Finding Value in MLB Playoff Specials

We’re entering mid-August and the playoff races are heating up across the league.

With that in mind, it’s time to check into <a href=”https://www.thesportsgeek.com/reviews/betonline/BetOnline MLB Playoff Specials and identify three value picks we can use to cash in on the playoff push!

Boston Red Sox

No (+140)

After leading the vaunted AL East for much of the season, the Red Sox are slipping at the wrong time.

Their schedule has been chock-full of meetings with AL East opponents, giving them a chance to either extend their lead or fall back towards the pack, and they’ve done the latter. Since July 29, the Red Sox have gone 3-11 with nine of those 11 losses coming against the Blue Jays and Rays. The Rays just took two of three from the Red Sox at Fenway, including a monster comeback to win the series opener on Tuesday.

Now, the Rays have taken a rather commanding five-game lead over the Red Sox for top spot in the east, but Boston isn’t the only team looking to make up ground. Both the Yankees and Blue Jays are 7-3 over their last 10 with the two teams sitting 2 and 2.5 games back of the Sox for second place, respectively.

Of course, winning the division isn’t the only route to a postseason berth with two Wild Card spots up for grabs, but that race is going to be a dogfight as well.

Boston is in possession of the second Wild Card spot in the American League and sit two games back of the Oakland A’s for the first spot. However, the Yankees and Jays are coming and you can even throw the Seattle Mariners into the outskirts of the picture at 4.5 games back of Boston.

With a +34 run differential, the Red Sox are miles behind the Rays (+120) and Blue Jays (+129) in that department. The win/loss records based on that differential for the contending AL East teams are as follows:

• Blue Jays: 70-44
• ays: 69-46
• Red Sox: 62-55
• Yankees: 59-56

Technically speaking, the Red Sox should be 9.5 games back of the Jays for top spot in the division and 8.5 games back of the Rays for second. In other words, they shouldn’t even be sniffing a Wild Card spot.

Getting Chris Sale back soon is a major boost for a club that needs one. The rotation hasn’t been great without him at 20th with a 4.60 ERA on the season. They need him to come back in vintage form — badly.

With such strong interdivision competition, the Red Sox appear to be heading in the wrong direction at the wrong time.

Toronto Blue Jays

Yes (+145)

Clearly someone needs to unseat the Red Sox from that top Wild Card spot and the Blue Jays are the best bet to do that.

They dropped last night’s series finale to the Angels and split the four-game set in Los Angeles, but the Jays are trending in the right direction. Since that same July 29 date as the Red Sox, the Jays have gone 12-4. A healthy George Springer has been a monster atop a lineup that was arguably already the best in baseball and certainly appears to be now.

Pitching has long been the team’s biggest need this season, and the club’s front office went out and addressed that in a big way at the trade deadline, acquiring Jose Berrios to bolster the rotation along with Brad Hand and Adam Cimber to prop up a bullpen that had been struggling since a lights-out month of April.

As noted above, the Jays deserve to be in first place in the AL East by way of their division-leading +129 run differential which also happens to be third-best in the AL behind the Astros (+158) and White Sox (+130). They just proved their worth in taking three of four from the Red Sox in Toronto last weekend, giving them four wins over their last five against their division rival.

OF COURSE HE DID.

George Springer three-run shot gives the Jays the lead. 😤💪

(🎥: @BlueJays) pic.twitter.com/7w5350zlUs

— theScore (@theScore) August 8, 2021

The Yankees are hanging around despite a tough Field of Dreams game loss last night, but the Jays are the club that is going to supplant the Red Sox for a Wild Card spot while their 7.5-game deficit behind the Tampa Bay Rays isn’t unsurmountable with six games left against the AL East leaders.

Atlanta Braves

Yes (+185)

No division is tighter at the top than the NL East, and the three division contenders all sport plus-money odds to qualify for the postseason. The Phillies currently lead the division with a 60-55 record and +125 odds to make the playoffs while the Mets are 0.5 games back and sit with +160 odds to make the playoffs, but what about the Braves at one game back and valuable +185 odds to win the division?

If you’re one of those three NL East clubs, the division is going to be the sole route to the postseason. The Padres sit in the second Wild Card spot and have a 3.5-game lead over the Reds for that position and the second-place Mets in the east are 5.5 games back of San Diego. The Padres have slipped a little bit, but will get Fernando Tatis Jr. back soon, have excellent starting pitching and the best bullpen ERA in baseball. Catching them is going to be awfully tough.

For the Braves, their trying to claw their way to a fourth straight division crown. Many wrote them off once Ronald Acuna Jr. went down with a torn ACL just before the All-Star break, but don’t count Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos as one of them.

The bullpen has middled all year long and they just cut Shane Greene who was a big part of their dominant 2020 bullpen. That department wasn’t addressed like the team’s glaring outfield need at the deadline, and it’s one of the reasons the Braves are just three games over .500.

Still, the Phillies have had major bullpen issues themselves and while the Mets will get Noah Syndergaard back soon — likely in a power relief role — their offense hasn’t clicked all season long as it did last year.

This division is going to be a lot of fun to watch down the stretch, but with some difference-making bats injected into that lineup I like their chances of claiming a fourth straight NL East crown at extremely valuable +185 odds.