2015 World Series Odds: Dodgers, Nationals are Joint, Early Favorites

The 2014 baseball season is over. The Giants won another World Series, did you hear? Madison Bumgarner was awesome and received a new Chevy Truck. The new season doesn’t begin until April, 2015 but the odds for which team will be pouring beer and champagne all over each other a year from now is already available. (Make sure to get a picture of your ticket so you can gloat — or rip it up — on social media.)

The Dodgers and Nationals top the list with the best odds at 15/2, despite the fact these teams are still managed by Don Mattingly and Matt Williams respectively. Of these two I’d probably shade toward favoring the Nationals due to the depth of their starting pitching and, potentially, a full, healthy season from Bryce Harper. Adding Andrew Friedman to run the baseball operations for the Dodgers is smart long-term, but he doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room to improve the 2015 team, save a move nobody anticipates on Oct. 31.

Down the list, the Giants are 12-to-1. Avoid San Francisco, regardless of what happens to free agent Pablo Sandoval, via the team’s whole odd/even year quirk. The Royals at 16-to-1 is nice odds, but everything broke right for Kansas City this postseason.The Royals, as I’ve written, are a very good team with a solid, young core. Off the top of my head I’d wonder if Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland duplicate their 2014s next year out of the bullpen without some mild regression to the mean. Replacing James Shields 227+ innings will change the dynamic of their rotation, too. (It’s doubtful Vegas will list it on the board, but I’d bet against the Roayls winning eight straight playoff games under Ned Yost in consecutive seasons.)

As a pessimisitic Tigers fan and given the teams holes and impending loss of Max Scherzer, 10-to-1 are not great odds — avoid, avoid, avoid. At 22-to-1, a flier on either the Yankees or Red Sox is good value, even if both teams failed to make the playoffs this fall.

For a total longshot, why not do something with the Cubs at 50-to-1? The team signed Joe Maddon to manage and expect Theo Epstein to go heavy at either Scherzer or Jon Lester in the free agent market, perhaps both, to go along with the team’s improving young core. The Marlins, too, at 50-to-1 might not be the craziest play, either.

If you want to play it safe, just pick the Cardinals at 12-to-1 since St. Louis makes the playoffs seemingly every season.

Lastly, the Astros aren’t going to win the 2015 World Series, but the team deserves better than to be grouped with the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Twin at 100-to-1.

Here’s the full list via Bovada:

Los Angeles Dodgers 15/2
Washington Nationals 15/2
Detroit Tigers 10/1
Los Angeles Angels 10/1
San Francisco Giants 12/1
St. Louis Cardinals 12/1
Kansas City Royals 16/1
Seattle Mariners 18/1
Baltimore Orioles 20/1
Oakland Athletics 20/1
Pittsburgh Pirates 20/1
Atlanta Braves 22/1
Boston Red Sox 22/1
New York Yankees 22/1
Cleveland Indians 25/1
Cincinnati Reds 33/1
Tampa Bay Rays 33/1
Texas Rangers 33/1
Toronto Blue Jays 33/1
Chicago White Sox 40/1
Milwaukee Brewers 40/1
New York Mets 40/1
Chicago Cubs 50/1
Miami Marlins 50/1
San Diego Padres 66/1
Philadelphia Phillies 75/1
Arizona Diamondbacks 100/1
Colorado Rockies 100/1
Houston Astros 100/1
Minnesota Twins 100/1