Las Vegas sportsbooks do not want the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series.
An expensive winter saw the Sox acquire Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel, Edwin Encarnacion and Nomar Mazara. They also gave rookie phenom Luis Robert a six-year, $50 million contract extension. General manager Rick Hahn’s calculated moves made Chicago into a playoff contender, at least on paper. And bettors everywhere were paying attention.
After winning the Major League Baseball offseason, the South Siders’ title odds were dropped from as high as 70-to-1 down to 40-to-1 following the slew of transactions. (A $100 bet at 70-to-1 has a payout of $7,000). Then, the season started and bettors began to watch the Sox bash homers and stack wins, so the price kept dipping. 30-to-1... 25-to-1... 20-to-1. Currently, they sit in a tie for first place in the AL Central and go figure – PointsBet is dealing them at 16-to-1 to win the World Series.
“I’ve been in Vegas doing this for 16 years and I’ve never seen the White Sox have the most tickets to win the World Series,” veteran Vegas oddsmaker Dave Sharapan told NBC Sports. “We’re down to 12-to-1 on them to win it all because we have written the most tickets on their club. It’s insane. And behind the marquee teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers, they’re right there as far as money wagered. [[ad:athena]]
“I was a skeptic when the season started. I thought this is the Browns of last year, the Buccaneers of this year. You know, the flavor of the month. Now I’m watching a lot of their games. I’m watching way more White Sox games because damn it, they’re fun as hell.”
Heading into a massive three-game series in Minnesota, the Pale Hose have a 21-and-13 record, they lead the American League in run differential (+42) and they’ve mashed 64 home runs, 10 more than the next best team in the junior circuit. And their big bashers don’t hit wall scrapers, they hit moonshots out of stadiums all over the Midwest.
“The way that the whole lineup hits, they’re dangerous,” Sharapan explained. “If you hit more home runs than the other team, you win games. They’re the ultimate softball team right now. They just hit bombs and it’s fun to watch. It’s crazy with the odds though, they’ve been favored 13 out of 14 games. It’s incredible.”
An old baseball adage states that “offense wins games, pitching wins championships.” So do the Sox enough arms to go all the way?
“They need one more starter,” Sharapan opined. “To make a serious postseason run, I think they’re one starter short.”
Time will tell if the White Sox truly have enough ammunition to make a push for the Commissioner’s Trophy. But sportsbooks around Vegas are hoping that Sharapan’s assessment is right.
