series in Oakland versus the A's, one of baseball's worst teams. The Jays scored only 6 runs the entire span, nearly getting swept. Toronto escaped the embarrassment by winning the Wednesday afternoon series finale.
After a disappointing trip to Oakland, the Blue Jays next head north to Seattle for a long weekend series against the Mariners. Look for Seattle to be small favourites in a few games, and close to even-money in others -- all depending on the pitching matchups.
We see this as a major crossroads, especially for Toronto. At the moment, these are two teams headed in very different directions.
Nonetheless, the Blue Jays remain one of the more popular betting choices, despite the near certainty that they would have to excel in the postseason via the Wild Card route. Right now, the Blue Jays are about 12-1 odds to win the World Series (which seems preposterous).
Here's a look at where the Blue Jays stand in relation to various futures odds at SPREADS.CA:
Predictions (powered by Pointspreads.ca):
Not much was expected of Seattle this season. Yet the feisty Mariners represent a step up in class for the struggling Jays, who have dropped 6 of their last 10 games and have fallen into fourth place.
Meanwhile, the Mariners are a .500 team with a 20-20 record at home. More importantly, they've won 7 of their last 10 games and are simply playing better ball than Toronto right now.
In this four-game series (Thursday-Sunday), we like the Mariners with the value where we see it. Seattle has less pressure on them, is playing their best ball of the season, and is facing an opponent having difficulties at the moment. This makes the Mariners a smart bet so long as they're not laying any big prices.
