Major League Baseball Opening Day Odds and Preview

The 147th Major League Baseball season starts today with every team playing to start the season. The schedule is highlighted by the Chicago White Sox heading to Houston, in hopes of sending an early message to the defending champs. As for the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies, they have a tough task to begin the season when they face Jacob deGrom and the Texas Rangers. Let’s kick the season off with a quick synopsis of each game and a preview of the MLB opening day odds.

Previewing The Best of MLB Opening Day 2023 Series’

Major League Baseball would like you to believe that anyone can win the World series, but we know that’s just not true. The Nationals, who are a long way from another ring, will open up against a team that is very familiar with success after winning the NL East five straight years.

Atlanta is 41-16 (.719) against Washington in their last 57 meetings. It’s the first of the year and MLB opening day odds are already asking the public to lay -250. Let’s go through the MLB schedule to find a better betting option.

What drama this match-up would have had if Aaron Judge signed with the Giants, but as it is there is a degree of added intrigue with the scorn that San Francisco has to feel. Instead, Judge will captain the Yankees as he tries to defend his home run title of a year ago. Expect Judge to be at the top of most MLB player stats. New York has taken four of their last five series head-to-head including four straight. The under has cashed nine straight meetings in New York.

The Baltimore Orioles are trying to build off their 2022 season which saw them increase their win total from 52 in 2021 to 83 in 2022. Corey Kluber will attempt to settle his career down after bouncing around for a few seasons after winning two Cy Young awards in Cleveland. This will be Kluber’s fifth team since 2019 while compiling a 17-16 record after a 20-win season in 2019 with the Indians.

This is the match-up that most should be focused on after the Spring that the Cubs had. Remember, Chicago finished the 2022 season as one of the hottest teams in baseball with 12 wins in their last 16 games. They carried that into the Spring where they were second in team ERA. Now we know not to put too much into the Spring but even with the Kyle Hendricks injury, we think the Cubs staff will surprise bettors to start the season.

Now we get to see if the Rangers’ $190 million investment was worth the chance Texas took after deGrom battled injuries with the New York Mets. When healthy, the 4x All-Star is the best pitcher in baseball. He’ll face another one of baseball’s best in Aaron Nola of the Fightin’ Phils who hope to get over the World Series hump after losing to the Houston Astros in last season’s fall classic.

The Rangers have won nine straight games over the Phillies including a 4-0 sweep last season.

The New York Mets will get their first glance at what a $334 million dollar payroll will get you as they face a Marlins team that hasn’t had a payroll that would allow them to compete with the giants of the sport since 2003 when owner Wayne Huizenga would buy his own championship before dismantling the team in the offseason. The Mets have won 37 of their last 54 games one of a series, while the Marlins are just 30-65 in their last 95.

Outside of the Chicago Cubs, no team had a better Spring than the Toronto Blue Jays who will rely heavily on Bo Bichette to exceed his numbers of last season (.290 avg, 24HR, 93RBI). In our earlier prop preview, we think Bichette will lead the league in hits giving Daulton Varsho, Vladimir Guerrero, and Alejandro Kirk plenty of chances to drive in runs. Toronto is 27-13 in interleague games since 2021, tied for the best mark in baseball with the Dodgers and Rays.

Justin Verlander has taken his talents to the Big Apple so the Houston Astros will rely on Framber Valdez to jump in the number one vacancy left by the 9-time all-star. The defending champions took four of the seven matchups against Chicago last season.

The San Diego Padres finally got over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs but still would like to end the run of the Dodgers’ nine straight division titles. Strangely enough, for as bad as the Rockies were last season, they managed to win the season series against the Padres 10-9.

If you can’t get enough of Shohei Ohtani, expect the WBC MVP to go deep in this one. The Oakland Athletics and owner John Fisher will spend another season with their focus on their future home rather than the one they already have. The Athletics’ $60 million dollar payroll will be about what Ohtani will command and deserve all by himself.

The Padres got over the Dodgers hex, the Diamondbacks will attempt to do the same to start the brand-new season. Los Angeles has beaten Arizona in 30 of their last 38 meetings. The Dodgers‘ 30 wins were the most any team had against another in that two-year span.

The opening day card concludes in Seattle where the Mariners are trying to build off a 2022 playoff run that ended with a loss to the Houston Astros after a dramatic comeback against the Toronto Blue Jays in the wild-card round.

Seattle went 601 against the Cleveland Guardians last season holding Cleveland to just 1.6 runs per game. Cleveland won their last eight series last season to win their first division title since 2018.

That does it for our look at the MLB opening day odds, we wish you nothing but the best this MLB season.

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