Disappointments from the 1st Half of the MLB Betting

Posted by Alex Murphy on Friday,August 14, 2015 7:19, EDT in

If things went exactly according to plan in professional sports, you could just hand out the awards to the players and teams that are expected to have the best seasons and give everyone a year off. However, things do not go the way that people think that they will – yielding both positive surprises and disappointments. Let’s take a look at some of the major disappointments from the first half of the 2015 MLB betting season.

A Look at the Disappointments From The 1st Half of MLB Betting

Have The Red Sox Been Able to Cover MLB Betting Lines?

Everyone knew that pitching would be a concern for the Red Sox in 2015. They did spend a lot of free-agent money, but none of the people that they picked up pitch, and so they were left with a team that would have to score runs in bunches if they wanted to win consistently. The fact that the Sox just traded first baseman Mike Napoli to Texas in exchange for a player to be named later shows that the Red Sox have given up on their chance to contend this season and are starting to clear the books for next year.

The rotation has upgraded from awful to mediocre as the season has worn on, but the huge signings of Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval have been destructive as well. Sandoval signed a five-year $95 million deal – and he is hitting just .274. He also got benched while liking photos on Instagram during the middle of a game. Hanley Ramirez did start the season off well, hitting 10 home runs in the month of April. He hurt his shoulder but then came back and has kept hitting the ball hard. However, his defense is terrible. He plays left field – which can be difficult at Fenway Park, but it is something that players can learn). He has the worst Defensive Runs Saved rating of any major league outfielder (-15). The team even had to hold a meeting to go over, in part, the effort that Ramirez puts out in the field.

Stephen Strasburg

Maybe Stephen Strasburg was never going to live up to the epic expectations that were placed on his head when he first was drafted by the Washington Nationals. He’s sat out for a year for surgery, and over the six years of his career, he has been on the disabled list five times for a total of 454 days.

However, 2015 was supposed to be his year. After the All-Star break in 2014, he had an impressive 2.70 ERA that was supposed to be a sign of a great 2015 to come. The Nationals signed Max Scherzer as another ace to have in what would be a terrific rotation.

Strasburg’s latest injury was for an oblique strain. Before this injury, he finally looked on track, with a 1.15 ERA in 15.2 innings in his last three starts, and the team had a 3-0 record in those starts. Since the Nationals have also failed to get strong production from Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez in their rotation, that makes three pitchers that are keeping this team from contending – as the rest of the team knows it should – and making life frustrating for the Nationals and their fans.