As the 2016 baseball season enters its second month the Chicago Cubs continue to dominate on the odds to win the World Series at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, riding the best record in baseball to improved +375 odds of claiming their first title in 108 years.
Chicago, which opened the season as the +500 favorite, is tops in multiple team stats going into a weekend series with Pittsburgh, leading the way in both runs scored and team ERA.
While the Cubs continue to pull away from their rivals in both the standings and at the sportsbooks, things have tightened up behind them on the World Series odds.
The Washington Nationals represent the Cubs’ closest competition, at +1000 on the World Series odds board. After powering to a 14-4 start the Nationals have struggled of late, but remain in a dogfight for top spot in the NL East with the defending division champion New York Mets, whom they face six times over the next two weeks.
The Mets currently own baseball’s best defense, holding opponents to 94 total runs through their first 32 contests while lifting their World Series odds slightly to +1100, where they are joined by the biggest surprise of the season, the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox opened at +3300 but have quickly climbed the odds on the strength of an AL-best 23-12 record. However, they have lost two of their past three series and are just 7-6 over their past 13 games, according to the OddsShark MLB Database.
The Boston Red Sox have silenced the naysayers in the first five weeks of the season with the American League’s top offense, and remain in a battle with the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the AL East, giving their odds a small boost to +1200.
Baltimore has exceeded expectations with their surge to the top of the division standings but have yet to fully convince oddsmakers, who currently peg them well back of the pack at +2500, after opening the season at +4000.
Last season’s offensive leaders, the Toronto Blue Jays, are off to a quieter start this season, averaging just over four runs per game while posting a losing home record through their first 35 games, dropping them to +1400 after opening the campaign at +1000.
The Blue Jays are joined at +1400 by the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, ahead of the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals at +1600, while the surging Seattle Mariners have climbed from +4000 to a solid +1800.
