Are you ready for some baseball? Thinking that the AL East is the strongest division in baseball, I wondered how they did when facing non-AL East competition. Quite well, thank you.
Using data from our friends at covers, I checked how the five teams did against outside teams. For the last three seasons, I hypothetically invested ten dollars on the moneyline each time an AL East team played an outsider. I played all dogs and favorites up to -150.
Playing this way, you would have won $267 in 2010, $22 in 2009 and $109 in 2008, for a total profit of $398. For those three seasons, you won primarily because of Baltimore and Toronto. Balt was +$169 and Toronto +$214. Tampa Bay was -$1, Boston -$36 and New York +$50.
Then I decided to see the results for playing these teams only when they were dogs. The results actually were a little better and more consistent. Going backward from 2010, your annual $10 per play profits were +$179, +$158 and +$125. Each team showed a profit, headlined by Toronto at +$229 and
followed by Balt at +$106. Next in order were Boston at +$70, Tampa at +$45 and even the Yanks at +$12.
Those are very nice results from blindly following these teams. By playing dogs, you have fewer plays, more profit and higher rate of return. According to these results, the best course of action would be to simply play Balt and Toronto whenever they play outside the AL East.
If anyone has any further ideas for tightening up these results, please chime in. We're all in this together!
Using data from our friends at covers, I checked how the five teams did against outside teams. For the last three seasons, I hypothetically invested ten dollars on the moneyline each time an AL East team played an outsider. I played all dogs and favorites up to -150.
Playing this way, you would have won $267 in 2010, $22 in 2009 and $109 in 2008, for a total profit of $398. For those three seasons, you won primarily because of Baltimore and Toronto. Balt was +$169 and Toronto +$214. Tampa Bay was -$1, Boston -$36 and New York +$50.
Then I decided to see the results for playing these teams only when they were dogs. The results actually were a little better and more consistent. Going backward from 2010, your annual $10 per play profits were +$179, +$158 and +$125. Each team showed a profit, headlined by Toronto at +$229 and
followed by Balt at +$106. Next in order were Boston at +$70, Tampa at +$45 and even the Yanks at +$12.
Those are very nice results from blindly following these teams. By playing dogs, you have fewer plays, more profit and higher rate of return. According to these results, the best course of action would be to simply play Balt and Toronto whenever they play outside the AL East.
If anyone has any further ideas for tightening up these results, please chime in. We're all in this together!
