The first round is set and all 12 teams have punched their tickets to the MLB Playoffs. Things get started on Tuesday with each of the first four wild card games. Before any of the action gets underway, it’s the right time to take a look to the playoff futures markets. There are all kinds of ways to get down with predicting the craziness that is October, and we’re going to help get you straight for it.
Come check out what we cooked up for some MLB Playoff futures market plays and come tail along.
MLB Playoff Futures Markets – September 28th
Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees – Series Winner
There is no series in all of baseball that is as anticipated as this one. Sure, the Braves and Phillies also provide us a division-rival matchup, but not one with nearly as much animosity.
While hatred continues to fuel this series, the thing I expect to fuel the Red Sox is their pitching. Straight out of the gate, they’re going with rookie Payton Tolle. His 3.03 ERA on the year was already enough to like, but his September has been sensational. He’s posted a 1.53 ERA in the month with 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings. They’ll back that up with Sonny Gray and his 2.13 ERA in the month of September.
I’m sure folks will point to the Yankees as having a likely Cy Young winner (Cam Schlittler) and a past one (Max Fried) holding down the fort. However, we just saw both get smacked around by the Rays in their last starts.
I like how hot the Red Sox are and will look to ride that momentum, even on the road.
Best Bet: Boston Red Sox (+130)
Player to Hit 2 Home Runs In Wild Card Series
Another way people love to get down with MLB futures is by looking at individual players. If you told me two weeks ago that Munetaka Murakami would be the subject of a playoff article, I would be both confused that the White Sox got in and that he was hot enough to care about. However, that’s exactly where we are right now.
Murakami is on fire. He has seven hits in his last five games and three of those have left the park – with five of them being for extra bases. He’s starting to look like his mid-season form that we had given up on seeing again. Now he gets a team that he had a two-homer game against in a stadium that was ranked 5th by park factors for being easy to get a home run out of.
If anyone in this opening series is going to go yard twice, it might just be Murakami.
Best Bet: Munetaka Murakami (+425)
NL Champion
It’s the Dodgers world and we’re all just living in it – or at least that’s what the pundits want you to believe. The truth is, nobody wants to run into this Brewers rotation in games of any length.
First you have to start with Jacob Misiorowski, and then you get a slew of other pitchers who are on fire. Dustin May has been sharp, Logan Henderson is mowing people down, and even Robert Gasser has been nasty. Gasser hasn’t allowed more than one run in a September start this year.
With the way they were hitting to close the year, they should be able to support those guys as well. They scored at least eight runs in 50% of their games in the last two weeks. That should be plenty to pick them up a couple of series wins and cash this bet.
Best Bet: Milwaukee Brewers (+300)
If you’d like even more picks and predictions that you can use the MLB awards market, be sure to check out the Sports Gambling Podcast. The guys are dropping plenty of episodes to make you the smartest guy/gal at the bar.
