Betting Smart – MLB’s Hottest Over Teams

BetOnline Sportsbook heads into the middle of May, meaning sports betting fanatics are starting to get a good grasp about all of the teams in the majors. Which ones have been struggling with their pitching and/or excelling with their hitting the most lately? Check out this week’s edition of “Who’s Hot” when it comes to ‘overs’ in baseball…

(Rank) (Team) (O/U record) (O/U record L/5)

1: New York Mets (16-14-3) (4-1 in L/5) When the Mets finally made their move in the NL East, they did it with offense. Guys like 3B David Wright and SS Jose Reyes have started to warm up a bit, which has resulted in New York being in a familiar spot at this point in the season: first place. The pitching numbers are skewed quite a bit thanks to the fact that SP Johan Santana has a 0.78 ERA for the season. The rest of the starters all have ERAs over 4.50. K-Rod has proven to be an invaluable acquisition at this point in the season, as he’s a perfect 9/9 this year in save opportunities and has an ERA of 1.08, making him one of three relievers to throw at least a dozen innings to have an ERA of less than 1.25. Still, the bullpen has always been the bugaboo in New York, and if that unit starts to struggle, expect the Mets to be playing a lot of ‘overs’ into the summer.

2: Cincinnati Reds (17-17) (4-1 in L/5) Cincinnati’s offense got off to a horrid start in 2009, but it has gotten its act together and raised its offensive output by almost a full run per game over the L/2 weeks. The Reds have scored at least six runs in six of their L/7, which should make in no surprise that ‘over’ bettors have picked up victories in six of those seven. It also shouldn’t be much of a shock that they’ve won six of those seven games as well. RF Jay Bruce busted onto the scene last season and got off to a fiery start, but after a slow go of it in the beginning of ’09, he quietly leads the team in homers with ten.

3: Tampa Bay Rays (17-16-2) (3-1-1 in L/5) Manager Joe Maddon isn’t going to want to see his team’s name on this list for this reason again this season… The only reason last night’s game against Baltimore eclipsed the ‘total’ was thanks to the fact that closer Troy Percival gave up four runs while just recording one out in the bottom of the ninth inning of a game that was 8-2 at the time. The day before, the only reason the game soared ‘over’ was courtesy of SP Andy Sonnanstine giving up seven runs and getting just six outs. The month of May has just been awful for the Rays’ pitching staff. Since Matt Garza took a perfect game into the 7th inning against the Sox back on May 1st, Tampa Bay has allowed at least three runs in every game, and the staff has averaged conceding 5.64 runs per game. That’s why Tampa Bay is sitting in 4th place in the AL East.

And the rest…

4: Minnesota Twins (17-16-1) (3-2 in L/5)

5: Washington Nationals (16-14-2) (3-2 in L/5)