Not to be that guy, but how long can the Chicago Cubs keep this up?
All they’ve done is win as the kids would say and they’ve done it at a staggering 81 percent clip so far. The Cubbies are baseball’s best team at 13-and-3, which puts them almost halfway to their season win total of 32 or 32.5 wins. Add in Anthony Rizzo batting .222, Javier Baez having an OBP of .279 and Kris Bryant slugging .391 and none of this makes any sense!
“It’s what you would call a complete team effort,” Westgate SuperBook senior baseball trader Randy Blum told NBC Sports. “When starting pitchers are taking care of business, teams can still have success if their big name guys aren’t doing what people expect them to do.”
(Alright, Sam. You heard the man. Deep breaths).[[ad:athena]]
The Cubs host the Brewers again tonight, which means Chicago has got to be the home favor... er... wait. Milwaukee is currently holding steady around a -115 favorite with Brandon Woodruff on the hill at Wrigley Field.
(Brain explodes).
“The market loves Woodruff,” Blum explained. “A lot of it has to do with advanced analytics. If you look at that stuff closely, you can start to tell which way the sharps are going to bet. They like the guys who strikeout a lot of hitters and guys that have great xFIPs and stuff like that. Not only is Milwaukee favored, but if you look at the first five, it’s even higher than the game line.”
Blum wasn’t kidding… even Woodruff’s “simple statistics” leap off the page. A 2.53 ERA, 0.98 WHIP with 26 strikeouts to 5 walks over four strong starts. That’s a bad man. And the betting boards prove that the market has a serious crush. Not only are the Cubs home underdogs, their team total is 3.5 runs with juice to the over. That’s straight up respect for Woodruff.
I’ll bite (again).
Play on the Brewers -112.
