Giving Away Cash, Part II

by Jacob, Vegas Watch

Last week, I analyzed SportsBetting.com's odds on the MLB awards. That was all kinds of fun, so now I'm going to do it again. But first, let's see how I did last week.

My top suggestion was Arizona winning the NL Wild Card at 18:1. That's looking like a pretty good call, as they have about a 1 in 4 chance of winning it. And right now it's even higher, after they lost to the Padres and the Phillies lost to the Braves.

Next was A-Rod for the AL MVP at 3.5:1. The line has since been changed to 1:3, so that's going well.

The third tip was Peavy at 3:1 or Webb at 4:1 for the NL Cy Young. Well, half of that was good, as Peavy is going to win. He's now 2:3 (more on this in a minute).

Now, for this week's.

AL Cy Young
This race is very much up for grabs, and pretty difficult to handicap. But not as difficult as SportsBetting is making it. Here is the up to the minute Cy Young Predictor standings:

I'm gonna go ahead and suggest Sabathia at 12:1 and Lackey at 15:1. Just a hunch.

NL Cy Young
Peavy is 2:3 (bet 3 to win 2). That means he would have to have a 60% chance of winning the award for this to be a worthwhile bet. This is probably getting boring, but NL Cy Young standings:

Peavy's chance of winning this thing is much closer to 100% than it is to 60%.

NL MVP
Whoever made these odds has no damn idea who's going to win this. And, to be fair, this race might be more wide open than the AL Cy.

Still, these are silly. Renteria at 3:1? Da Meat Hook is 10:1? He's in this thing now?

I think Wright is the choice here. His team is going to be in the playoffs, and he just doesn't have any weaknesses in his game. Hitting for average, hitting for power, drawing walks, doubles, fielding- he's pretty much good at everything. The only problem with him is while he's good at everything, there's nothing that really jumps out at you. But in a year where nobody in the NL is having a year that jumps out at you, I think he can win.

Of course, if Jake Peavy pitches as well down the stretch as he has over his last eight starts, and ends up at 21-5, 1.90, he might just win this thing (much more on this here).

(Photo: Jen's C.C. Sabathia Page)